"Bad Cinderella" star Linedy Genao becomes first Latina to originate leading role in a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber
NEW YORK -- A new fairytale has come to Broadway's Imperial Theatre on West 45th Street. "Bad Cinderella" is not the Cinderella story we all know.
Leading lady Linedy Genao is making history on her way to the ball on and off the stage and the first Latina to originate a leading role in an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
Genao explained her character is a rebel and unapologetically herself, even as residents in the fictional town of Belleville are obsessed with physical beauty.
Genao, a Brooklyn native whose family moved to Connecticut when she was 10, knows the importance of shining from the inside out.
"This Cinderella, she doesn't stay quiet. She speaks her mind and it inspires me to embrace who I am in every way, even the parts that I don't like sometimes," said Genao. "We all have those parts that we need to embrace because they make us who we are. Nobody's perfect, and so she helps me embrace those parts of myself and to have the confidence in myself."
"She lives in a world where she's an outcast, because she doesn't fit in and doesn't want to," said Genao. "Until a show like 'In the Heights' came around, I never saw myself represented on stage with people that looked like me, sounded like me. My Brooklyn accent comes out here and there. That's okay."
Statistics from the Actors Equity Association show only 3 percent of Broadway performers are Latino. Genao's family is from the Dominican Republic.
Ganao was working at a bank before she made her Broadway debut in 2015 in "On Your Feet," the musical about Gloria and Emilio Estefan. She went on tour with "Dear Evan Hansen," even posting on Instagram "Your first Latina Zoe Murphy."
Days before being cast as an understudy in "Dear Evan Hansen" on Broadway, Ganao almost went back to the finance world full-time.
Then, after an intense audition process, Lloyd Webber told Genao he wanted her to be his Cinderella.
"I started crying hysterically," said Genao.
It's also the first time Jordan Dobson is originating a leading role. It's Dobson's fourth Broadway show, but this is the first time he worked directly with Lloyd Webber.
"He'll really take the time to break things down and help you understand why he wrote something the way he did," said Dobson.
Dobson explained his character, Prince Sebastian, is under pressure from the town and community to be "a man's man."
"I feel like I never really fit that mold," said Dobson. "So to be able to challenge that, I feel like I have an incredible responsibility."
Dobson said defying the societal norms is a responsibility Sebastian shares with Cinderella.
"We both fall into that pressure to try to be like everyone else," said Dobson. "And I hope people can see that and feel inspired that even if you fall into that and fall into the pressure, there's a way out and there's a way back to yourself."
Genao had an unconventional road to Broadway, with only experience in community theater. She said she was rejected from university theater programs.
Ganao said it reminded her of a Spanish saying that translates to, "What is yours no one can take from you because it's meant for you."
"Linedita is me as a little girl with big dreams, holding concerts in the living room," she said. "I didn't have that growing up, especially a princess that I could look up to that looked like me, sounded like me, and so to be there for even one person means the world."
"It just reminds me of Linedita and me when I used to be up there at the tippy top crying because I wanted to do this so badly," said Genao. "And then when I finally did, it was like an out of body experience and a relief. So it means everything to me to inspire even one person to see themselves."
Dobson reflected on meeting aspiring performers after the show.
"Because we know that we're ushering in a new generation of kids of color to know that you can be a prince or a princess, and you can be the lead role in a Broadway show," said Dobson.
The show runs every night except on Mondays. The understudy for "Bad Cinderella" takes the stage on Sunday evenings, giving Genao a night off.
