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PUPPET SHOW

"Cinderella Della Circus"

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Thursday-June 22 at the Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St. at 18th, Atlanta 30309. $14.82 for ages 2 and older, includes admission to the puppet museum and Create-A-Puppet Workshop. Tickets: 404-873-3391. www.puppet.org.

The new puppet show "Cinderella Della Circus" at the Center for Puppetry Arts concerns a lovely and kind young woman from a poor background who marries the prince of her dreams. But that's about all this new story has in common with one of the world's oldest and most frequently adapted fairy tales. This Cinderella has big feet instead of tiny ones. And instead of just waiting around for her prince, she is a gifted circus performer who walks a tightrope and speaks in poetry.

Supporting roles are played by legendary circus showman P.T. Barnum, inventor Jules Verne and a fish named Troutellini who performs tricks on a trapeze.

"It's a whimsical retelling," says artistic director Jon Ludwig, who wrote and directed the musical, which runs Thursday through June 22.

Show goes back to its roots

The show features about 20 string puppets, or marionettes. It's the first time since 1996 that the Center's mainstage has had a show with puppets controlled by strings, as opposed to hands or rods. As the center prepares for its 30th anniversary this fall, "we're going back to our roots," Ludwig says.

Handsome, and they're vain

"Cinderella Della Circus" is chock-full of handsome princes, and they're all vain, flat and uninteresting. In one scene, there's a crowd of handsome princes who are literally two-dimensional.

All new, and from balsa wood

The puppets are all new and were designed for this show by the Center's Jason vonHinezmeyer. They were carved in the Center's shop from balsa wood, which is light and relatively strong.

Marionettes are hard work

Four puppeteers work the marionettes, which have 11-12 strings each. Walking Cinderella on an 8-foot tightrope "is one of the hardest things to do with a marionette," Ludwig notes.

Appeal to boys and girls

The show is designed to appeal to boys as well as girls. It has trick marionettes, circus animals and even a rocket ship and a moon monster.

New love after all

At the end of the story, Cinderella discovers it's not the Handsome Prince she loves, but someone else.