I think there is this respect for treating other people with respect, people that are different from you, treating them with respect, which just seems to be in real need in the world right now, whether it be our idea of entertainment which is sort of reality shows where we gasp at people behaving rudely to one other. I think the kindness aspect at the end of the story says that 'beauty is a wonderful thing to have in a woman but not as wonderful as kindness'. After coming through the Victorian era and the 1950s, what they did to the story is you now look at it and the original version is much spikier. Its interesting that it wasn't a modernized as much as I went back to the original version. Everybody said this is really good, so off we went and from then, it became taking what I wrote and making it into a musical. I called them up and said 'I think I got this!' I showed up with a script with a couple songs put in. This is really interesting and this would be a nice thing to be able to show your daughters and not be ashamed of, so I began to work on it. She got people to stop thinking about selfishness and ridicule and starting thinking about kindness and helping one another. She met the prince several times and changed the way the whole palace was run. For example, Cinderella made everything happen herself, she did it, and she had a sister who helped her.

It happened that I went online and just found the original French version by Charles Perrault and was knocked out that so much good stuff was in the original story.

It had its charms, but I was like this is really, in terms of any feminist thought, is really a real minefield. I watched the original 50s television version. She said 'Is there a way we can do this that Cinderella doesn't just sit around, but she makes things again?' I said 'Let me look at it'. I was asked to do it by Robyn Goodman, who's a producer.

Detroit opera house cinderella