Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Genuine TV films are rare, which makes the 1997’s “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” a blessing. ABC’s $12 million musical was a real hit.

Brandy Norwood, the R&B singer and star of the “Moesha” sitcom, rose to superstar status in the film. She was 18 at the time and was on her way to being the next famous actress that producers had already made a call to about this film.

Brandy, in a fancy new Disney musical, was just enough to make this a sensation, but when they included the late Whitney Houston as the Fair Godmother, and Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bernadette Peters, this was a TV film that was for just about everyone.

The late Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who you could call the greatest composers in Broadway musical history, wrote only one original show for television. This was the one.

Ron Miller said in his review, “It first was performed live on CBS in 1957 with a promising young star named Julie Andrews as Cinderella. Andrews was then starring on Broadway in “My Fair Lady” and was still years away from her “Mary Poppins” Oscar and her biggest hit, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music.” A second version was done in 1965 with Lesley Ann Warren as Cinderella. But it was Whitney Houston who really spearheaded the project, after seeing the CBS revival of “Gypsy.””

She reached out to the producers of that show four years prior, they suggested the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and she agreed to star in it for CBS.

Before production could start, however, Houston decided that at the age of 33, she was too old to play Cinderella. Miller noted, “By the time she decided to produce the film with Brandy in the leading role and herself as the Fairy Godmother, CBS balked at the rising costs - roughly three times the cost of the average two-hour TV movie - and Disney-owned ABC stepped in.”

Miller credited, “The result is an amazing, rainbow-hued production designed not only to appeal to all ages, but also to all ethnic groups.” Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother are black and the Prince, Paolo Montalban, is Filipino. Cinderella’s stepmother is white (Bernadette Peters), while her stepsisters are two different ethnicities, Veanne Cox, who’s white, and Natalie Desselle, who’s black. The Queen is black (Whoopi Goldberg), but the King is white (Victor Garber, who you might remember as Martin Stein/Firestorm in the CW’s “The Flash” and “Legends of Tomorrow”).

Everything works like magic.

Whitney Houston starts the film with a brief chorus from Impossible, the original show’s large number, then reprises it in a wonderful duet with Brandy. Miller credited, “Decked out in gold, waving her wand with vigor, Houston is a street-savvy Fairy Godmother, but not obnoxiously so.”

Miller went on to praise, “There’s no question, however, about who owns this show: Brandy is magnificently sweet and ethereal, proving she can step away from her contempo hustle and the “Moesha” image, giving a bravura performance as a wistful girl living off dreams.”

Her smooth, soft voice is right for the Broadway songs and she can raise her volume and hit them out whenever needed. It’s a real star turn for her.

I remember seeing some parts of the movie when it first aired on ABC. I had completely forgotten about this movie until I saw it browsing through Disney+. I decided to see it again and I had forgotten how good of a TV movie this was. Check it out because you will not be disappointed, I promise. Especially with an all star cast that you might like, this is one not to be missed.

Tomorrow I will be looking at a film that I first heard about when I was in eighth grade, I started to watch when it was On Demand, but didn’t see it in its entirety until earlier this year in “Disney Month 2023.”