(no subject)
So, I recently found on Youtube the 1997 Disney made-for-tv production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. What I found interesting about it was the casting: Brandy is Cinderella, Whitney Huston is the Fairy Godmother, Whoopi Goldberg is the queen, Jason Alexander is the Prince's right hand man, Bernadette Peters is the stepmother, and Paolo Montalban is the Prince. It did what I have always wanted to see: it cast an Asian American (Montalban is Filipino) as the lead in a romance. And it was honestly the most diverse production I've seen in a good long while.
What makes me sad about this is that I had never heard of it. I literally stumbled across it while I was watching the classic Disney Cinderella cartoon. It is the first thing I have ever seen where I thought the casting was based on who was best for the part, regardless of race. This created a little bit of a puzzling factor (The queen is Whoopi Goldberg and the king is Victor Garber... and somehow their son is Filipino? I suppose he's adopted...), but I absolutely loved it anyway. The costuming is lovely, the performances are delightful (Goldberg, Alexander, and Peters are all both musically and comedically wonderful), and it was, on the whole, quite an enchanting movie.
So why is it only just now that I've heard of it? Have you guys seen this? What do you think?
What makes me sad about this is that I had never heard of it. I literally stumbled across it while I was watching the classic Disney Cinderella cartoon. It is the first thing I have ever seen where I thought the casting was based on who was best for the part, regardless of race. This created a little bit of a puzzling factor (The queen is Whoopi Goldberg and the king is Victor Garber... and somehow their son is Filipino? I suppose he's adopted...), but I absolutely loved it anyway. The costuming is lovely, the performances are delightful (Goldberg, Alexander, and Peters are all both musically and comedically wonderful), and it was, on the whole, quite an enchanting movie.
So why is it only just now that I've heard of it? Have you guys seen this? What do you think?