Of Slippers and Spindles - Fairy Tale Retellings and Adaptations in Books, Film, and Theatre

"Are people born wicked? Or is wickedness thrust upon them?"  We're nearing the end of the Yellow Brick Road! For our final week in The Wizard of Oz Month, Drew and Cassie discuss Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire as well as the 2003 Broadway musical adaptation with a book by Winnie Holzman and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz , origin...

"There's only room for one diva in Oz, and that is MOI!"  Drew and Cassie are here to discussing the third Oz adaptation of the month, the 2005 TV film The Muppets' Wizard of Oz starring Ashanti, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, Pepe the King Prawn, and many more Muppets and humans alike! This particular adaptation begins in a modern-day Kansas, where Dorothy dr...

"Come on and ease on down, ease on down the road..."  For our second week in The Wizard of Oz Month, we're discussing the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls (and others) and book by William F. Brown . In addition to reading the show's script, we watched the 1979 film adaptation starrin...

"Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"  We are starting The Wizard of Oz Month with the classic 1939 film starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Frank Morgan, and Margaret Hamilton. Drew and Cassie start by revisiting their personal connections to this nostalgic musical film before talking through the plot that has been majorly streamlined from L. Frank B...

It's time to fly away from Neverland and get caught up in a tornado that will whisk us off to Oz! But first we have some exciting announcements: we now have MERCHANDISE available, and we are launching our PATREON! Pledging just $1 a month gets you all kinds of fun perks that we outline for you. Then we dive into some final thoughts on Peter Pan, and ask our traditional question of how we woul...

“When there's a smile in your heart, there's no better time to start…” It's Disney week! We're talking about Disney's 1953 animated classic version of Peter Pan , featuring the voices of Bobby Driscoll, Hans Conried, and Kathryn Beaumont. Drew grew up on this movie and, unsurprisingly, it holds a special place in his heart. Cassie, on the other hand... is not a fan. It was...

"To have faith is to have wings."  In our third week of Peter Pan Month, we are looking at the novel Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson as well as the stage adaptation written by Rick Elice and starring Christian Borle, Adam Chanler-Berat, and Celia Keenan-Bolger. This Peter Pan prequel/reboot follows the adventures of Peter, an orphan being sold into slavery, an...

"I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!"  Drew and Cassie are here to gush over the 2003 film adaptation of Peter Pan starring Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs, and Rachel Hurd-Wood! This film knows that Wendy is the protagonist and focuses on the underlying romantic tensions between Peter and Wendy in some beautiful and unique ways. We talk about the movie's incredible soundtrack, a gene...

"Just think of lovely things, and your heart will fly on wings..."  Drew and Cassie are joined by Leah from YA Book Chat to discuss the 1954 musical version of Peter Pan ! With music and lyrics by Jule Styne, Mark Charlap, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Carolyn Leigh, the original Broadway production starred Mary Martin as Peter Pan and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook. An adaptation of t...

It's time to leave the rabbit hole behind and fly off to Neverland! Drew and Cassie give their final thoughts on Alice in Wonderland and its place in history before moving on to our next story, Peter Pan by Sir J. M. Barrie. This is by far the longest and most complex story we've looked at so far, so we work our way through the story's plot, along the way discussing Barrie's un...

"I give myself very good advice... but I very seldom follow it."  Drew and Cassie are joined by Drew's sister-in-law, Emily, for our final week talking about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland! First, we talk through the 1951 animated film , then we take a look at the 2010 live action reboot directed by Tim Burton , starring Mia Wasikowsa, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and A...

"Off with their heads!"  For this week's special Valentine's episode, we are looking at Heartless by Marissa Meyer ! Drew and Cassie are joined by Bethanie A. Finger from Prince Kai Fan Pod, the Marissa Meyer Book Club Podcast to discuss this 2016 YA prequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  Heartless follows Catherine, a young woman who wants to open the finest bakery...

"When I used to read about fairy tales, I never thought I would end up in the middle of one."  For our second week of Alice in Wonderland Month, Drew and Cassie are taking a look at the 1999 TV film starring Tina Majorino, Whoopi Goldberg, Miranda Richardson, Martin Short, Ben Kingsley, Gene Wilder, and many, many more. This adaptation of the Alice story sticks very faithfully to the ori...

"Believe it or not, we are in your head!"  Things are getting curiouser and curiouser as we begin our Alice in Wonderland month! In this episode, Drew and Cassie discuss Alice, the 2009 TV min-series from Showcase and Syfy starring Caterina Scorsone, Kathy Bates, Andrew Lee-Potts, Matt Frewer, Colm Meany, Philip Winchester, and Tim Curry. This Alice is a contemporary judo instructor, and...

It's time to let the snow melt away and head down the rabbit hole - and through the looking glass, too! Drew and Cassie are back from hiatus to give their final thoughts on The Snow Queen and, as always, talk about our ideas for how we would retell the tale. Then we begin our discussion on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Cassie gives us a...

"The lack of resemblance to The Snow Queen never bothered me anyway."  Look, we like Frozen . But is it a retelling of The Snow Queen? Drew and Cassie are here to sort it all out! Disney's 2013 animated film tells the tale of Elsa, a princess who is about to be crowned queen, but is also grappling with hiding her secret magic powers of ice and snow. These secret powers have estrange...

"The more you see of evil, the more evil seems limitless. I guess the same goes for good, but I haven't seen as much of that."  In our fourth week of discussing The Snow Queen, we are talking about Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige . This 2016 YA novel follows the ventures of Snow, a seventeen-year-old girl who has spent most of her life in Whittaker Psychiatric. Snow's life turn...

"Loving something doesn't mean that you own it."  It's a very special episode!! For the first time in six and a half years, Drew and Cassie were together in-person, and we got to record this episode sitting at the same table in the same room! This week we're talking about our third adaptation of The Snow Queen, Robbergirl by ST Gibson . This retelling is unique in a couple...

"If you wake me up during the summer, I'll make you suffer."  This week, Drew and Cassie are joined again by Cassie's brother, Matt, to talk about Snow Queen, the 2002 Hallmark mini-series starring Bridget Fonda, Chelsea Hobbs, and Jeremy Guilbaut. This version recasts Gerda and Kai as young adults who fall in love when Kai is hired to work at Gerda's father's hotel....

"She had believed that because someone needed saving they were savable."  We begin our month discussing The Snow Queen with middle-grade novel Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu . This book's protagonist is Hazel, a fifth-grader who is having a tough time in her life at the moment. This is exacerbated when her best friend, Jack, suddenly changes... and then disappears. Hazel embarks a complic...

It's time to let the curtain fall on Into the Woods and start to get icy! We start off by working through some final thoughts on Into the Woods, including discussion of the musical's ultimate message, our feelings on design concepts of the show, and a few extra personal experiences we forgot to mention. This all culminates in our assignment for the month: fancasting our dream versions of...

It's our 50th episode! We're here to “stop and take stock,” just like Cinderella did while standing there stuck on the steps of the palace. In this next episode about the 1987 musical Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine , Drew and Cassie take a look back. As part of our podcast's premise, we traditionally set criteria each month in order to compare the various fairy...

"People make mistakes. Fathers, mothers, people make mistakes…"  Our journey through Into the Woods continues! This week, Drew and Cassie look at how Into the Woods has been adapted in a few different ways. First we break down the 2014 film starring Meryl Streep, James Corden, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, and Chris Pine. We discuss the adaptations between mediums in general, Disney's...

"Once upon a time... later..."  This week, Drew and Cassie are joined by Cassie's brother, Matthew, to explore the deconstruction of fairy tales in Act II of Into the Woods . In Act I, the Baker and his Wife collected the cow as white as milk, the cape as red blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold. They successfully lifted the curse on their house and now...

"Do you know what you wish? Are you certain what you wish it what you want?"  Have we said "we're excited" enough yet? Probably, but we're going to say it approximately fifty more times. Drew and Cassie are joined by Drew's sister, Daurie, to work our way through the complexities of Act I of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods . This 1987 musi...