Color Blind Cinderella
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997) provides its audience with the classic tale of Cinderella, the beloved music of the titular duo, and a color-blind world where Prince Charming is Asian, the King and Queen are an interracial couple, and Cinderella is a dark-skinned, Black woman. By the time the film was greenlit by Disney for ABC, Houston felt that she had outgrown the title role, which she offered to Brandy instead. The decision to use a color-blind casting approach originated among the producers to reflect how society had evolved by the 1990s, with Brandy becoming the first black actress to portray Cinderella on screen.
EXCLUSIVE: Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1997 Cinderella Makes a Strong Case for Diverse. This afternoon, as part of our Black History Month film festival, we showed 1997's Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. The color-blind casting process led to a diverse finished product that our patrons really responded to.
36 Cinderella Coloring Pages (Free PDF Printables)
Librarian Krishna Grady introduced the film, and talked about the casting director and how producers set out to find the best person for each role, no matter their skin. A discussion of the use of colorblind casting in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1997 production of Cinderella by Stephanie Brownell and Emma Alexander. To Hollywood, color-blind casting (and its many blind casting variants that don't consider ethnicity, body type, sex, and/or gender), seems like the solution the industry has been searching for to address the lack of diversity the industry has faced throughout its entire existence.
The producers wanted to use a "color-blind casting" approach, resulting in a black Cinderella (Brandy) and Fairy Godmother (Houston) as well as a Filipino prince (Paolo Montalban) with a black mother (Whoopi Goldberg) and a white father (Victor Garber). Cinderella's stepfamily also has black and white members. 1997's 'Cinderella' is still remember so fondly today.
Free Printable Cinderella Coloring Pages - Printable Coloring Pages ...
Whitney Houston produced and starred along with Brandy Norwood. The diversity was on purpose, too. Brandy (left) and Whitney Houston in 1997's TV adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella." Photo: NEAL PRESTON / ABC Amazon's new cinematic take on the "Cinderella" fairy tale is getting props on social media for its racially inclusive casting featuring Cuban-born Camila Cabello and fabulously queer, gender.
As Brandy and Whitney Houston's Cinderella head to Disney+, we look back at the impact the 1997 film had on young Black girls.
