The story is derived from the fairy tale Cinderella, particularly the French version Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre, by Charles Perrault.

She dreams of a better life, and with the help of her Fairy Godmother, Cinderella is transformed into an elegant young lady and is able to attend the ball to meet her Prince.

[5][6] Lesley Ann Warren played the title role; a scene early in the first act was added in which the Prince meets Cinderella and they admire each others' kindness.

[4] Stage versions continued: New York City Opera produced the musical in 1993 and revived it several times,[7] and a US tour played from 2000 to 2001,[8][9] stopping at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Its racially diverse cast featured Brandy as Cinderella, Whitney Houston as her fairy godmother, Bernadette Peters as her stepmother, and Paolo Montalban as the Prince.

[12][13] A 30-week Asian tour starred Lea Salonga, beginning in 2008,[14] and an all-female production of the musical in Japan in 2008 featured J-Pop group Morning Musume and veteran members of the Takarazuka Revue.

[15][16] In Douglas Carter Beane's version of the story, Cinderella opens Prince Topher's eyes to injustice in the kingdom.

[22] Mark Brokaw directed the production, with Josh Rhodes choreographing, and the original cast included Laura Osnes in the title role, Santino Fontana as the Prince, Victoria Clark as Crazy Marie/the Fairy Godmother, Harriet Harris as Ella's stepmother, Peter Bartlett as Sebastian, The Prime Minister, Ann Harada and Marla Mindelle as stepsisters Charlotte and Gabrielle, and Greg Hildreth as the rebel Jean-Michel.

[10] Designers included Anna Louizos (sets), William Ivey Long (costumes), and Kenneth Posner (lighting).

[27] Carly Rae Jepsen and Fran Drescher were replacements for Ella and the Stepmother, both making their Broadway debuts, from February 2014 to June 2014.

[30] Keke Palmer, Sherri Shepherd, and Judy Kaye joined the cast as Ella, the Stepmother, and the Fairy Godmother in September 2014.

"[33] On September 23, 2014, Lesley Ann Warren joined the cast during the curtain call to celebrate the coming 50th-anniversary of the 1965 television version.

[44] The cast included Shubshri Kandiah as Ella; Ainsley Melham as Prince Topher; Silvie Paladino as Marie; Tina Bursill as Madame, and Todd McKenney as Sebastian.

[49] Grace Mouat starred as Ella,[50] with Jacob Fowler as Prince Topher, Annie Aitken as Madame, Julie Yammanee as Marie/Godmother, Lee Ormsby as Sebastian, Matthew McDonald as Lord Pinkleton, Katie Ramshaw as Charlotte, Olivia-Faith Kamau as Gabrielle, and Adam Filipe as Jean-Michel.

Ella then speaks with her friends Jean-Michel, an erstwhile revolutionary, and Crazy Marie, an old woman who lives near the forest and gathers what others throw away.

In the palace, Sebastian and his henchman, Lord Pinkleton, remind the Prince that it is time for a Royal Wedding; a masked ball will be held to find him a bride.

Pinkleton goes to the town square to announce the ball and finds Jean-Michel rallying the townsfolk to protest the government's taking of peasants' land.

Prince Topher continues his search ("Loneliness of Evening"), gradually realizing that Sebastian had been leading him down the wrong path.

Notable Broadway replacements:[55] Ben Brantley of The New York Times called the production a "glittery patchwork of a show" that "wants to be reassuringly old-fashioned and refreshingly irreverent, sentimental and snarky, sincere and ironic, all at once."

[17] The Financial Times praised the cast, especially Osnes, the costumes and the choreography and opined that "the production is an absolute joy, marred only by occasional slowness of pace.

"[56] Richard Zoglin, writing for Time magazine, noted that the new production is "brightly colored, high spirited and well sung", but comparing it with the "emotionally alive" 1957 broadcast, he found the original stepsisters to be "more credible and less cartoonish than their present-day equivalents" and thought that the Prince and Cinderella "make a dreamier pair – you actually can believe they are falling in love.

"[57] A reviewer from the Chicago Tribune wrote: The fundamental problem with ... Beane's perplexing, wholly unromantic and mostly laugh-free new book ... – which turns the heroine into a social reformer ... the stepsisters ... into sympathetic, wounded creatures of thwarted desire, and Prince Charming ... into a myopic dunce who needs his eyes opened to the poverty of his people – is that it denies the audience the pleasure of instant reversals of fortune.

This new version ends up collapsing the basic logic of the familiar story and tramples all over the musical soul of a score from another era.

[24] On the other hand, an Associated Press review praised Beane's script and wrote that it "crackles with sweetness and freshness, combining a little Monty Python's Spamalot with some Les Misérables.

[58] The reviewer from USA Today also liked the production, commenting: Osnes and a gifted supporting cast make this fairy tale very much their own – a scrumptious trifle that, for all its hokey moments, will charm theatergoers of all ages.

Beane['s] Cinderella is not merely a kind maiden in distress, but a curious young woman becoming aware of injustices beyond her own shabby treatment.

If the twist sounds a bit like a post-feminist contrivance, Beane keeps things sufficiently light and whimsical; the satire may verge on dopey at times, but it's never pretentious.