Cinderella wakes up to face another day of servitude, getting by With My Eyes Closed.  The Stepmother enters, complaining of all the things she must do in Another Busy Day, while Cinderella actually does all the work. The Stepsisters enter squabbling. Clarice breaks a chair. The family is in financial straits.  News of the masked ball arrives.  The Stepmother plans to marry off one of her daughters to the Prince.

Alone, Cinderella remembers dancing with her father.  (I Remember Dancing.)  She makes the broken chair into a dancing partner.  Cinderella tells the Stepmother that she wants to go to the ball.  Stepmother responds that she may go, IF she makes fabulous new gowns for her stepsisters.

On the night of the ball, the Step Sisters are dressing.  The Stepmother comes in ordering the girls to accessorize.  The girls “help each” other by trying to destroy each other’s outfits.  They are Dressing to Kill.  The Stepmother catches them.  Clarice’s dress is salvageable, but Sondrine’s dress is ruined.  Cinderella enters, having just finished her own dress, which the Stepmother confiscates for Sondrine.  The Step Mother says her daughter must come first, but that Cinderella can still come.  “If you can get another dress, a coach, a Coachman, a Footman, another invitation, and stay away from the Prince!”

Cinderella starts on a new dress, but is overwhelmed by futility of it all.  She tries not to, but she cries, and her tears summon the Fairy Godmother, Ellen.  Ellen turns herself into a magic wand, and offers herself to Cinderella so she can Help Herself get ready for the ball.  Cinderella focuses and blasts out a very different dress, knocking herself over in the process.  She decides it might be a good idea to move outside.  The voice of her Fairy Godmother urges her on.  She turns a pumpkin into a carriage, some lizards into the horses, a rat into her footman, and a squirrel into the coachman.  She is set to go.  Ellen tells her she must be back by midnight, as spells either begin or end at midnight.  Besides, she would worry.  The wand dissolves into stars.  Cinderella leaves. 

The Prince has retreated from the dance to talk to the Doorman.  He complains that everyone recognizes each other, and that he wanted to be able to talk to people who don’t already know what they want from him.  Cinderella arrives and the doorman asks for her invitation.  Cinderella says her party is already inside.  The Doorman asks for the name of the party, saying he will escort her to the table personally.  When she starts to mumble a name, the Prince steps in and says that he is with her party and will gladly escort her in.  The Stepfamily intervenes, but the Prince excuses them both, as he promised the next dance to Cinderella.  She tries to escape, since she doesn’t know the dance steps.  Sondrine steps forward, saying she is an excellent dancer and would love to dance with him.  Cinderella makes up new dance steps and teaches them to the Prince.  They have a great time.  Then, the music shifts to a slow dance and they enjoy the fact that I Don’t Know Your Name.  The dance is over; the clock is tolling midnight.  Cinderella runs down the stairs, losing her shoe.  The Prince enters, getting her shoe, and vows to find her. 

Cinderella awakens to her stepmother yelling as she has not laid anyone’s clothes out and breakfast isn’t ready.  The Doorman arrives to ask the ladies to get ready to try on a certain shoe.  The Step Family goes nuts.  The Step Mother yells at Cinderella to get the sisters dressed.  She refuses, saying that she has to get herself ready, as she is leaving.  The Stepmother locks her in a storage room in the basement.  The Prince arrives.  Sondrine tries on the shoe, and her foot is too big, but it seems to fit.  Then the Prince asks her to dance.  She knocks him down and steps on him, and he knows that she is not the one.  Clarice has been soaking her foot in cold water, and she tries to get the shoe on.  She forces her foot into it, stands, and her corset explodes.  Cinderella throws open the cellar door, knocking the Stepmother over, emerging to slip the shoe on.  Cinderella realizes she is in charge of her life (If It Were Up To Me) and exits with the Prince.

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