Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 1997 Cinderella: The Realest Fairy Tale

If you don’t remember songs such as “In My Own Little Corner” and “Impossible” we gotta sit down and get you caught up on an iconic Disney moment! And I don’t mean the versions sang by Julie Andrews or Lesley Ann Warren – I honestly didn’t know that there was an earlier version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic. It’s the “Impossible” in which Whitney Houston and Brandy serenaded us. I’m talking about the “Impossible” that seemed to refer not only to the idea of Cinderella attending the ball but also to the conception of a black Cinderella and Fairy godmother itself.

The very first time that Cinderella was depicted as an African American princess was in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1997 rendition of Cinderella. The plot remained the same but, in the most obvious of ways, the story changed, and the changes are what made the tale fresh and new.

This version was the third of the musical and cost Disney more money than either of the other two – about $12 million, more than three times the usual budget on a made-for-TV movie. It also premiered on ABC, primetime TV! This was unheard-of for a Cinderella movie up to this point, and it wasn’t the only unprecedented aspect that this movie had to offer.

This version of Cinderella was notable for its color-blind casting. The multi-cultural cast created a racially blended family tree for every family of the tale. Cinderella was African-American with a white stepmother, one white step sister, and one African American stepsister. The Filipino prince had an African American mom and a white dad. It’s undeniable that I was a bit confused growing up watching the movie because while I understood the idea of mixed races not creating mixed babies was implausible, I also truly loved the racial representation across the board. I mean, a Filipino prince? At that point in my life seeing a Filipino actor on television was a rarity in general. The fact that this racial utopia exists in a fairy tale only emphasizes its distance from reality while exploring a blatantly obvious genuineness, the world is multiracial.

Several songs were written and added specifically for this version. “The Sweetest Sounds” and “There’s Music in You” – the movie’s finale song – were added to the musical. But “Falling in Love with Love” was the most important additional musical number because of the element of humanity that it provided for the stepmother’s character. The song’s intention was to show the stepmother as not just an evil harridan but the product of bitter experience. She sings the song to her daughters, warning them not to confuse the emotional notion of love with the commercial concept of marriage. That extra depth of character helps the audience to understand the stepmother and sympathize with her plight, even though she remains the villain of the movie.

The moral of Cinderella in various interpretations have almost always been the same –  to be gracious, kind, and patient, and with courage and perseverance in times of adversity, good people will always be rewarded for their goodness. Rodgers and Hammerstein, taking a more modern take on the story, gave Cinderella and the other characters other lessons to learn. Upon meeting the Cinderella for the first time Prince Christopher tells her that a boyfriend should treat his lady like a princess. Cinderella immediately corrects him, “No. Like a person, with kindness and respect.” To which he responds, “You’re not like not like most girls, are you?”  She immediately questions what he’s implying. The prince quickly simmers down – Cinderella was a feminist, who knew?

Before this version of the tale, did anyone ever wonder about the prince’s stress of NEEDING to find a wife? It’s not an aspect that we consider, but the queen, also known as the iconic Whoopi Goldberg, comically put a motherly pressure on her son. That’s what the purpose of the Royal Ball was in the first place, to find the prince a wife. Even his butler/valet, cast as Jason Alexander, demanded the prince to stop being whiny and complaining about finding “the perfect girl” – he was a prince and every girl in the kingdom wanted to be with him. Another comedic view on the idea of love.

“Beauty knows no pain girls!” Cinderella’s stepmother screams as she squeezes her daughter, Minerva, into a corset. Looking back, I don’t think I like the negative connotation of her curvy body being more desirable if it was squeezed into a smaller form. As a child, I didn’t see it that way – it just made me think that women had to do a lot to get ready to go out. Well, everyone other than Cinderella, who only had to spin while her fairly godmother curled her braids, wove an intricate ball gown and slayed her make up. She also put her in the most realistic interpretation of what glass slippers could’ve looked like: they were hideous.

This rendition of the movie not only provided our first African-American Cinderella on-screen but also beyond. In 2014 KeKe Palmer was cast as Cinderella for it’s Broadway production of the show – a first in the world of theater. “I feel like the reason I’m able to do this is definitely because Brandy did it on TV. In me doing this, it shows everybody that everything is possible” said KeKe Palmer after confirming her role as Cinderella.

Rodgers and Hammerstein are all about racial diversity, although they claim that it’s not done intentionally – they are said to always choose the perfect actor for the role. We can’t deny that their overgenerous spirit has advanced the strides in the acting community amongst all races. I can only be thankful for these opportunities; they have helped me to see myself represented on television in one of the most iconic fairy tale roles to date and showed me that…

Because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, impossible things are happening every day.