Cinderella is the name of a U.S. production broadcast live (except on the west coast) on March 31, 1957. It was the first and only project written for television by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.

Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote their version of the Cinderella fairy tale specifically for CBS television, enticed (as Rodgers wrote in his autobiography) by the opportunity to write for Julie Andrews, who was to play the title role.

Besides Andrews, the New York City production starred Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney (as the King and Queen), Edie Adams (Fairy Godmother), Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley (the Stepsisters), Ilka Chase (the Stepmother), and Jon Cypher (the Prince). This represented almost an all-star cast (the chief exception being Jon Cypher). It also included a 28-piece orchestra, 20 dancers, and seven ensemble singers.

It was produced for $375,000 (very expensive for its time), and heavily promoted by its sponsors, Pepsi-Cola and the Shulton Company , maker of Old Spice). The promotion and an appearance by Rodgers and Hammerstein on The Ed Sullivan Show the week before helped to give the telecast an audience of 107 million people, the largest achieved by that time (and more than any subsequent television series episode as of 2004).

A New York Times review by Jack Gould on April 7, 1957 characterized it as "a pleasant Cinderella that lacked the magic touch." He said 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."

A black-and-white kinescope recording of the color telecast was re-broadcast on PBS in December 2004 as part of its Great Performances series.

List of songs

External links

• Background information on the production from The Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatre Library
• DVD Review from The Onion A.V. Club
• The First "Cinderella" Returns from Playbill