Cinderella Story
'Cinderella' remake is first-class fun

Date: October 30, 1997
By Ann Hodges, TV Critic

From The Houston Chronicle
Submitted by: Larry A.


Cinderella's back in town. Sit the whole family down for this treat.

Curtain's up at 6 p.m. Sunday on ABC/Channel 13, and you won't want to miss a minute.

This Wonderful World of Disney and Whitney Houston presentation of the 1957 musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II is bound to be an Emmy winner - a classy rendition of the classic fairy tale that has enchanted children for generations.

It's been done before by television, but never quite this way. And never with a fresher, more appealing Cinderella or a more capable cast. To call it a rainbow of talent is not overstating this Cinderella's multiethnic showcase.

Cinderella (Brandy Norwood) is black, and so is her fairy godmother (Whitney Houston). Prince Charming (Paolo Montalban) is Filipino; his servant Lionel (Jason Alexander) is white, and so is Cinderella's stepmother (Bernadette Peters). Cinderella's stepsisters (Natalie Desselle and Veanne Cox) are a mixed pair - one black, one white. The queen (Whoopi Goldberg) is black, and the king (Victor Garber) is white.

For Brandy, the 18-year-old singing sensation and sitcom star of Moesha, it's a breakout performance. For Houston, a fine fairy godmother - on and off the screen - it's a double smash. She deserves her credit as one of the executive producers; this multiracial show was her idea, and her big song, Impossible, is a show-stopper.

Peters' Falling in Love With Love is one, too. Peters is purely wonderful, a Broadway voice belting it out. She and Alexander - who has done some Broadway musicals, too, pre-Seinfeld - add a practiced touch as the comedic relief.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella was the first original musical for television from that prolific Broadway team. For this production, Robert Freedman has rewritten Hammerstein's teleplay, but not enough to mess up or wise up anything. The score was artfully reorchestrated by record producer Arif Mardinand and music director Paul Bogaev. The three songs they added from other Rodgers shows - The Sweetest Sounds, Falling In Love With Love and There's Music in You - add musical clout to the charming score.

It's a lavish $ 12 million production with top-drawer attention to the bright, glitzy sets, costumes and special effects. Those trappings have the Disneyland look, but the show was shot on two other studio back lots.

Cinderella's house and the palace were filmed on what used to be the Wizard of Oz poppy fields at the old MGM (now Sony) studio, and the village scenes were shot on the European Streets at Universal.

Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are executive producers, with Houston and her business partner Debra Martin Chase. Zadan and Meron produced television's award-winning Gypsy, starring Bette Midler, which was the inspiration for this Cinderella production.

Houston loved Gypsy and asked Zadan and Meron to find a musical for her to do. They suggested Cinderella, and she liked that. But TV shows are seldom built in a day, or even a year. By the time this one landed at Disney's ABC (after languishing at CBS), Houston decided she was too old to play Cinderella. When the producers suggested she play the fairy godmother and get Brandy to play Cinderella, she picked up the phone and asked Brandy.

The young actress/singer dropped the phone and ran screaming to her mom. "It's a fairy tale. I'm still waiting for someone to pinch me," she said.

It was always meant to be multiracial. As producer Chase explained, "The idea is to say to all children, and to the children in all adults of every color, that dreams can be made to come true. It's applicable to the world. Our society has changed. We hope that this Cinderella, as we approach the millennium, is reflective of what our society is today."

It is that and more. This Cinderella is first-class entertainment for the whole family, a TV-G with no double entendres, not even the usual tacky word thrown in to make parents flinch. It's a welcome change indeed in these days of TV tastelessness.