Rainbow cast, no pot of gold in 'Cinderella'

Date: October 31, 1997
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff

From The Boston Globe
Submitted by: Larry A.


There's plenty of spectacle in the new "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella," which airs as part of "The Wonderful World of Disney" on Sunday at 7 p.m. on WCVB-Ch. 5. The costumes are all dripping with orange and pink frills, and the sets are vividly painted and munchkin-quaint, and the special effects glisten and sparkle and, in the case of the fairy godmother's magical aura, bubble.

But the cartoony visual charm of the show, the only musical Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote for television, can't hide what it's missing: romance, warmth, and a bit of snap in the dance department. Despite a strong musical and comic cast, which includes Brandy, Whitney Houston, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bernadette Peters, this $ 12 million "Cinderella" never turns into anything more than a slight TV outing that feels more Nickelodeon than Broadway.

The musical first appeared on TV in a live 1957 version, starring Julie Andrews as the oppressed girl who wins over the prince. The second version was made in 1965 and featured Lesley Ann Warren in the glass slipper, and it was aired for years afterward. The concept of the new "Cinderella," which was executive-produced by Whitney Houston, is to present a mixed-ethnic cast for the 1990s without making a big point of it. That means Bernadette Peters's evil stepmother has a white and a black daughter, and the prince, who is Filipino, is the son of a black queen, played by Whoopi Goldberg, and a white king, played by Victor Garber.

This DNA shakeup works, in that after a few minutes you don't really notice the unexplained racial discontinuities. It's an unforced and welcome reflection of American diversity, although everyone is still dolled up in classic fairy-tale clothing and affect, including Jason Alexander, who loses his New Yorkese behind a strange foreign accent. Still, the rainbow doesn't provide the musical with the magic it needs.

As Cinderella, Brandy is appealing, but overly nicey-nice and bland. The singer and star of UPN's "Moesha" plays doe-eyed yearning and humility, but not much beyond that. (She looks strangely like Disney's animated "Pocahontas," just as the royal castle looks strangely like the Disney castle.) In his film debut, Paolo Montalban plays the prince with a strong, friendly face, but a heightened, wooden acting style that might work better on stage. He and Brandy never quite establish a chemistry, which could have given the production a bit more vitality.

Most of the supporting players seem to be holding back, particularly Goldberg, who continually relies on a mousy "eek" to get a laugh. As the assistant to the prince, Alexander is able to sneak in only a little shtick behind his bizarre accent.

Whitney Houston makes a great entrance as the fairy godmother - "I'm your fairy godmother, honey, you got a problem with that?" - that punctures some of the production's artificiality. But she's not on screen very much. The most fun comes from Peters's stepmother and her two vain, buffoonish daughters, played with relish by Veanne Cox and Natalie Desselle. "Remember girls, we hide our flaws until after the wedding," Peters advises them.

In addition to the "Cinderella" music, which is pleasant but not Rodgers and Hammerstein's best, this production includes a trio of numbers from the duo's catalog, including "The Sweetest Sounds" from "No Strings."

But despite the abundance of songs and costumes and confetti, the dance productions don't have much pizazz, and they are performed within sets that are quite obviously sets. This is not an awful "Cinderella," just a disappointing one, considering all the talent involved. What could have been a textured fairy tale with a 1990s twist remains uninspired, and sometimes dull.