Utau tanuki goten

It's a Japanese musical version of Cinderella. Although the French form of the story is best known, the tale has traveled around the world, picking up bits and pieces of local cultures. Mythographers believe, for example, that the glass slippers were actually fur slippers (French 'verre' and 'vair') and were a Chinese addition, referring to foot binding.

There's nothing about feet here, barring a staircase the heroine and prince run down occasionally, that sounds like a harp, but there are Japanese bits here. Hiroko Takayama, the central character, is a Tanuki, a raccoon dog that can change into a human form, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Tanuki prince. Her evil stepmother is an enchanted teakettle, and a woodcutter is a kappa, a sort of water spirit. Ball gowns are transformed into kimono; the palace looks like a Tokyo night club, and so forth, and the moral of the story - for what fairy tale lacks a moral? - is that true beauty lies not in face or form or cosmetics, but in 'womanliness'. Like all fairy tales, it's intensely normative for its society and audience.