The Shoe Fits : Opulent looks and strong voices carry Cabrillo’s ‘Cinderella.’

You can forgive “Cinderella,” the current Cabrillo Music Theatre production, for being a bit thin: The musical was written as a 90-minute television special, and the original children’s story isn’t exactly a 900-page potboiler.

Still, Charles Perrault’s story has survived three centuries and a Disney film, and the musical in question was written by Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) and Richard Rodgers (music).

Its initial airing on March 31, 1957, attracted 107 million viewers, and the show was remade for television twice (most recently with Brandy in the title role).

The story can be told in a paragraph, and the songs (while pleasant) aren’t exactly “Oklahoma!” or “South Pacific” quality.

But the current production includes considerable opulence in its set and costumes, charm and strong singer-actors in the leading roles.

Playing Cinderella is Erin Appling, whose considerable experience includes several book musicals (“The King and I” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for Cabrillo), a steady gig at Disneyland and virtually growing up onstage at the Moorpark Melodrama, a credit mysteriously absent from her program bio.

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She’s vocally in full Julie Andrews mode here; appropriately, as the role was written expressly for the young Andrews. Prince Charming (Jon Cypher in the original) is here played by Bryan Chesters, who has toured in “Sunset Boulevard” and--like Appling--for various Disney projects.

The prince and Cinderella (and for that matter Fairy Godmother Rande Rae Norman) may be charming, but Cindy’s stepmother (Jennifer Taub) and stepsisters (Janet Krajeski and Angela Haag) are considerably more fun.

Hammerstein portrayed the king (Gene Bernath) and queen (Eleanor Brand) as modern parents, a tradition followed here with the amusing detail of the king’s habit of wearing his crown around the house.

Todd Nielsen directed (he’s another Disney hand, as is producer Kevin Traxler), Nick DeGregorio is the musical director and Peggy Hickey designed the clever choreography.

DETAILS

“Cinderella” continues Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., and concludes Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza auditorium, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd.. Tickets cost $14 to $32 and are available from the Civic Arts Plaza box office, any TicketMaster outlet or through TicketMaster at 583-8700. For further information, call 449-2787.

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Couples Therapy: Now that there’s a second professional company in Ventura, Theatre on Main is rightfully billing itself as the first to complete a season in decades.

The current program, ending its residency above the Ventura Oddfellows’ Hall, is a set of complementary one-act plays dealing with troubled relationships.

The pair in Murray Schisgal’s “A Need for Less Expertise” live in Manhattan, where he’s a fencing contractor and she’s a homemaker. The man in Jeffrey Davis’ “Peter Pan in Hollywood” is a writer, between wives and living in Hollywood; the woman is his most recent wife. Both couples are played by Gary Littman and Sheila Budin; both plays are directed by Jack Heller.

The plays are amusing enough if your taste runs to nattering couples (Davis had written situation comedies for a living; Schisgal easily could), and there’s even an attempt at a serious core in “Peter Pan” when the writer attempts--in his mid-30s--to grow up in the way he handles his relationships.

One might be hard-pressed to understand what ex-wife Nora ever saw in this man, who deals in ancient jokes (he tells the old “professional courtesy” joke and refers to a certain cocktail, jocularly, as “martoonis”) and bad impressions of dead celebrities.

“Peter Pan in Hollywood” is promoted as a “world premiere” and may be the first produced play to include references to Pokemon and the “Harry Potter” books.

Schisgal is a better-known writer, with credits including the Broadway comedy “Luv” and a hand in the script of “Tootsie”; and “A Need for Less Expertise” is the funnier of the plays, as Gus and Edie attempt to deal with her new couples therapy tape.

Littman and Budin are personable enough, and the Schisgal play lets them exercise their accents, but the acting might strike some as being rather stylized and old-fashioned.

DETAILS

“A Need for Less Expertise” and “Peter Pan in Hollywood” continue Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. (except Nov. 14, when there will be an 8 p.m. performance instead) at Theatre on Main, 516 E. Main St. in Ventura. Tickets to all shows are $15, available at the door 15 minutes before show time. For reservations or further information, call 648-1936.

Todd Everett can be reached at teverett@concentric.net.