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Cinderella (TV)
Encyclopedia
Rodgers and Hammerstein
's Cinderella is a musical
written for television
, with music by Richard Rodgers
and a book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
. It is based upon the fairy tale
Cinderella
, particularly the French version Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Vair, by Charles Perrault
. The story concerns a young woman forced into a life of servitude by her cruel stepmother and self-centered stepsisters, who dreams of a better life. With the help of her Fairy Godmother
, Cinderella is transformed into a Princess and finds her Prince.
Cinderella is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written for television. It was originally broadcast live on CBS
on March 31, 1957 as a vehicle for Julie Andrews
, who played the title role. The broadcast was seen by over 100 million people. It was subsequently remade for television twice, in 1965 and 1997. The 1965 version starred Lesley Ann Warren
, and the 1997 one starred Brandy
, in the title role. Both remakes add songs from other Richard Rodgers musicals.
Cinderella has also been adapted for the stage.
had broadcast the Broadway musical Peter Pan
, starring Mary Martin
. It was a hit, and NBC looked for more family-oriented musical projects. Richard Rodgers
had previously supplied the Emmy Award
-winning score for Victory at Sea
, a documentary series about World War II
. NBC approached Rodgers and Hammerstein
and asked them to write an original musical expressly for television, then a novel idea. The team decided to adapt the fairy tale Cinderella and, new to television, they sought the advice of an industry insider, Richard Lewine
. Lewine was then the Vice President in charge of color television at CBS
. He told Rodgers and Hammerstein that CBS was also seeking a musical project and had already signed Julie Andrews
, who was then starring in My Fair Lady
on Broadway. Rodgers recalled, in his autobiography: "What sold us immediately was the chance to work with Julie." So the team signed with CBS.
Rodgers and Hammerstein retained ownership of the show and had control over casting, direction, set and costumes, while CBS controlled the technical aspects of the broadcast and had an option for a second broadcast. CBS announced the production on September 5, 1956. Hammerstein
was interviewed by the Saturday Review about the adaptation: "We want the kids who see it to recognize the story they know. Children can be very critical on that score. But, of course, their parents will be watching too, so we have tried to humanize the characters without altering the familiar plot structure." The musical had to fit into the 90-minute program with six commercial breaks, so it was divided into six short acts. In an interview with Time Magazine, Hammerstein said that "It took me seven months to write the book and lyrics for Cinderella".
Rehearsals started on February 21, 1957. Emmy Award-winning director Ralph Nelson
and choreographer Jonathan Lucas, who had choreographed for The Milton Berle Show, were both experienced with musical material on television. Rodgers' friend, Robert Russell Bennett
, provided the orchestrations. Alfredo Antonini
, a veteran with CBS, conducted. In early March, the company moved to CBS Color Studio 72, the first color studio in New York and smallest color studio in the CBS empire at the time. The 56 performers, 33 musicians and 80 stagehands and crew worked crammed into the small studio together with four giant RCA color cameras, a wardrobe of up to 100 costumes, over half a dozen huge set pieces, and numerous props and special effects equipment. The orchestra played in a small room with special equipment to overcome the suppressed acoustics. CBS invested in a massive marketing campaign, as did the sponsors. It was broadcast live on March 31, 1957.
As Cinderella's stepsisters get ready for the Ball, hoping that they will catch the Prince's eye, they laugh at Cinderella's dreams. Finally they leave, and Cinderella imagines having gone with them ("In My Own Little Corner" (reprise)). Cinderella's Fairy Godmother appears and, persuaded by the fervor of Cinderella's wish to go to the Ball, she transforms Cinderella into a beautifully-gowned young lady and her little mouse friends and a pumpkin into a glittering carriage with impressive footmen ("Impossible; It's Possible") and she leaves for the Ball.
Act I
Act II
Act III
In some productions, additional numbers added include, "Loneliness of Evening" (cut from South Pacific
and introduced in the 1965 broadcast), a song for the prince; and "Boys and Girls like You and Me" (cut from Oklahoma!
and subsequently other shows), for the queen and king (in the Royal Dressing Room Scene), which appears in the show's published vocal score. The 1997 TV version added, among others, "Falling in Love with Love
" for the Stepmother.
with choreography by Jonathan Lucas and starred Julie Andrews
as Cinderella and Jon Cypher
as The Prince. It also featured Howard Lindsay
as The King, Dorothy Stickney
as The Queen, Edith Adams as the Fairy Godmother
, Kaye Ballard
and Alice Ghostley
as stepsisters Portia and Joy, Ilka Chase
as the Stepmother, and Iggie Wolfington as The Steward. Betty Noyes
played a mother in the ensemble who sings a brief solo, and Joe Layton
appeared uncredited in the ensemble.
On Sunday, March 31, 1957, at 8:00pm Eastern time, Cinderella was broadcast live in the Eastern, Central and Mountain time zones in both black and white and compatible color; the West Coast received a delayed black and white only broadcast starting at 8:00pm Pacific time. Beyond the United States, it was carried by CBS affiliates in the U.S. territories of Alaska
, Hawaii
and Puerto Rico
; in Canada it was broadcast on CBC
. It was produced for $376,000, which was very expensive for its time, and was heavily promoted by its sponsors Pepsi-Cola and the Shulton Company (then maker of Old Spice
).
The 1965 version was directed by Charles S. Dubin
with choreography by Eugene Loring
and recorded on videotape
(at CBS Television City
in Hollywood
) for later broadcast. The cast featured Ginger Rogers
and Walter Pidgeon
as the King and Queen; Celeste Holm
as the Fairy Godmother; Jo Van Fleet
as the Stepmother, with Pat Carroll
and Barbara Ruick
as her daughters Prunella and Esmerelda; and Stuart Damon
as the Prince. Lesley Ann Warren
was "introduced" in the title role. The film also features rare on camera appearances by dubbers Betty Noyes
and Bill Lee
, who play a couple that briefly sing about their daughter (played by Trudi Ames
). The first broadcast was on February 22, 1965, and it was rebroadcast eight times through February 1974.
and directed by Robert Iscove
, with choreography by Rob Marshall
. It was produced by Whitney Houston
and Debra Martin Chase
for Walt Disney Productions and aired on November 2, 1997. This version featured a racially diverse cast, with Brandy
as Cinderella, Whitney Houston
as her fairy godmother, Bernadette Peters
as Cinderella's stepmother, Paolo Montalbán
as the prince, Whoopi Goldberg
as the queen, Victor Garber
as the king and Jason Alexander
as Lionel, the herald. Several songs were added, including "Falling in Love with Love
", sung by the Stepmother; "The Sweetest Sounds
" from the musical No Strings
, sung by Cinderella and the Prince; and "There's Music in You," written for the 1953 film Main Street to Broadway
, sung as the finale by the Fairy Godmother. The broadcast was very popular, with an audience of 60 million viewers.
Changes to the Hammerstein plot in this version include the following: The Fairy Godmother begins the story, explaining that nothing is impossible. Disguised as a peasant, the Prince (feeling isolated in the castle) wanders in the marketplace (worrying his herald, Lionel), meets Cinderella, and they find each other charming. At the ball, embarrassed by questions about her family and background, Cinderella escapes to the garden in tears, where the Fairy Godmother appears for moral support. After her stepmother returns from the ball and is particularly cruel, Cinderella packs her belongings to run away from home. Her Fairy Godmother advises her to share her feelings with the Prince. After trying the slipper on all the other maidens, the Prince and Lionel overtake Cinderella on her journey to freedom. Meeting her gaze, the Prince recognizes her and places the slipper on her foot. At their wedding, the Fairy Godmother blesses the couple.
adaptation of Cinderella that also used songs from Me & Juliet. Harold Fielding produced this version, which opened on December 18, 1958 and played through the holiday season. Yana, played Cinderella. Also appearing were Bruce Trent, Jimmy Edwards
, Tommy Steele
and Betty Marsden
.
Stage versions began to appear in U.S. theatres by 1961. The New York City Opera
produced the musical in 1993 and 1995, with the Fairy Godmother being played by Sally Ann Howes
and the Stepmother played by Nancy Marchand
and Jean Stapleton. It revived the production in 2004 with Eartha Kitt
as the Fairy Godmother and Dick Van Patten
as the King, among other television stars. A United States tour played from late 2000 through 2001 and starred Kitt as the Fairy Godmother, with Deborah Gibson
and later Jamie-Lynn Sigler
as Cinderella, Paolo Montalbán
as the Prince, and, in a casting twist, a gender-bending Everett Quinton playing the Stepmother.
A 30-week Asian tour of Cinderella starred Lea Salonga
and Australian Peter Saide. The production was directed by Bobby Garcia, with choreography by Vince Pesce, costume design by Renato Balestra
. Sets were designed by David Gallo
and lighting design was by Paul Miller
. The tour started in Manila
, Philippines
on July 29, 2008. The show then went on to several cities in China, including Xian, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Gunagzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. It then toured in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, and Japan. A cast album
was issued in 2008.
An all-female production of the musical in Japan in 2008 featured J-Pop
group Morning Musume
and veteran members of the Takarazuka Revue
The production ran throughout August 2008, at Shinjuku Koma Theater
. The lead roles of Cinderella and the Prince were performed by Morning Musume members Ai Takahashi
and Risa Niigaki
.
streets deserted because so many had stayed in to watch the broadcast.
A New York Times review by Jack Gould
characterized the musical as "a pleasant Cinderella that lacked the magic touch." He wrote that the broadcast received an "extraordinary range of reactions; it was either unreservedly enjoyed, rather angrily rejected or generally approved, subject to significant reservations." He praised Andrews as a "beguiling vision" in "lovely color video." But he complained about the book ("What possessed Mr. Hammerstein to turn the stepsisters into distasteful vaudeville
clowns?"); about errors in "the most elementary kind of showmanship;" about costume ("couldn't Cinderella have been dressed in a dreamlike ball gown of fantasy rather than a chic, form-fitting number?"); about the songs ("not top-drawer Rodgers and Hammerstein"); and the staging ("cramped... excellent depth, but limited width marred the ballroom scene"). He judged the songs "reminiscent and derivative of some of their earlier successes" but praised four of them and said "In television, where original music is virtually nonexistent, these add up to quite a treat... some current [Broadway] musicals cannot boast as much melodically."
The 1965 version was broadcast repeatedly. The 1997 production was the #1 show of the week, with over 60 million viewers. It became the highest-rated TV musical in a generation. Although it was a hit with audiences, it received mixed reviews. Theatre historian John Kenrick
called it a "hideous desecration" of the musical. The New York Times
praised the performers (Montalban has "an old-fashioned luxurious voice"; Jason Alexander "provides comic relief"; Goldberg "winningly blends royal dignity with motherly meddling"; Peters "brings vigor and sly comedy") but commented that the musical "was always a pumpkin that never turned into a glittering coach... the songs are lesser Rodgers and Hammerstein... it doesn't take that final leap into pure magic. Often charming and sometimes ordinary, this is a cobbled-together Cinderella for the moment, not the ages." Other critics, however, praised the presentation. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution wrote: "Grade: A, a version both timely and timeless." The San Diego Union-Tribune agreed: "this version has much to recommend it." An encore broadcast on Valentine's Night 1998 drew another 15,000,000 viewers.
on March 18, 1957, under the supervision of Goddard Lieberson. The album was released in conjunction with the broadcast less than two weeks later. It was later reissued on CD
by Sony
.
The black-and-white
kinescope
recording of the live color telecast was re-broadcast on PBS
in December 2004
as part of its Great Performances
series. It was later released on DVD with a documentary including most of its original players, as well as a kinescope of Rodgers and Hammerstein's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show
the preceding Sunday, featuring Hammerstein reciting one of the songs to orchestral accompaniment.
A cast LP album
of the 1965 telecast was also issued by Columbia Masterworks Records
and on a Sony Masterworks CD. All three of the telecast versions of Cinderella have been released on DVD. An Original International Tour Cast Recording
of the Asian tour cast was released in time for their first performance in Manila.
1997
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's Cinderella is a musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
written for television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, with music by Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and a book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
. It is based upon the fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
, particularly the French version Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Vair, by Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
. The story concerns a young woman forced into a life of servitude by her cruel stepmother and self-centered stepsisters, who dreams of a better life. With the help of her Fairy Godmother
Fairy godmother
In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies...
, Cinderella is transformed into a Princess and finds her Prince.
Cinderella is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written for television. It was originally broadcast live on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
on March 31, 1957 as a vehicle for Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
, who played the title role. The broadcast was seen by over 100 million people. It was subsequently remade for television twice, in 1965 and 1997. The 1965 version starred Lesley Ann Warren
Lesley Ann Warren
Lesley Ann Warren is an American actress and singer. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Emmy Awards and five times for Golden Globe, winning one....
, and the 1997 one starred Brandy
Brandy (entertainer)
Brandy Rayana Norwood , known professionally as Brandy, is an American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and dancer. In 2009, she introduced her rap alter-ego Bran'Nu....
, in the title role. Both remakes add songs from other Richard Rodgers musicals.
Cinderella has also been adapted for the stage.
History
In 1955, NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
had broadcast the Broadway musical Peter Pan
Peter Pan (1954 musical)
Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy. The music is mostly by Mark "Moose" Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, and most of the lyrics were written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty...
, starring Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
. It was a hit, and NBC looked for more family-oriented musical projects. Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
had previously supplied the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning score for Victory at Sea
Victory at Sea
Victory at Sea is a documentary television series about naval warfare during World War II that was originally broadcast by NBC in the USA in 1952–1953. It was condensed into a film in 1954. The music soundtrack, by Richard Rodgers and Robert Russell Bennett, was re-recorded and sold as record albums...
, a documentary series about World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. NBC approached Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
and asked them to write an original musical expressly for television, then a novel idea. The team decided to adapt the fairy tale Cinderella and, new to television, they sought the advice of an industry insider, Richard Lewine
Richard Lewine
Richard Lewine was an American composer and songwriter on Broadway as well as television producer.-Career:Born in New York City, Lewine attended Columbia College before beginning his career as a composer and songwriter. In 1934, he wrote songs for the Broadway revue Fools Rush In. During World War...
. Lewine was then the Vice President in charge of color television at CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. He told Rodgers and Hammerstein that CBS was also seeking a musical project and had already signed Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
, who was then starring in My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
on Broadway. Rodgers recalled, in his autobiography: "What sold us immediately was the chance to work with Julie." So the team signed with CBS.
Rodgers and Hammerstein retained ownership of the show and had control over casting, direction, set and costumes, while CBS controlled the technical aspects of the broadcast and had an option for a second broadcast. CBS announced the production on September 5, 1956. Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
was interviewed by the Saturday Review about the adaptation: "We want the kids who see it to recognize the story they know. Children can be very critical on that score. But, of course, their parents will be watching too, so we have tried to humanize the characters without altering the familiar plot structure." The musical had to fit into the 90-minute program with six commercial breaks, so it was divided into six short acts. In an interview with Time Magazine, Hammerstein said that "It took me seven months to write the book and lyrics for Cinderella".
Rehearsals started on February 21, 1957. Emmy Award-winning director Ralph Nelson
Ralph Nelson
Ralph Nelson was an American movie and television director, producer, writer, and actor.-Life and career:...
and choreographer Jonathan Lucas, who had choreographed for The Milton Berle Show, were both experienced with musical material on television. Rodgers' friend, Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...
, provided the orchestrations. Alfredo Antonini
Alfredo Antonini
Alfredo Antonini was a leading Italian/American symphony conductor and composer who was active on the international concert stage as well as on the CBS radio and television networks from the 1930s through the 1960s...
, a veteran with CBS, conducted. In early March, the company moved to CBS Color Studio 72, the first color studio in New York and smallest color studio in the CBS empire at the time. The 56 performers, 33 musicians and 80 stagehands and crew worked crammed into the small studio together with four giant RCA color cameras, a wardrobe of up to 100 costumes, over half a dozen huge set pieces, and numerous props and special effects equipment. The orchestra played in a small room with special equipment to overcome the suppressed acoustics. CBS invested in a massive marketing campaign, as did the sponsors. It was broadcast live on March 31, 1957.
Act I
In the village square, a Herald proclaims: "The Prince Is Giving a Ball" to celebrate the Prince's 21st birthday. The ladies of the kingdom are thrilled at the prospect of meeting him. Cinderella, whose beloved father has died, takes care of the home of her ill-tempered and selfish stepmother and stepsisters. She carries all of their shopping parcels for them, and when they return home, all three order Cinderella about. Left alone in her corner near the fire, she dreams of living an exotic life as a princess or anything other than a servant ("In My Own Little Corner"). Meanwhile, the King and Queen get ready for the big celebration ("Royal Dressing Room Scene") and the servants discuss the planning for the feast ("Your Majesties"). They hope that their son will find a suitable bride, but the Prince is a bit apprehensive about meeting all the eager women of the kingdom. The Queen is touched by overhearing the King's discussion with his son and tells him she loves him ("Boys and Girls Like You and Me" [sometimes omitted, and not sung in any of the telecasts]).As Cinderella's stepsisters get ready for the Ball, hoping that they will catch the Prince's eye, they laugh at Cinderella's dreams. Finally they leave, and Cinderella imagines having gone with them ("In My Own Little Corner" (reprise)). Cinderella's Fairy Godmother appears and, persuaded by the fervor of Cinderella's wish to go to the Ball, she transforms Cinderella into a beautifully-gowned young lady and her little mouse friends and a pumpkin into a glittering carriage with impressive footmen ("Impossible; It's Possible") and she leaves for the Ball.
Act II
Cinderella arrives at the palace at 11:30; before she enters, her Godmother warns her not to stay past midnight. The Prince has been bored by the attention of all the young ladies with whom he has had to dance, including the stepsisters. Cinderella's grand entrance immediately attracts everyone's attention and intrigues the Prince. They dance together and instantly fall in love ("Ten Minutes Ago"). Seeing the Prince with a petite beauty (whom they do not recognize), the stepsisters ask why he wouldn't prefer a substantial "usual" girl like them ("Stepsisters' Lament"). The Prince and Cinderella dance and find themselves with a private moment, and he declares his love for her ("Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?"). As they share a kiss, the clock begins to strike midnight, and Cinderella flees before the magic wears off; but in her haste, she drops a glass slipper.Act III
The next morning, Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters reminisce about the Ball and find that Cinderella is very intuitive about what it must have been like going to the Ball ("When You're Driving Through the Moonlight") and dancing with the Prince ("A Lovely Night"). Meanwhile, the Prince is searching for the beauty with whom he danced, and who fled so quickly from the Ball. His Herald tries the slipper on all the ladies ("The Search"). At Cinderella's house, the slipper will not fit any of the ladies. Everyone tries to steer the Prince away from the servant girl, Cinderella, but she is not home; she is in the Palace garden. The prince returns to the Palace dejected by his lack of success. Prodded by the fairy godmother, his Herald tries the slipper on Cinderella. It fits, and the prince recognizes his beloved ("Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" (reprise)). Cinderella and the Prince marry, and all ends happily.Musical numbers
The original version contains the following songs:Act I
- "Overture" (instrumental)
- "The Prince Is Giving a Ball" (Herald and Chorus)
- "Cinderella March" (instrumental)
- "In My Own Little Corner" (Cinderella)
- "The Prince Is Giving a Ball" (Reprise) (Chorus)
- "Your Majesties" (Royal Dressing Room Scene) (King, Queen, Chef, Steward)
- "In My Own Little Corner" (Reprise) (Cinderella)
- "Impossible; It's Possible" (Cinderella and Fairy Godmother)
Act II
- "Gavotte" (instrumental)
- "Ten Minutes Ago I Saw You" (Prince and Cinderella)
- "Stepsisters' Lament" (Stepsisters)
- "Waltz for a Ball" (instrumental and Chorus)
- "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" (Prince and Cinderella)
- "Never In a Thousand Years" (eventually omitted from the production)
Act III
- "When You're Driving Through the Moonlight" (Cinderella, Stepmother, Stepsisters)
- "A Lovely Night" (Cinderella, Stepmother, Stepsisters)
- "The Search" (instrumental)
- "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" (reprise) (Prince)
- "Wedding" (instrumental)
- "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" (reprise) (Chorus)
In some productions, additional numbers added include, "Loneliness of Evening" (cut from South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
and introduced in the 1965 broadcast), a song for the prince; and "Boys and Girls like You and Me" (cut from Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
and subsequently other shows), for the queen and king (in the Royal Dressing Room Scene), which appears in the show's published vocal score. The 1997 TV version added, among others, "Falling in Love with Love
Falling in Love with Love
Falling in Love with Love is a show tune from the Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse, where it was introduced by Muriel Angelus. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1938...
" for the Stepmother.
1957 original production
The original 1957 broadcast was directed by Ralph NelsonRalph Nelson
Ralph Nelson was an American movie and television director, producer, writer, and actor.-Life and career:...
with choreography by Jonathan Lucas and starred Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
as Cinderella and Jon Cypher
Jon Cypher
-Biography:Born in New York City, Cypher graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in 1949 and Brooklyn College in 1953. He made his television debut as the Prince in the original 1957 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella opposite Julie Andrews in the title role...
as The Prince. It also featured Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay was an American theatrical producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with...
as The King, Dorothy Stickney
Dorothy Stickney
Dorothy Stickney was a Broadway actress best known for appearing in the long running Life with Father.Born in Dickinson, North Dakota, Stickney attended the North Western Dramatic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
as The Queen, Edith Adams as the Fairy Godmother
Fairy godmother
In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies...
, Kaye Ballard
Kaye Ballard
Kaye Ballard is an American musical theatre and television actress, comedienne, and singer.-Life and career:Ballard was born as Catherine Gloria Balotta in Cleveland, Ohio, to an Italian American family, the daughter of Lena and Vincent James Balotta.Ballard established herself as a musical...
and Alice Ghostley
Alice Ghostley
Alice Margaret Ghostley was an American actress. She was best known for her roles as housekeeper Esmeralda on Bewitched, as Cousin Alice on Mayberry R.F.D., and as Bernice Clifton on Designing Women, for which she received an Emmy Nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1992...
as stepsisters Portia and Joy, Ilka Chase
Ilka Chase
Ilka Chase was an American actress and novelist.Born in New York City and educated at convent and boarding schools in the United States, England, and France, she was the only child of Edna Woolman Chase, the editor in chief of Vogue magazine, and her first husband, Francis Dane Chase.Chase made...
as the Stepmother, and Iggie Wolfington as The Steward. Betty Noyes
Betty Noyes
Elizabeth "Betty" Noyes Hand was a singer and actress best known for dubbing the singing voice of Debbie Reynolds in the film Singin' in the Rain. Today, this is a well known example of dubbing in a movie musical due to the irony of the fact that Debbie Reynolds' character in Singin' in the Rain...
played a mother in the ensemble who sings a brief solo, and Joe Layton
Joe Layton
Joe Layton was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway.-Biography:Born Joseph Lichtman in Brooklyn, New York, Layton began his career as a dancer in Wonderful Town , and he appeared uncredited in the ensemble of the original live TV production of Rodgers and...
appeared uncredited in the ensemble.
On Sunday, March 31, 1957, at 8:00pm Eastern time, Cinderella was broadcast live in the Eastern, Central and Mountain time zones in both black and white and compatible color; the West Coast received a delayed black and white only broadcast starting at 8:00pm Pacific time. Beyond the United States, it was carried by CBS affiliates in the U.S. territories of Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
; in Canada it was broadcast on CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
. It was produced for $376,000, which was very expensive for its time, and was heavily promoted by its sponsors Pepsi-Cola and the Shulton Company (then maker of Old Spice
Old Spice
Old Spice is a prominent American brand of male grooming products. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble, which acquired the brand in 1990 from the Shulton Company.-History:...
).
1965 version
After its success as a stage production, the network decided another television version of Cinderella was needed. The 1957 premiere had been broadcast before videotape had been perfected, so only one performance could be shown. CBS mounted another production in 1965 with Richard Rodgers as Executive Producer. This re-make used a new script that hewed closer to the traditional tale, commissioned by Rodgers (Hammerstein had died in 1960) and written by Joseph Schrank, although nearly all of the original songs were retained and sung in their original settings. A new sequence opens the story, in which the Prince stops at Cinderella's house with his retinue for a drink of water after returning from his travels. Cinderella, home alone, and not knowing who the handsome traveler is until a page utters the words "Your Highness", kindly gives the Prince water from the well. Shortly afterwards, the Prince sings "Loneliness of Evening", which had been composed for South Pacific in 1949 but not sung in that musical. Cinderella sings "In My Own Little Corner" before there is any mention of the prince giving a ball. The names of the stepsisters were also changed from the original production, and the Royal Dressing Room Scene was omitted.The 1965 version was directed by Charles S. Dubin
Charles S. Dubin
Charles Samuel Dubin was an American film and television director.From the early 1950s to 1991, Dubin worked in television, directing episodes of Tales of Tomorrow, Omnibus, The Defenders, The Big Valley, The Virginian, Hawaii Five-O, M*A*S*H, Matlock, The Rockford Files, Murder, She Wrote and...
with choreography by Eugene Loring
Eugene Loring
Eugene Loring American ballet and other dance-forms dancer, choreographer and teacher and administrator.-Biography:...
and recorded on videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
(at CBS Television City
CBS Television City
CBS Television City is a television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of North Fairfax Avenue...
in Hollywood
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
) for later broadcast. The cast featured Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
and Walter Pidgeon
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
as the King and Queen; Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm is an American stage, film, and television actress, known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement , as well as for her Oscar-nominated performances in Come to the Stable and All About Eve...
as the Fairy Godmother; Jo Van Fleet
Jo Van Fleet
Jo Van Fleet was an American theatre and film actress.-Career:Van Fleet established herself as a notable dramatic actress on Broadway over several years, winning a Tony Award in 1954 for her skill in a difficult role, playing an unsympathetic, even abusive character, in Horton Foote's The Trip to...
as the Stepmother, with Pat Carroll
Pat Carroll (actress)
Patricia Ann “Pat” Carroll is an American actress. She performed in numerous stage productions, and portrayed the roles of "Bunny Halper" on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show, Shirley Feeney's mother on ABC's Laverne and Shirley, and is the voice of the villainous Ursula in The Little Mermaid film...
and Barbara Ruick
Barbara Ruick
-Youth:Ruick was the daughter of actors Lurene Tuttle and Melville Ruick. She grew up acting out scenes with dolls, employing her mother as an audience. She attended Theodore Roosevelt High School , Burbank High School , and North Hollywood High School. She did little acting in high school but...
as her daughters Prunella and Esmerelda; and Stuart Damon
Stuart Damon
Stuart Damon is an American actor. He is known for thirty years of portraying the character Dr. Alan Quartermaine on the American soap opera General Hospital, for which he won an Emmy Award in 1999....
as the Prince. Lesley Ann Warren
Lesley Ann Warren
Lesley Ann Warren is an American actress and singer. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award and Emmy Awards and five times for Golden Globe, winning one....
was "introduced" in the title role. The film also features rare on camera appearances by dubbers Betty Noyes
Betty Noyes
Elizabeth "Betty" Noyes Hand was a singer and actress best known for dubbing the singing voice of Debbie Reynolds in the film Singin' in the Rain. Today, this is a well known example of dubbing in a movie musical due to the irony of the fact that Debbie Reynolds' character in Singin' in the Rain...
and Bill Lee
Bill Lee (singer)
Bill Lee was an American playback singer who provided a voice or singing voice in many films, for actors in musicals and for many Disney characters. He was born in Johnson, Nebraska and died in 1980 in Los Angeles, California, of a brain tumor.Lee was part of a popular singing quartet known as The...
, who play a couple that briefly sing about their daughter (played by Trudi Ames
Trudi Ames
Trudi Ames was an actress most notable for her uncredited but memorable role in Bye Bye Birdie as Kim's best friend Ursula. She also had a notable role as Libby in Gidget Goes to Rome. In a TV special on January 7, 1965, she was named by ABC as one of the twelve most promising young actresses...
). The first broadcast was on February 22, 1965, and it was rebroadcast eight times through February 1974.
1997 version
The 1997 television re-make, the only one of the three versions shot on film, was adapted by Robert L. FreedmanRobert L. Freedman
Robert L. Freedman is an American screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist. He is probably best known for his teleplays for Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and the acclaimed 2001 miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, for which he was nominated for Emmy Awards as both writer and...
and directed by Robert Iscove
Robert Iscove
Robert Iscove is a Canadian film and television director, television producer and a choreographer...
, with choreography by Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall is an American theater director, film director and choreographer. He is a six-time Tony Award nominee, Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe nominee and four-time Emmy winner whose most noted work is the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture winner Chicago.-Life and career:Marshall was...
. It was produced by Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
and Debra Martin Chase
Debra Martin Chase
Debra Martin Chase is a Hollywood producer and former lawyer who was named by Savoy magazine in August 2003 as one of the 100 most influential African Americans in the United States and by Black Enterprise magazine in 2007 as one of the Top 50 Powerbrokers in Hollywood. Chase is the first African...
for Walt Disney Productions and aired on November 2, 1997. This version featured a racially diverse cast, with Brandy
Brandy Norwood
Brandy Rayana Norwood , known professionally as Brandy, is an American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and dancer. In 2009, she introduced her rap alter-ego Bran'Nu....
as Cinderella, Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
as her fairy godmother, Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer and children's book author from Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings...
as Cinderella's stepmother, Paolo Montalbán
Paolo Montalbán
Paolo Montalban is a Filipino-American actor and singer best known for his performance in ABC/Disney's telepic of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella as Prince Christopher, opposite Brandy as Cinderella....
as the prince, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
as the queen, Victor Garber
Victor Garber
Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...
as the king and Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...
as Lionel, the herald. Several songs were added, including "Falling in Love with Love
Falling in Love with Love
Falling in Love with Love is a show tune from the Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse, where it was introduced by Muriel Angelus. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1938...
", sung by the Stepmother; "The Sweetest Sounds
The Sweetest Sounds (song)
"The Sweetest Sounds" is a popular song, written by Richard Rodgers for the musical No Strings, in 1962....
" from the musical No Strings
No Strings
No Strings is a musical drama with a book by Samuel A. Taylor and words and music by Richard Rodgers, his only Broadway score written without a collaborator. The musical opened on Broadway in 1962 and ran for 580 performances...
, sung by Cinderella and the Prince; and "There's Music in You," written for the 1953 film Main Street to Broadway
Main Street to Broadway
Main Street to Broadway is a 1953 MGM musical comedy starring Tom Morton and Mary Murphy about an aspiring playwright who hopes to stage a Broadway production starring Tallulah Bankhead...
, sung as the finale by the Fairy Godmother. The broadcast was very popular, with an audience of 60 million viewers.
Changes to the Hammerstein plot in this version include the following: The Fairy Godmother begins the story, explaining that nothing is impossible. Disguised as a peasant, the Prince (feeling isolated in the castle) wanders in the marketplace (worrying his herald, Lionel), meets Cinderella, and they find each other charming. At the ball, embarrassed by questions about her family and background, Cinderella escapes to the garden in tears, where the Fairy Godmother appears for moral support. After her stepmother returns from the ball and is particularly cruel, Cinderella packs her belongings to run away from home. Her Fairy Godmother advises her to share her feelings with the Prince. After trying the slipper on all the other maidens, the Prince and Lionel overtake Cinderella on her journey to freedom. Meeting her gaze, the Prince recognizes her and places the slipper on her foot. At their wedding, the Fairy Godmother blesses the couple.
Stage productions
The musical was first performed on stage at the London Coliseum, together with a 1958 holiday pantomimePantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
adaptation of Cinderella that also used songs from Me & Juliet. Harold Fielding produced this version, which opened on December 18, 1958 and played through the holiday season. Yana, played Cinderella. Also appearing were Bruce Trent, Jimmy Edwards
Jimmy Edwards
Jimmy Edwards DFC was an English comedic script writer and comedy actor on both radio and television, best known as Pa Glum in Take It From Here and as the headmaster 'Professor' James Edwards in Whack-O!-Biography:...
, Tommy Steele
Tommy Steele
Tommy Steele OBE , is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.-Singer:...
and Betty Marsden
Betty Marsden
Betty Marsden was an English comedy actress.Originally from Liverpool, she attended the Italia Conti Stage School and ENSA.In the radio series Beyond Our Ken, she played Fanny Haddock, a takeoff of Fanny Cradock...
.
Stage versions began to appear in U.S. theatres by 1961. The New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
produced the musical in 1993 and 1995, with the Fairy Godmother being played by Sally Ann Howes
Sally Ann Howes
Sally Ann Howes is a British actress and singer, who currently holds dual British-American citizenship. Her career on stage, screen and television has spanned over six decades...
and the Stepmother played by Nancy Marchand
Nancy Marchand
Nancy Marchand was an American actress, whose career encompassed both stage and screen. She appeared in various theatre productions throughout the early 1950s, before being offered roles on film and television....
and Jean Stapleton. It revived the production in 2004 with Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
as the Fairy Godmother and Dick Van Patten
Dick Van Patten
Richard Vincent "Dick" Van Patten is an American actor, best known for his role as patriarch Tom Bradford on the television sitcom Eight is Enough. He began work as a child actor and was successful on the [New York] stage, appearing in more than a dozen plays as a teenager...
as the King, among other television stars. A United States tour played from late 2000 through 2001 and starred Kitt as the Fairy Godmother, with Deborah Gibson
Deborah Gibson
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. In 1987 she was pronounced the youngest artist to write, produce, and perform a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, with her song "Foolish Beat" and she remains the youngest female to write, record, and...
and later Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Jamie-Lynn Sigler is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Meadow Soprano on the HBO television series The Sopranos.-Early life:...
as Cinderella, Paolo Montalbán
Paolo Montalbán
Paolo Montalban is a Filipino-American actor and singer best known for his performance in ABC/Disney's telepic of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella as Prince Christopher, opposite Brandy as Cinderella....
as the Prince, and, in a casting twist, a gender-bending Everett Quinton playing the Stepmother.
A 30-week Asian tour of Cinderella starred Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga-Chien is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and...
and Australian Peter Saide. The production was directed by Bobby Garcia, with choreography by Vince Pesce, costume design by Renato Balestra
Renato Balestra
Renato Balestra , is an Italian fashion designer.Renato Balestra is an Italian fashion designer. However, he first started studying civil engineering....
. Sets were designed by David Gallo
David Gallo
David Gallo is an American scenic designer and projection designer for Broadway, off-Broadway, regional, and international theatre venues...
and lighting design was by Paul Miller
Paul Miller
Paul Miller is a former Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's twenty-ninth House district, including constituents in Durham county. A computer consultant and investment advisor from Durham, North Carolina, Miller served almost three terms in the state...
. The tour started in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
on July 29, 2008. The show then went on to several cities in China, including Xian, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Gunagzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. It then toured in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, and Japan. A cast album
Cinderella (Original International Tour Cast Recording)
Cinderella contains the songs from the musical Cinderella, produced by Skip Williamson & Brian McNelis with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Cast includes Tony Award winner Lea Salonga and Australian actor Peter Saide...
was issued in 2008.
J-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
group Morning Musume
Morning Musume
, sometimes referred to as is a Japanese idol girl group, whose act generally revolves around singing and dancing to upbeat melodies. They are the lead group of Hello! Project, which is managed and produced by Tsunku, who composes nearly all the lyrics and melodies of their songs...
and veteran members of the Takarazuka Revue
Takarazuka Revue
The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe based in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Women play all roles in lavish, Broadway-style productions of Western-style musicals, and sometimes stories adapted from shōjo manga and Japanese folktales. The troupe takes its name...
The production ran throughout August 2008, at Shinjuku Koma Theater
Shinjuku Koma Theater
The was a major theatre in the Kabukichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo. The theatre opened in 1956 and it had a capacity of 2,088 seats.- Past shows :*Kōhaku Uta Gassen *Saburō Kitajima*Ken Matsudaira*Hibari Misora*Kiyoshi Hikawa*Sachiko Kobayashi...
. The lead roles of Cinderella and the Prince were performed by Morning Musume members Ai Takahashi
Ai Takahashi
is a Japanese pop singer formerly associated with Hello! Project, and best known as leader of Morning Musume and Hello!Project until 2011, and former member of its popular subgroup, Mini Moni...
and Risa Niigaki
Risa Niigaki
is a fifth generation member and current leader of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined Morning Musume in 2001 along with Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa. She grew up in Yokohama after moving there at age six. As of 2009, she was the longest-serving sub-leader of Morning...
.
Reception
The 1957 version of Cinderella was seen by the largest audience in history at the time of its premiere: 107,000,000 people in the USA, fully 60% of the country’s population at that time. Variety estimated that 24.2 million households were tuned in to the show, with an average of 4.43 viewers each. Jon Cypher later remembered leaving the studio a few minutes after the broadcast had ended and finding the ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
streets deserted because so many had stayed in to watch the broadcast.
A New York Times review by Jack Gould
Jack Gould
Jack Gould was an American journalist and critic, who wrote influential commentary about television....
characterized the musical as "a pleasant Cinderella that lacked the magic touch." He wrote that the broadcast received an "extraordinary range of reactions; it was either unreservedly enjoyed, rather angrily rejected or generally approved, subject to significant reservations." He praised Andrews as a "beguiling vision" in "lovely color video." But he complained about the book ("What possessed Mr. Hammerstein to turn the stepsisters into distasteful vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
clowns?"); about errors in "the most elementary kind of showmanship;" about costume ("couldn't Cinderella have been dressed in a dreamlike ball gown of fantasy rather than a chic, form-fitting number?"); about the songs ("not top-drawer Rodgers and Hammerstein"); and the staging ("cramped... excellent depth, but limited width marred the ballroom scene"). He judged the songs "reminiscent and derivative of some of their earlier successes" but praised four of them and said "In television, where original music is virtually nonexistent, these add up to quite a treat... some current [Broadway] musicals cannot boast as much melodically."
The 1965 version was broadcast repeatedly. The 1997 production was the #1 show of the week, with over 60 million viewers. It became the highest-rated TV musical in a generation. Although it was a hit with audiences, it received mixed reviews. Theatre historian John Kenrick
John Kenrick (theatre writer)
John Kenrick is an American author, teacher and theatre and film historian. Kenrick is an adjunct teacher of musical theatre history at New York University, Brind School – University of the Arts and The New School, and lectures frequently on the subject elsewhere...
called it a "hideous desecration" of the musical. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
praised the performers (Montalban has "an old-fashioned luxurious voice"; Jason Alexander "provides comic relief"; Goldberg "winningly blends royal dignity with motherly meddling"; Peters "brings vigor and sly comedy") but commented that the musical "was always a pumpkin that never turned into a glittering coach... the songs are lesser Rodgers and Hammerstein... it doesn't take that final leap into pure magic. Often charming and sometimes ordinary, this is a cobbled-together Cinderella for the moment, not the ages." Other critics, however, praised the presentation. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution wrote: "Grade: A, a version both timely and timeless." The San Diego Union-Tribune agreed: "this version has much to recommend it." An encore broadcast on Valentine's Night 1998 drew another 15,000,000 viewers.
Recordings
The original cast and orchestra made a recording of the music for Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
on March 18, 1957, under the supervision of Goddard Lieberson. The album was released in conjunction with the broadcast less than two weeks later. It was later reissued on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
.
The black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
kinescope
Kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
recording of the live color telecast was re-broadcast on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
in December 2004
2004 in television
The year 2004 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2004.For the American TV schedule, see: 2004–05 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
as part of its Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
series. It was later released on DVD with a documentary including most of its original players, as well as a kinescope of Rodgers and Hammerstein's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
the preceding Sunday, featuring Hammerstein reciting one of the songs to orchestral accompaniment.
A cast LP album
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
of the 1965 telecast was also issued by Columbia Masterworks Records
Columbia Masterworks Records
Columbia Masterworks Records was a record label started in 1927 by Columbia Records.It was intended for releases of classical music and artists, as opposed to popular music, which bore the regular Columbia logo. Masterworks Records' first release, in 1927, was a complete performance of the...
and on a Sony Masterworks CD. All three of the telecast versions of Cinderella have been released on DVD. An Original International Tour Cast Recording
Cinderella (Original International Tour Cast Recording)
Cinderella contains the songs from the musical Cinderella, produced by Skip Williamson & Brian McNelis with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Cast includes Tony Award winner Lea Salonga and Australian actor Peter Saide...
of the Asian tour cast was released in time for their first performance in Manila.
Awards and nominations
1957 Emmy Awards- Actress, Best Single Performance, Lead or Support – Julie Andrews (nomination)
- Best Musical Contribution for Television – Richard Rodgers (music score) (nomination)
1997
- Art Directors GuildArt Directors GuildThe Art Directors Guild is an American labor union and branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees representing almost 2,000 motion picture and television professionals....
– Excellence in Production Design Award, Variety or Awards Show, Music Special or Documentary (Winner)
- Emmy Awards
- Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program (Winner)
- Outstanding Choreography (nomination)
- Outstanding Costume Design for a Variety or Music Program (nomination)
- Outstanding Directing for a Variety or Music Program (nomination)
- Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (nomination)
- Outstanding Music Direction (nomination)
- Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special (nomination)
- Image Awards
- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series – Whoopi Goldberg (nomination)
- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series – Brandy Norwood (nomination)
- Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series (nomination)
- Satellite AwardsSatellite AwardsThe Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...
- Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television – Jason Alexander (nomination)
- Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television – Bernadette Peters (nomination)
- Writers Guild of America AwardWriters Guild of America AwardThe Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
– Children's Script (nomination)
External links
- Listing at Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatricals
- Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, from the PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Great Performances website - playbill article, Nov.21, 2004 "The First "Cinderella" Returns
- Curtain Up review, October 2005
- "Cinderella" plot and production information at NODANW, The Guide to Musical Theatre