SYNOPSIS

Charlie lives in a village of fairy-tale dwarfs, where diamonds are mined for the wealthy above. Unlike the others, Charlie clings to old stories—Cinderella, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid—and to a legend that promises transformation: whoever kisses a princess and rings the bell on the cliff will become the protagonist of a fairy tale, their wish fulfilled. Before his death, Charlie’s father repeatedly tells him not to become the head of the family, urging him instead to protect his dream. When those around him tell him to accept reality, Charlie chooses to pursue the story he still believes in.

Big, an elderly dwarf, was once the youngest of the seven dwarfs who rescued Cinderella. Nearing the end of his life, he longs to see her again. He carries a love letter he once wrote but never sent, lacking both the courage and the means to reach her.

When news arrives of a palace ball open only to princes and princesses, Charlie steals diamonds and seeks out a witch—the same one who once altered the Little Mermaid’s fate. Big follows. The witch transforms them into young men of average princely height, dressed as princes, and warns them that if they are not each kissed by a princess within three days, they will return to their dwarf form.

At the ball, Cinderella and Snow White appear not as fulfilled heroines, but as women disillusioned by what followed their supposed “happily ever after.” Cinderella’s prince is now bankrupt, and Snow White states openly that her marriage collapsed because her prince was sexually impotent. Divorced and dissatisfied, the two attend the ball in search of new princes.

The Little Mermaid also arrives. She is alive and able to walk—her sisters sacrificed their hair to the witch to save her from turning into sea foam. Yet she remains emotionally stranded, still attached to the prince who married another woman, whose wedding she attended and danced at. Cinderella and Snow White urge her to abandon lingering illusions.

Charlie and Big enter the palace as impostors and are briefly imprisoned after being exposed. They are later rescued by three real princes on their way to the ball and brought back into the palace.

At the ball, Charlie meets the Little Mermaid, but she tells him she is no longer a princess, having escaped death rather than fulfilling the fairy-tale condition. Charlie searches for another princess but finds himself unable to abandon her. The Little Mermaid, overwhelmed by despair, decides to return to the sea to die properly this time. Charlie stops her, confessing that the thought of leaving her causes him physical pain. They recognize the feeling as love.

Meanwhile, Big meets Snow White and claims to be a prince. The two kiss and spend the night together. Snow White discovers that Big is sexually vigorous, a fact stated openly and underscored on stage, in direct contrast to her former marriage. Time is running out: if even one of them fails to receive a princess’s kiss, both Charlie and Big will revert to their dwarf forms.

The Little Mermaid goes to the witch to save Charlie and sacrifices her transformed body, becoming a dwarf herself.

As the deadline approaches, Big attempts to leave Snow White before reverting to his original form. Snow White, devastated, accuses him of being no different from other men—arriving briefly, taking pleasure, and disappearing. Big gives her the love letter he once wrote and climbs the cliff to ring the bell while Snow White watches below. Unable to ring it, Big falls.

After three turbulent days, Charlie and Big return to their original forms. Charlie chooses love over the legend and lives on with the Little Mermaid in the dwarfs’ village. Big, old once more, remains there as well—now with Snow White. Cinderella kisses another prince at the ball and regains wealth and status.

REVIEW

I was first intrigued by the English title Cinderella Homme, as the literal translation of the Korean title would be Dwarfs. When I tried to book a ticket, every performance was completely sold out—there was not a single empty seat. After checking repeatedly, I finally found a vacancy and grabbed it. I had read only a brief synopsis and did not know the full plot, but I had heard that the show was genuinely fun.

The house was packed, and the audience was highly responsive. Many seemed to be repeat attendees, singing along confidently during the curtain call.

The dwarf characters were performed by actors walking on their knees, wearing oversized, shoe-shaped props. Despite this physical constraint, they moved and danced remarkably well. Cinderella was played by a male actor, dressed in a gown and singing in a female register using falsetto. As a character, Cinderella is disillusioned and eager for a second chance at wealth and status, embodying a realistic trajectory for an adult fairy tale. She delivers blunt truths to Snow White and the Little Mermaid, urging them to face reality and find new princes, while also providing consistent comic relief through her exaggerated gestures and timing.

Snow White and the Little Mermaid were the only roles played by female actors, and both deserve praise for their acting and vocal performances. Three male actors took on multiple roles, including princes, the narrator, the wizard, Cinderella, the witch, and various dwarfs. For a small-theatre musical, the seven-member cast functioned with impressive efficiency, managing rapid costume changes and clearly differentiated characters without confusion.

Because the story draws on fairy tales that later became Disney animations and films, I initially worried about potential boundary issues. While watching the show, however, I was surprised to find that the production stayed well within the scope of the original fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. The character Big—called “빅” in Korean—corresponds to the youngest of the seven dwarfs, known as Dopey in Disney’s version. The musical includes brief musical references such as “Heigh-Ho,” a phrase that predates Disney, with printed usage dating back to the 15th century. Importantly, the story takes place after “happily ever after,” exploring what follows failed marriages and broken promises.

As indicated by its subtitle, 어른이 뮤지컬 (a fairy-tale musical for adults), the show addresses adult realities directly: Snow White’s sexless marriage, Cinderella’s poverty, and the Little Mermaid’s life defined by despair and memory. All three are deeply disillusioned. Against this backdrop appears Charlie, who wants to write a new fairy tale—one in which his own wish comes true. This desire is fundamentally contradictory. Charlie grows up believing in fairy-tale endings, encounters their harsh realities, and yet still chooses to believe again. Whether such belief can endure remains unresolved, as do certain narrative elements, such as the implications of Charlie and Big ultimately returning to their original forms.

The musical is filled with humor, much of it physical—horse-riding gestures, exaggerated movements—as well as verbal play. One recurring lyric uses the Korean phrase 끼리끼리. If the show were to be adapted for English-speaking audiences, a line such as “flock together, together” would preserve both the meaning and the rhythmic repetition of the original, while remaining immediately intelligible. Many Korean musicals, even those based on Western themes, require extensive cultural mediation when exported, as they are written primarily for Korean audiences and can risk misunderstanding or misrepresentation abroad. Unlike many Korean musicals set in Western contexts, this work does not impose a Korean moral or cultural reading onto its source material, allowing the fairy-tale framework to remain culturally legible across borders. Its dialogue and lyrics are largely free of Korea-specific references, its wordplay is not dependent on local context, and its physical comedy remains universally legible.

Once I realized that Cinderella was played by a male actor, the English title Cinderella Homme made perfect sense. This casting choice clearly distinguishes the production from traditional fairy-tale or animated versions. Cinderella, in that sense, embodies the role Charlie himself wishes to inhabit. Notably, Cinderella is the only character who kisses a prince and appears to achieve another “happily ever after.” By this point, however, the audience already understands that such an ending is illusory, and that she may be caught in an endless cycle of hope, disappointment, and self-reinvention.

Charlie may have wanted to become a prince who marries a princess, even if this was never stated explicitly. In my view, his wish does come true. He remains poor and continues mining, but would life in a palace necessarily make him happier? The Little Mermaid, long trapped in unrequited love, finally finds mutual affection. Big not only meets Snow White but experiences his masculinity acknowledged and desired. He returns to his old form after the spell is broken and may die soon—but then, everyone does.

The story itself is unusually strong, but the musical numbers are even stronger. The score balances catchy, playful songs with powerful belted numbers, and all seven cast members have ample opportunity to demonstrate their vocal ability. The band is piano-led, but in a roughly 300-seat auditorium, it proves entirely sufficient. The stage design uses layered LED panels to evoke the dwarfs’ village, the palace, the forest, and the sea.

Given the overwhelmingly positive response, this production could run indefinitely or be expanded to a larger venue. The material is solid rather than trend-driven, making such growth plausible. I found myself admiring both the clear boundaries the creators respected and the imaginative freedom they exercised beyond the framework of familiar fairy tales. Numerous near full-stage recordings are available on YouTube, allowing readers to judge the production for themselves.