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Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “Cinderella” premiered as a rather static TV special starring Julie Andrews in 1957. It was remade more vibrantly in 1967 (starring Lesley Ann Warren) and by MTV in 1997 (with Whitney Houston and Brandy). Each time, major revisions were made to the fairy tale to accommodate the real-world audiences enchanted by it.

The national Broadway tour of this classic fairy tale is certainly a “Cinderella” for our time. The first national tour of the show is at the Bushnell through Jan. 17.

The familiar story has been utterly overhauled by the witty, urbane playwright Douglas Carter Beane so that it is more human, more social, and no longer top-heavy with monarchs and miracles. In fact, the prince’s parents are both deceased. He’s been raised by a scheming business manager (the blowhardy Blake Hammond) who is pulling some sort of covert eminent-domain boondoggle on the kingdom. Another new character is Jean-Michel, a political activist who’s trying to alert the palace to injustices affecting its peasants.

“Cinderella” falls neatly between “Camelot” and “Spamalot” on the lighthearted knights and empowered damsels musical scale, conveying both majesty and mockery. Our first glimpse of Prince Topher shows him slaying a dragon, but that victory is followed immediately by his expressions of humility and self-doubt.

In Beane’s rewrite, only one of Cinderella’s stepsisters, (Charlotte, bellowed by Aymee Garcia) is evil. The other, Gabrielle (Kimberly Fauré) is given not just the power of empathy but her own romantic subplot. The prince (Andy Huntington Jones) is more of a genial athletic dude than the accustomed tall, dark and handsome ruler-in-training. And Cinderella (Kaitlyn Davidson) is less servile, less pathetic. This leaves Madame, i.e. the sinister stepmother, as the only character in the show that hasn’t been reshaped for modern sensibilities.

This enlightened production does still harbor a few non-P.C. elements — unattractiveness is conveyed by body size or the wearing of eyeglasses, and the prince remains so status-conscious that he’s unable to recognize his soul mate when she’s not wearing a shimmering gown or glass slippers. But it also makes a little magic of its own, with some stunning onstage costume transformations.

The tour, like the Broadway production that begat it, has been staged by Mark Brokaw, who spends his summers workshopping new musicals at the Yale Institute of Music Theater. Choreographer Josh Rhodes contributes some exhilarating dances — the ballroom scene eschews stale waltz routines for a frisky court dance that, at one point, has noblemen holding their dance partners horizontally aloft. David Chase’s fresh arrangements of the Richard Rodgers score have a jaunty, big-band swing pacing.

When, in the show’s finale on opening night, one of the floral bouquets fell from its hooks and rolled across the stage, several members of the chorus were visibly holding back giggle fits. This expression of genuine merriment suited a show that seems like a lot of fun to do. This “Cinderella” knows what it’s about: making folks feel better about themselves.

“Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” is at the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford, through Jan. 17. Tickets are $27 to $107. Information: 860-987-5900 and bushnell.org.