Hello folks! My name is Neo McManus and I’m playing Lord Pinkleton in our production of Rodgers + Hammerstein Cinderella. In this role I have had to learn the entirety of Prince Topher’s comically long name, and so prince names are the topic I’m going to be talking about today!
So, a fun little fact about me: I’ve been in a surprising number of Cinderella-related shows—in fact, last year I played Cinderella's Prince in Into the Woods Jr. at Jane Addams Middle School. So I took the time to acquaint myself with the topic.
When you think about the prince in Cinderella you often think about Disney’s Prince Charming. Interestingly, there are three Disney princes you’d think of as “Prince Charming.” Those being the princes from Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and, of course, Cinderella. However, the princes from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are actually named Florian and Philip, respectively. Cinderella’s Prince Charming was the only true Prince Charming (although, later a Kingdom Hearts game revealed his name to be Henry or Henri, but I don't really count that).
I think that was kind of the point though. Cinderella is a very old story, with origins as far back as Ancient Greece. Throughout those early versions of the story there’s a common theme with the prince: he doesn’t really matter all that much. Same with a lot of the other characters. They are just a default archetype to play their role and move the plot along. They are not really fleshed out, complex characters. That was because it was Cinderella’s story, and she was the only character that really mattered. So, the names—or lack thereof—reflected that. However, more modern adaptations (like ours!!) have really fleshed out individual characters, giving them unique wants and complex relationships. So, with an interesting and developed cast of characters came the issue of what on earth to name them! This is how we end up with names like Prince Christopher Rupert Windemere Vladimir Karl Alexander Francois Reginald Lancelot Herman (yes, Herman!) Gregory James.
If you would like to see me and my fellow castmates sing that entire name, think about coming to our show! It’s going to be a fun time and we’ve been working hard to make this production the best it can be. Thank you for reading this only slightly unhinged blog post, and I hope to see you there!
