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abcnewspr · 2 years

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ABC NEWS STUDIOS ANNOUNCES 25TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ‘CINDERELLA: THE REUNION, A SPECIAL EDITION OF 20/20’ ON TUESDAY, AUG. 23, AS PART OF DISNEY’S WORLD PRINCESS WEEK

Original Cast Members Brandy and Whoopi Goldberg, Plus Billy Porter, Todrick Hall, Jade Jones and More, Reflect on the Impact of the Film

Following the News Special, The Wonderful World of Disney Will Air

‘Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella’ for the First Time on

Broadcast Television in More Than Two Decades

Watch The Promo

ABC News*

ABC News Studios will air “Cinderella: The Reunion, A Special Edition of 20/20” on TUESDAY, AUG. 23 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu. The 25th anniversary celebration of “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” will feature members of its all-star cast — Brandy, Whoopi Goldberg, Paolo Montalban, Victor Garber, Bernadette Peters, Jason Alexander and Veanne Cox. Following the news special, The Wonderful World of Disney will air, for the first time on broadcast television in more than two decades, a presentation of the original film (9:00-11:00 p.m. EDT), which is available to stream on Disney+.

The classic Disney live-action film marked a groundbreaking moment in television history, introducing America’s first Black Cinderella (Brandy) and Fairy Godmother (Whitney Houston). The ABC News Studios reunion special explores how the revolutionary made-for-television musical expanded society’s view of the term “princess” and includes interviews with original cast members, as well as rare behind-the-scenes footage with Whitney Houston.

The one-hour program, airing during Disney’s World Princess Week, also dives into the film’s positive impact on representation in Hollywood and features interviews with stars who share a connection to the project, including Tony®, GRAMMY® and Emmy® Award-winning actor and singer Billy Porter, who played the gender-neutral fairy godmother, Fabulous Godmother, in the 2021 Amazon Original “Cinderella” reimagining; actress Jade Jones, who plays Belle in the off-Broadway tour of “Beauty and the Beast”; and singer-songwriter and choreographer Todrick Hall, a “Cinderella” superfan who has drawn inspiration from the film throughout his career.

“Cinderella: The Reunion, A Special Edition of 20/20” features interviews with the original production team from “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” including producers Debra Martin Chase and Neil Meron, costume designer Ellen Mirojnick and more.

“We’re delighted that the 25th anniversary of this landmark incarnation of ‘Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella’ is being celebrated on its original network,” said Imogen Lloyd Webber, SVP at Concord Theatricals, on behalf of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s unforgettable score is truly timeless — still enchanting listeners 80 years after their partnership began and 65 years since their ‘Cinderella’ first charmed the largest audience in television history.”

About “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella”

“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” stars Brandy in the title role and Whitney Houston as “Fairy Godmother” alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Victor Garber, Natalie Desselle Reid, Bernadette Peters, Paolo Montalban, Jason Alexander and Veanne Cox.

Originally premiering on Nov. 2, 1997, to 60 million viewers on ABC’s “The Wonderful World of Disney,” “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” became an instant fan favorite, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike and earning seven Emmy Award nominations. Celebrated for its diverse representation, sweeping musical acts and unforgettable songbook, the 1997 film features an incredible array of beloved and original songs by the iconic songwriting duo Rodgers & Hammerstein, including “Impossible,” “In My Own Little Corner,” “Ten Minutes Ago,” “A Lovely Night,” “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?” and more.

The televised movie musical debuted on Disney+ in February 2021.

In “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” when Cinderella’s cruel stepmother prevents her from attending the Royal Ball, she gets some unexpected help from her Fairy Godmother. The 1997 movie was directed by Robert Iscove, written by Robert I. Freedman, and choreographed by Rob Marshall. Whitney Houston, Debra Martin Chase, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron served as Executive Producers. Chris Montan was a producer, and Robyn Crawford was an associate producer.

“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” was originally presented on television in 1957, and was the only musical written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for the medium. Starring a 21-year-old Julie Andrews, “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” was the most widely viewed program in the history of the medium at the time, drawing an astonishing 107 million viewers. Its recreation in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren was no less successful in transporting a new generation to the miraculous kingdom of dreams come true, and so was the second remake in 1997. A new Broadway version with a Tony-nominated book by Douglas Carter Beane premiered in 2013.

About ABC News Studios

ABC News Studios, inspired by ABC News’ trusted reporting, is a premium, narrative non-fiction original production house and commissioning partner of series and specials. ABC News Studios champions untold and authentic stories driving the cultural zeitgeist spanning true-crime, investigations, pop culture, and news-adjacent stories. Its subsidiary, ABC News Films, acquires and produces feature documentary films.

About Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

After long and highly distinguished careers with other collaborators, Richard Rodgers (composer, 1902-79) and Oscar Hammerstein II (librettist/lyricist, 1895-1960) joined forces in 1943 to create the most successful partnership in American Musical Theater. Prior to joining forces, Rodgers collaborated with lyricist Lorenz Hart on musical comedies that epitomized wit and sophistication (“Pal Joey,” “On Your Toes,” “Babes in Arms” and more), while Hammerstein brought new life to operetta and created the classic “Show Boat” with Jerome Kern. “Oklahoma!,” the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, introduced an integrated form that became known as “the musical play.” Their shows that followed included “Carousel,” “South Pacific,” “The King and I” and “The Sound of Music.” Collectively, the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals have earned Tony, Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Pulitzer and Olivier Awards. The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization is a Concord Company.

About World Princess Week

This World Princess Week (Aug. 21 – 27), we are celebrating our favorite Disney Princess characters and their adventures at Disney Parks, on air, and with digital watch parties. Join us all week long on Instagram (@thedisneyprincesses) as we share trivia, fun moments, and activities for films including Moana, Tangled, Princess and the Frog, and Raya and the Last Dragon, all of which are now streaming on Disney+. Follow #WorldPrincessWeek on social all week long for fun Disney Princess moments at Parks, a look at Princess product and activities, and a celebration of Raya and the Last Dragon, and stay tuned to the Disney Parks Blog (@DisneyParks) for a look at how Disney Parks around the world are celebrating World Princess Week with in-park offerings, first looks at special moments and performances, behind-the scenes looks at Princess projects in development and more.

About Disney+

Disney+ is the dedicated streaming home for movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic, along with The Simpsons and much more. In select international markets, it also includes the new general entertainment content brand, Star. The flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service from The Walt Disney Company, Disney+ is part of the Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution segment. The service offers commercial-free streaming alongside an ever-growing collection of exclusive originals, including feature-length films, documentaries, live-action and animated series, and short-form content. With unprecedented access to Disney’s long history of incredible film and television entertainment, Disney+ is also the exclusive streaming home for the newest releases from The Walt Disney Studios. Disney+ is available as a standalone streaming service or as part of The Disney Bundle that gives subscribers access to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. For more, visit disneyplus.com, or find the Disney+ app on most mobile and connected TV devices.

*COPYRIGHT ©2022 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only. Images are not to be archived, altered, duplicated, resold, retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC. Images are distributed to the press in order to publicize current programming. Any other usage must be licensed. Photos posted for Web use must be at the low resolution of 72dpi, no larger than 2x3 in size.

ABC News Media Relations

Brooks Lancaster

[email protected]

(646) 512-4196

Sydney Tretter

[email protected]

(407) 473-7132

ABC Entertainment Publicity

Lauren Katz

[email protected]

Janel Ota

[email protected]

Rodgers & Hammerstein Org. Media

Imogen Lloyd Webber

[email protected]

For more information, follow ABC News PR on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For more information, download a PDF of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Reference Guide at www.rodgersandhammerstein.com/guidelines.

-- ABC --

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unpopularwiththepopulace · 3 years

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Michael Riedel vs Bernadette Peters – the Broadway Battle of 2003 and beyond

My previous piece gives a fairly comprehensive look at Bernadette and Gypsy through the ages; though there is at least one aspect of the 2003 revival that warrants further discussion:

Namely, Michael Riedel.

Today’s essay question then: “Riedel – gossip columnist extraordinaire, the “Butcher of Broadway”, spited male vindictive over not getting a lunch date with Bernadette Peters, or puppet-like mouthpiece of theatre’s shadowed elite? Discuss.”

It’s matter retrievable in print, or even kept alive in apocryphal memory throughout the theatre community to this day that Riedel was responsible for a campaign of unrelenting and caustic defamation against Bernadette as Rose in Gypsy around the 2003 season.

While “tabloids may [have been] sniping and the Internet chat rooms chirping”, when looking back at the minutiae, none were more vocal, prolific or influential in colouring early judgment than the “chief vulture [of] Mr. Riedel, who had written a string of vitriolic columns in which he said from the start that Ms. Peters was miscast”.

He continued to find other complaints and regularly attack her in print over an extended period of time.

Why? We’ll get there. There are a few theories to suggest. Firstly, how and what.

Primary to establish is that it perhaps would be foolish to expect anything else of Riedel.

Also an author and radio and TV show host, Riedel is best known as the “vituperative and compulsively readable” theatre columnist at The New York Post.

He’s a man who thrives on controversy, decrying: “Gossip is life!”

The man who says, “I’m a wimp when it comes to physical violence, but give me a keyboard and I’ll kill ya.”

“Inflicting pain, for him, is a jokey thing. ‘Michael has this cruel streak and a lack of empathy,’ says Susan Haskins, his close friend and co-host.”

And inflicting pain is what he did with Bernadette, in a saga that has become one of the most talked about and enduring moments of his career.

From the beginning, then.

Riedel started work at The Post in 1998.

His first words on Bernadette? “Oddly miscast in the Ethel Merman role,” in August of that year on Annie Get Your Gun. It was a sentiment he would carry across to his second mention six months later (“a seemingly odd choice to play the robust Annie Oakley”), and also across to the heart of his vitriolic coverage on her next Merman role in Gypsy.

Negative coverage on Bernadette in Gypsy started in August 2002 when Riedel discussed the search for trying to find a new American producer for the show. It had initially been reported in late 2000 that a Gypsy revival with Bernadette was planned for London, before it was to transfer to Broadway. To begin with, Arthur Laurents was “eager to do Gypsy in London because it hadn't been seen in the West End since 1973”, and he “wanted to repeat [the] dreamlike triumph” he said Angela Lansbury’s production had been. But economic matters prevented this original plan, leaving the team looking for new producers in the US. Riedel suggested that Fran and Barry Wiessler step up as, “after all, they managed to sell the hell out of "Annie Get Your Gun," in which Peters…was also woefully miscast.”

He also quipped: “Industry joke: "Bernadette Peters in 'Gypsy'? Isn't she a little old to be playing Baby June?”, calling her “cutesy Peters” and again a “kewpie doll”.

Bernadette here seen side by side with the actual Baby June of the 2003 production – Kate Reinders.

Other publications to this point had discussed her “unusual” casting. Which was fairly self-evident. In contrast to being a surprising revelation that Bernadette Peters was not, in fact, Ethel Merman, this had been the intention from the start. Librettist Arthur “Laurents – whose idea it was to hire her – [said] going against type is exactly the point,” and Sam Mendes, as director, qualified “the tradition of battle axes in that role has been explored”.

It was Riedel who was the first to shift the focus from the obvious point that she was ‘differently cast’, to instead attach the negative prefix and intone that she was actually ‘MIS’ cast. According to him then, she was unsuitable, and would be unable to “carry the show, dramatically or vocally”. All before she had so much as sung a note or donned a stitch of her costume.

So no, it wasn’t then “the perception, widely held within the theater industry,” as he presented it, “that Peters is woefully miscast as Mama Rose”.

It was Riedel’s perception. And he took it, and ran with it, along with whatever else he could throw into the mix to drag both her and the show down for the next two years.

As to another indication of how one single columnist can influence opinion and warp wider perception, just look to Riedel’s assessment of the show’s first preview. It is typically known as Riedel’s forte to “[break] with Broadway convention, [where] he attends the first night of previews, and reports on the problems…before the critics have their say”. This gives him “clout” by way of mining “terrain that goes relatively uncovered elsewhere”, and it means subsequent journals are frequently looking to him from whom to take their lead – and quotes.

At Gypsy’s opening preview then, he reported visions of “Arthur Laurents [charging] up the aisle…on fire”, loudly and vocally expressing his dissatisfaction with the show as he then “read Fox [a producer] the riot act”. Despite the fact that this was “not true, according to Laurents,” the damage was already done, with the sentiment of trouble and tension being subsequently reprinted and distributed out to the public across many a regional paper.

News travels fast, bad news travels faster.

And news can be created at an ample rate, when in possession of one’s own regular periodical column. This recurring domain allowed plentiful opportunity for attack on Bernadette and Gypsy, and Riedel “began devoting nearly every column to the subject,” which amounted to weekly or even more frequent references.

As the show progressed beyond its first preview, Riedel brought in the next aspects of his smear-campaign – assailing Bernadette for missing performances through illness and accusing Ben Brantley, who reviewed the show positively in The New York Times, of unfair favouritism and “hyperbolic spin”.

The issue is not that Bernadette was not in fact ill or missing performances. She was. She had a diagnosis at first of “a cold and vocal strain”, that then progressed more seriously to a “respiratory infection” the following week, and was “told by her doctors that she needs to rest”. So rest she did.

The issue is the way in which Riedel depicted the situation and her absences via hyperbole and “insinuating she was shirking” responsibility. He went further than continual, repeated mentions and cruel article titles like “wilted Rose”, or “sick Rose losing bloom”, or “beloved but - ahem-cough-cough-ahem - vocally challenged and miscast star”. He went as far as the sensationalist and degrading action of putting “Peters' face on the side of a milk carton, the kind of advertisement typically used to recover lost children,” and asking readers to look out for “bee-stung lips, [a] high-pitched voice, [and a] kewpie doll figure”, who “may be clutching a box of tissues and a love letter from Ben Brantley”.

It was quantified in May of 2003 after the show had officially opened, that “out of the 39 performances "Gypsy" has played so far, [Bernadette] has missed six – an absence rate of 15 percent.”

As an interesting comparison, it was reported in The Times in February 2002 that “‘The Producers' stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick have performed together only eight times in last 43 performances due to scheduling problems and health concerns,” – an absence rate of 81%.

Did Riedel have anything nearly as ardent to say about the main male stars of the previous season’s hit missing such a rate of performances? Of course not.

Riedel arguably has a disproportionate rate for criticising female divas.

One need only heed his recommendations that certain women check into his illuminatingly named “Rosie's Rest Home for Broadway Divas.” Divos need not apply.

Not that he was unaware of this.

In 2004, Riedel would jovially lay out that “Liz Smith and I have developed a nice tag-team act: I bash fragile Broadway leading ladies who miss performances, and she rides to their rescue.”

Donna Murphy was the recipient of what he that year dubbed his “BERNADETTE PETERS ATTENDANCE AWARD”, when she began missing performances in “Wonderful Town”, due to “severe back and neck injuries and a series of colds and sinus infections”.

This speaks to his remarkably cavalier and joyful attitude with which he tears down shows and performers. “The more Mr. Riedel's work upsets people, the more he enjoys it.”

He knows he yields influence – it was recognised he had “eclipsed Ben Brantley as the single most discussed element in marketing meetings for Broadway shows” – and he delights in his capacity to lead shows to premature demises through his poison-tipped quill yielding.

When it was reported Gypsy would be closing earlier than had been planned, he made mention of “hop[ping] around on [its] grave” and debonairly applauding himself, “I suppose I can take some credit for bringing it down”.

His premonition from the previous year’s Tony’s ceremony was both ominous and prescient, when he predicted the show’s failure to win any awards “could spell trouble at the box office”. He was right. It did. The 8.5 million dollar revival closed months before anticipated and failed to return a profit.

Multiple factors can be attributed to Gypsy’s poor success at the Tony’s, but it’s clear to say Riedel’s continual bashing leading up to the fated night throughout the voting period certainly didn’t help matters.

His suggestions to do with Bernadette’s performances were not helpful either.

After alleging Laurents as the director of the 1991 revival “practically beat a performance out of” Tyne Daly when she was struggling with the role, he proffers that to improve Bernadette’s success, “it may be time for [Laurents] to take up the switch and thrash one out of Peters”.

Great.

It was irresponsible and unrelenting commentary that did not go unnoticed.

His “ruthless heckling of beloved Broadway star Ms. Peters” was deemed in print “his most egregious stunt so far”.

Vividly, in person, Riedel was accosted at a party one night by Floria Lasky, the venerable showbiz lawyer, who “grab[bed] Riedel’s tie and jerk[ed] it, nooselike, scolding, ‘It was unfair, what you did to Bernadette’”.

Moreover, the wide-reaching influential hold Riedel occupied over the environment surrounding Gypsy was tangible in the fact his words spread beyond just average readers, and even unusually “started seeping into the reviews of New York's top critics”. Riedel himself, as the “chief vulture”, was indeed what Ben Brantley was referring to in his own New York Times review by stating how the production was “shadowed by vultures predicting disaster”.

Even more substantially, the “whole Peters-Riedel-Brantley episode” became its own enduring cultural reference – being converted into its very own “satiric cabaret piece, ‘Bernadette and the Butcher of Broadway’”. All three parties were featured, with Riedel characterised as the butcher, and it played Off-Broadway later in 2003 “to positive notices”.

But penitent for his sins and begging for absolution Riedel was not. “Riedel saw nothing but a great story and a great time,” and for many years after, he would continue to hark back to the matter in self-referential (almost reverential) and flippant ways.

In 2008 as Patti LuPone won her Tony for her turn as Rose in the subsequent revival, Riedel couldn’t help but jibe, “Not to rip open an old wound, but I'd love to know if Bernadette Peters was watching”. (He neglects also to mention that “Mendes’s Gypsy was seen by 100,000 more people than saw Laurents’s and grossed $6 million more”.)

More jibes are to be found in 2012 as he reported on the auction after Arthur Laurents’ funeral, or even as recently in 2019, as he asked, “Remember the outcry that greeted Sam Mendes’ Brechtian “Gypsy,” with Bernadette Peters, in 2003?”

As with in 2004 where he points to the “pack of jackals who have been snarling” about Bernadette’s failures, this brings up the canny knack Riedel has of offloading his views to bigger and detached third party sources – thus absolving himself of personal centrality, and thus culpability.

If there was an outcry, HE was its loudest contributor. If there were snarling jackals, HE was their leader.

Maybe Riedel’s third person detached approach to referencing matters was intended to be a humorous stylistic quirk for those in the know. Or maybe it was his way of expressing some inner turmoil over the event.

In some rare display of morality and emotional authenticity, Riedel would at one point admit “I find it kind of sad and pathetic that the high point of my life supposedly has been about beating up on Bernadette Peters”.

Fortunately for him then, a degree of absolution was eventually achieved in 2018, where Riedel visited Bernadette at her opening night in Hello Dolly in 2018, with the intention of ending their “15-year feud”. He “got down on one knee at Sardi’s and extended his hand,” with Bernadette reportedly yelling “Take a picture!” while he held his deferential and obsequious position on the floor.

So if eventually this “feud” has some kind of circular resolution and Riedel was glad it was over, why on earth did it begin in the first place?

One notion is that it was simply another day on the job. Riedel is a man who sees Broadway as “a game for rich people”. Positioned as an “an industry that brought in $720.9 million in the 2002-2003 season”, it is “not a fragile business”, he remarked. As such, he “[could not] fathom the point of donning kid gloves” in covering it, and reasoned the business as a whole was robust enough to weather a few hard knocks. “Thus, Riedel can coolly view Bernadette Peters as fair game, as opposed to, say, a national treasure”.

More to the point, he was a man in search of words. During the season in question, Riedel was “one of just three New York newspaper columnists covering the stage” – a “throwback to a bygone era when…Broadway gossipmeisters…such as Walter Winchell and Dorothy Kilgallen ruled”. Now at the time, as the “last of a great tabloid tradition”, Riedel presided over not just one but two columns a week at The Post. As a result, he was in need of content. “One of the reasons I've become more opinionated is I just have more space to fill,” he admitted. Robert Simonson hypothesises in his book ‘On Broadway Men, Still Wear Hats’ that Riedel may have consequently picked “the thrashing of Bernadette” as his main target simply because “it was a slow news cycle”. Options for ‘titillating’ and durable content were scarce elsewhere that season.

And after all, if Riedel would later cite Bernadette in an article concerning the Top 10 Powerhouses of Broadway in 2004, saying even despite a few knocks or bad shows, “she’ll bounce back” – surely there was no real damage done.

If her career wouldn’t be toppled by his continual public defamation and haranguing, what was the harm?

Feelings? Who cares about feelings or Bernadette’s extremely complex and personal history with the show stretching back to when she was a teenager.

It was just part of the territory, there was nothing personal in it.

Or was there?

Maybe there was something personal in Riedel’s campaign after all.

He makes a curious comment while discussing ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ in 2004. The then incoming star of the show, rapper P. Diddy, had invited Riedel to dinner, and he makes judgement that this was “a smart p.r. move”. Then he ponders, “you do have to wonder: If Bernadette Peters had broken bread with me this time last year, would her chorus boys have to be out there now working the TKTS line to keep "Gypsy" afloat?”

Might he be going as far to suggest that if Bernadette had indulged him in a meal, her show might not have suffered so, by way of him being more inclined to cover it with greater lenience?

It may seem that way, at least in considering how Riedel reviewed P. Diddy’s performance thus after their dinner: “Riedel pronounced himself impressed. ‘He could have forgotten his lines or had to be carried offstage. He didn’t do anything terrible, he didn’t do anything astonishing.’”

Seemingly all the rapper had to do was remember some words and remain physically onstage, and he sails through scot-free. That’s a rather different outcome, one could say, to being absolutely eviscerated for what became a Tony nominated effort at one of the appreciably hardest and most demanding musical theatre roles in existence.

Though perhaps it’s hard to tell if that was really his insinuation from just one isolated comment pertaining to lunch.

This argument might be fine, if it WAS the only isolated comment pertaining to wanting Bernadette to have lunch with him. But it isn’t. Riedel continues to make a further two references over protracted periods of time to the fact Bernadette hasn’t dined with him.

One begins to get the sense of him feeling desiring of or somewhat entitled to such a private lunch with the lady he’s verbally decimated for years, and a sense of bitter rejection that he hasn’t been granted one.

“If Tonya Pinkins doesn't win the Tony Award this year, I'll buy Bernadette Peters lunch,” he simpered, and later, “I invite Bernadette to be my guest for lunch at a restaurant of her choosing. She can reach me at The Post anytime she's hungry”.

The embittered columnist in this light takes on now the marred tinge of a small boy in the playground who doesn’t get to hold the hand of the girl he wants in front of his friends, so spends the next three years pushing her over in the sandpit in revenge.

Moreover, the last statement makes undeniable comment on Bernadette’s troubled relationship with food, body image and public eating.

So now not only so far has he insulted and mocked her physical appearance and played into all the usual trite shots calling her a “kewpie doll”; suggested Arthur Laurents violently hit her in order to elicit a better performance; continually publicly harassed her regarding a show that strikes close to the nerve with deep personal and psychological resonances due to her mother and childhood; but now he’s going for the low-blows of ridiculing her over her eating habits.

Flawless behaviour.

Maybe it’s far-fetched to suggest a man would have such a fragile ego to run a multi-year public defamation campaign after so little as not getting his hypothesised fantasy of a personal lunch date. But then again, this was the man who “left Johns Hopkins University after his first year because of a broken heart.” (“I was in love with her; she wasn't in love with me,” he said.)

And also the man described as “an insomniac who pops the occasional Ambien,” living in a “small one-bedroom” that is “single-guy sloppy”, who has “been living alone since a four-year romance ended in 1996”.

The man whose own best friend called “cruel” and with a “lack of empathy”.

The man whose own sister answered that “well, yes,” he’s always been mean; and after being picked on as a kid for “being the small guy and the intellectual”, he grew dependent on using “his verbal ability to beat someone” and put himself in positions of defensive impenetrability.

See, writing Riedel-esque, vindictive and provocative conjecture is no especially challenging or cerebral task.

Riedel may well see his approach to ‘journalism’ or reporting as “all fun and games”.

But I for one am not laughing.

One final aspect to address when considering Riedel’s reasoning for the depth of his coverage on Bernadette demands attention of how he gets his information. His own personal opinions and motivations aside, crucially he depends on insider providers for insider details. Perhaps somewhat alarmingly then, “leading Broadway producers themselves are among his sources”.

“Half of Broadway hates him. The other half leaks to him”, John Heilpern titled his 2012 Vanity Fair profile on Riedel.

As such, in frequently taking his lead from “theater folk, usually with an ax to grind”, Riedel acts as the mouthpiece to bring secretive backstage reports out front. High-up, influential characters are thus able to funnel their agendas into public view, while keeping their identities hidden.

Notably, it was raised in the above article that Riedel’s “merciless running story” regarding Bernadette in Gypsy “was fed by none other than its renowned librettist, Arthur Laurents—or, more precisely, by Laurents's lover”.

Contrary to the smiley picture below between members of the show’s creative team and it’s beloved star, it was no secret that Laurents did not like Mendes’ 2003 revival. Laurents told Riedel that “Sam did a terrible disservice to Bernadette and the play, and I wanted a Gypsy seen in New York that was good… You have to have musical theater in your bones, and Sam doesn't”. In fact, Laurents admitted the only reason his 2009 book ‘Mainly on Directing’ came into existence was because of how much he had to criticise about the show – it grew out of the extensive set of notes he gave Mendes.

Additionally, it was no secret that Laurents’ lover, Tom Hatcher, demonstrated both a desire and capacity to influence Arthur’s productions. As well as being the driving force for the 2009 Spanish-speaking reworking of West Side Story, Hatcher had intense investment in Gypsy specifically. Patti LuPone writes in her memoir, “From his deathbed, Tom had told Arthur, ‘You have to do Gypsy, and you have to do it with Patti’. It was one of his dying wishes”. Laurents himself, in corroboration of this, explained Tom’s reasoning – “he didn't want the Sam Mendes production to be New York's last memory of Gypsy”.

The allegation in Heilpern’s profile might be hard to prove from an outsider perspective. But given that neither were happy with Mendes’ production and both actively took steps to ensuring it would be superseded in memory, it is not completely implausible.

Overarchingly, as much as Riedel’s writing may benefit FROM insider sources, it is said he does not write in benefit OF them. For instance, although friends with Scott Rudin in 2004, an animated (nay threatening) warning from Mr Rudin asking Riedel to “back off” from “slamming” his show, Caroline or Change, seemingly “had no impact”.

That’s not to cite total impartiality or exemption from personal connections and higher up influences colouring his reports of shows. Theatre publicist John Barlow would describe that sometimes “if you ask Michael to kill [one of his pieces], he will, if it’s someone with whom he does business”.

But it would be remiss not to mention that his influences and sources stretch beyond just the big wigs. Amongst his other informants too are the more lowly, overlooked folk like “the stagehands, the ushers, chorus kids, house managers, and press agents… the guys who build sets in the Bronx”. Basically, for anyone who’ll talk, Riedel will listen.

“Michael Riedel doesn't work for the producers or the publicists; he works for the reader,” one publicist said. “Sometimes we're glad of that, sometimes we're not-but at the end of the day, that's the reality.”

Sometimes he’s nice, sometimes he’s not – but the world goes round.

Through all that’s been explored, it should be stated how painful and injurious it must be for individual performers or shows to fall upon the unmitigated, maiming force of being on the wrong side of Riedel’s favour. The way he approached coverage on Bernadette is deplorable from an emotional and personal standpoint. Some would argue that it was too far and crossed a line and was most definitely unfair. Others would say it was justified. It’s hard not to sound petulant as the former, or heartless as the latter.

While his actions may indeed be abrasively wounding in isolated (often plentiful) cases, it’s unreasonable to say Riedel’s intentions would be to cripple the Broadway industry as a whole. There are those who purport that Riedel in fact “keeps Broadway alive with his controversies”. His words may not always be ‘nice’ but it’s difficult to argue they're not engaging.

Many are quick to criticize or react impassionedly to him and his columns; but few are quick to stop reading them. And Riedel “knows that the most important thing is being well read”.

Hence it is understandable why Riedel is appraised as “the columnist Broadway loves to hate”. Through his enthralling and stimulating bag of linguistic and dramatic tricks, Riedel knows how to keep the readers coming back. “He’s lively, and he makes the theater seem like an interesting place,” one producer did reason.

“There are times when no one's going to care about Broadway if you don't have a gossip angle that focuses on the backstage drama,” opined George Rush, the Daily News gossip columnist who was once Riedel's boss.

Perhaps it is logically and principally then, if somewhat cynically, a matter of believing “it's just business” and knowing how to “play the game”.

As Riedel himself would rationalise, “It’s all an act. You gotta have a gimmick, as they say in Gypsy.”

It may not be pleasant, but in a world increasingly dependent on sensationalistic and clickbait-driven engagement, it’s probably not going to change any time soon.

Well then, if he can live with the toll of the position of moral tumult his column puts him in, so be it.

That he described his mind as being “constantly on the next deadline”, saying “I always think about the column”, and likening writing it to “standing under a windmill”, where “you dodge one blade, but there's always another one coming right behind it”, may be some indication that he can't. At least not wholly easily.

I’ll leave that to him to figure out. Off the record.

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likeabxrdinflight · 3 years

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I apologize for the fact that I'm probably going to be listening to/watching a lot of sondheim musicals this week and you're all definitely going to hear about it. but I truly cannot overstate the impact this man's work has had on me. I always loved theater, and honestly I probably have to credit ALW shows as being my gateway into the broadway world. but sondheim...sondheim was on another level. I may not have grown up with sondheim shows, but his are the ones that always leave me feeling exposed and vulnerable, comforted and connected, like I need to lay down on the floor for several hours contemplating the meaning of life or like I should be out there living it. sondheim hits different. dunno what else to tell you.

sweeney todd was my first sondheim show, and it was the burton movie version to boot. I saw it in theaters, I think I was 13. it was a good intro to sondheim, honestly. complex enough for me to get invested but simple enough to not go entirely over my head. and I loved it. something about it hit some emotional beat for me, even at that age, despite the subject matter. there's a painting I did in high school in my mom's closet inspired by the show.

into the woods was next, and this was also my introduction to the broader works of bernadette peters. I distinctly remember watching the filmed version of the stage show one night. I had to stare at a wall for a good half hour after it was done, it affected me that much. it was all downhill from there, really.

follies, sunday in the park, a little night music, company, gypsy, passion...I found as many of his works as I could, and watched many artists' renditions of them, though admittedly none more so than bernadette. her performances always captivated me most, and I've always seen why she was so beloved by sondheim. but though the interpreter is important, the works always stand on their own. it's easy to give a bad rendition of a sondheim song, because they're so difficult, but there's no bad sondheim song. see them performed by someone whose acting and singing choices speak to you, and you'll connect with them. I do believe that.

I also believe there's a sondheim song for just about every emotional experience under the sun. and we were so lucky to have him as long as we did, because he wrote so many. and there's so many you could quote or post in light of his death, so many that are more blatantly about death. but I'm going to leave this one here instead. one of his shorter and most simple, but one that is definitely not about death or loss, but feels like it could be directed at him now.

youtube

this performance is one of my favorites because it's exactly as simple as the song needs- a very restrained, pared down rendition during the height of quarantine last year by a singer known for being brash and loud and over the top, with nothing but a basic piano accompaniment and an internet connection. it's gorgeous, it make me sad, and I love it. so maybe that's why it's the song that's been stuck in my head since learning of sondheim's death.

#I do fully recommend the sondheim at 90 concert they did last year #it was all over zoom during peak quarantine and it was...it was quite the emotional experience honestly #stephen sondheim #Youtube

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janelevy · 3 years

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my thoughts (that nobody asked for) on the zoey’s christmas movie

what a super cute supersized zepisode!! i enjoyed it a lot. it delivered exactly the kind of cringe and laughs and tears we’ve all come to expect from this show and these characters. spoilers below the cut

the good

the songs were actually really really awesome and really well done. standouts for me were “have yourself a merry little christmas” with mitch (shot in fuzzy black and white like the old movies they’d watch together? showstopping beautiful amazing), “wish you were here” (CHILLS), “bad blood” (will never not love jane’s impeccable physical comedy), and literally everything mo sang.

it was nice that we got to see zoey sing some heart songs! have we not been wishing for this through fanfic for ages?? it was something i was really looking forward to and i liked how they handled it.

they also didn’t shy away from putting our beloveds’ flaws on full display. FULLL display. but hey, that’s what keeps things interesting and gives characters depth! it was sweet to see zoey and max talk things out and reach an understanding with each other about why he got the powers (more on this later tho)

bernadette peters is a gift. enough said. she really helped with getting through some of the verrrry awkward moments with jack the christmas tree guy.

SIMON. confirmed bi leif!! SIMON. mckenzie and tobin!! SIMON. and mo getting his own storyline for the movie was incredible. very hard to watch at times, but WOW perry is such an amazing boyfriend and i’m so happy for them and amirah and august they’re so sweet together

oh, and the SETTINGS!! this was such a gorgeous movie all around. the bright, spacious mall. outdoors at night with lights and merry people milling about. the familiar clarke homestead. even the brief glimpse we got of sprq point (with the matching sweaters!!) was beautiful and it was so so nice to see it again. they definitely captured a great holiday-friendly vibe here and it surpassed my expectations for sure!! this made their world feel a little... i don’t know... BIGGER. lots of fun pretty settings and the gorgeous overhead shot of san fran like THANK YOU

the lines about “sweet caroline” being a Not Good song (thank youuu mo), cats eating at the dinner table (cried laughing because this is literally my grandma i shit you not), and big league chew (if ya know ya know. david had some real zingers this time around)

the not so good

soooo. of course they can only fit so much in a couple hours, but i can’t deny that i kind of felt the absence of the coders and SIMON for most of the movie. understandably this was a clarkes-centered movie (as it should be), and understandably max will be hanging with the clarkes now (which i suppose he would be even if he and zoey were still just best friends, but i honestly can’t remember if it was mentioned on the show that he spends holidays with zoey’s family or if i read/wrote it in a fic somewhere. oh well) though it does beg the question, what about visiting his family back in new york for the holidays? not for christmas, obviously, but i was still kinda surprised we didn’t even get a mention of the richmans (?)

but anyway. god i just love simon so much and i should’ve put this up in the good section but i ADORED every second he was on screen. he knows zoey so so well and is such a wonderful friend to her and god i love him. plus, the fact that he got zoey a replacement snow globe when the old one broke and he didn’t even know it broke? AHHHH. but yeah i still wish we had more of him, though i deeply appreciate every second of him we did get.

the only debatably “weak” song, if i had to pick one, would be “call me maybe.” though it was a very amusing surprise and of course still had a gorgeous backdrop so i wasn’t mad about it. it was both interesting and frustrating to see max and zoey’s different takes on how to handle the heart song.

and on that note i might as well dive into the whole explanation for max getting the powers in the first place. (also i’m sorry but i kind of found it funny that he’s already lost them again? the timeline for this show is all kinds of wack but when all was said and done he only had them for like 2-3 weeks right? and side note: it’s been 1.5 years since zoey got her powers, i think they said? and mitch died in march 2021? idk i guess it could line up but hmmm)

so. max and the powers. the scene where he and zoey come to a conclusion about it was very sweet, and “time after time” wasn’t half as cringey as i anticipated it to be. but, like... i’d hope that max could be a good enough partner to zoey that he wouldn’t NEED to get the powers to in order to support her? i guess for him it WAS necessary to understand what she sees/how she feels in order to be a good partner for her? i don’t think it would necessarily be that way for everybody, though, so i’m a little skeptical of the logic there. but again, this movie didn’t shy away from showing their imperfections and having them make mistakes, so hey, max is only human. i’m just the person who wrote 70k+ words of fanfic about zoey and max only to end up not being that big of a fan of them anymore. but yeah, fine, they’re cute.

(oh and i cannot believe they actually had leif say “clarkeman” whyyy)

#zoey's extraordinary playlist #zoey's extraordinary christmas #barely proofread this so it's probably barely coherent

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droughtofapathy · 9 months

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top ten sondheim songs in your opinion (can be in any order)

Anon, I hope you know that asking me this is the equivalent of asking a mother to pick her favorite kid. Yeah, sure okay, she has a favorite, but making her admit it is like pulling teeth. So. I've compiled two lists for you: one of my personal top ten, and one of the objective top ten I think should/could be considered the best. I'm also going to be indicating my preferred renditions of these songs, because that plays a major factor into things. Also, because I'm incapable of being concise, you're also getting a brief explanation on at least my top ten, so...enjoy. Or, my condolences, I guess. You had no idea the can of worms you were opening.

My Personal Top Ten: (in no particular order, and only at this specific point in my life right now this second)

1. The Ladies in Red segment of the Sondheim 80th Birthday Celebration concert (2010): "The Ladies Who Lunch," (Company) - Patti LuPone* "Losing My Mind," (Follies) - Marin Mazzie* "The Glamorous Life," (A Little Night Music) - Audra McDonald "Could I Leave You?" (Follies) - Donna Murphy* "Not a Day Goes By," (Merrily We Roll Along) - Bernadette Peters "I'm Still Here," (Follies) - Elaine Stritch* Right off the bat, I'm cheating. Four (*) of my top ten are just from this segment of the concert so I'm squeezing them all into one so I can include more songs. Quick rundown of why: self-explanatory, c'mon. Donna's "Could I Leave You?" is my number one Sondheim, hand's down.

2. "The Girls of Summer," (The Girls of Summer) - Gabrielle Stravelli Sondheim Unplugged is a monthly cabaret series at 54 Below, and I go to every show. It's really opened my eyes to some of these hidden gems. It's just a fun little number.

3. "What More Do I Need?" (Saturday Night) - Kelli O'Hara (90th Birthday Concert) The song that finally made me decide that I was in love with Kelli O'Hara and sopranos were actually breathtaking people who deserved my adoration. (Still an alto lover at heart though)

4. "We're Gonna Be All Right," (Do I Hear a Waltz?) - Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley Naughtiest couple on Broadway sing a naughty duet. Truly, what more could I ask for? I love a bitingly antagonistic song.

5. "There's Always A Woman," (Anyone Can Whistle) - Jan Maxwell & Victoria Clark And speaking of bitingly antagonistic. This is a song where two Divas get to be catty bitches to an absurd degree, and I cannot get enough of it. I also deeply love and miss Jan Maxwell. And where else are you going to get Jan Maxwell calling Vicki Clark a whore? Incredible.

6. "The Madame Song," (The Seven Per-Cent Solution) - Bebe Neuwirth Clever wordplay, sexy brothel madame, wink-wink nudge-nudge raunchy. Sung by my beloved Bebe Neuwirth. Obviously a winner.

7. "The Story of Lucy and Jessie," (Follies) - Jan Maxwell Follies is my favorite Sondheim show, and Phyllis Rogers Stone is my favorite Sondheim character. And while Donna Murphy is my favorite Phyllis, I go to Jan Maxwell for this song. She was just so sublime. The song itself is clever, cutting, and choreographed wonderfully every time.

8. "Take Me to the World," (Evening Primrose) - Soara-Joye Ross The actual movie this is from is so fucking weird, and if it were Charmaine Carr's version, I wouldn't look twice at it. But I had the pleasure of hearing Soara-Joye Ross sing this song at the first Sondheim Unplugged show two days after his death. And it was just...wow.

9. "The Miller's Son," (A Little Night Music) - Elizabeth Stanley It has everything I love in a Sondheim. Clever lyrics, brutal pacing, and the danger of tripping up even the best cabaret performer. When you're cocky, that's when Sondheim gets you. Elizabeth Stanley has only ever been attractive to me in this specific video.

10. Being Alive," (Company) - hear me out. Hear me out. Marquee Five (ft. Sierra Rein) Okay, okay, I know, obscure choice here. However. Up until I heard this rendition, I did not really care about this song. Any male version went in one ear and out the other. If you couldn't tell by my list, I am almost exclusively dedicated to older broads. And yes, Patti has a fantastic rendition, and so do lots of other women. But this one with its harmonies and its alto lead singer does it for me like no one else.

Objective Top Ten Sondheim Songs: (order arbitrary, rendition my preference)

1. "A Weekend in the Country," (A Little Night Music) - the Rebecca Luker one 2. "Getting Married Today," (Company) - Madeline Kahn (alt. Katie Finneran) 3. "Could I Leave You?" (Follies) - Donna Murphy 4. "Being Alive," (Company) - Marquee Five 5. "Losing My Mind," (Follies) - Marin Mazzie 6. "Someone in a Tree," (Pacific Overtures) - 90th Birthday Concert 7. "A Little Priest," (Sweeney Todd) - 80th Birthday Concert, but most renditions are fantastic. 8. "Finishing the Hat," (Sunday in the Park with George) - Mandy Patinkin 9. "Sunday," (Sunday in the Park with George) - Marquee Five, but any version is transcendent. 10. "Loving You," (Passion) - Donna Murphy If you're somehow not sick of me yet, ask me to give a no-commentary top 100, ranked in order, then we'll really have fun.

#sondheim #musical theatre #look i made a hat

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broadwaydivastournament · 5 months

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Puppies and kittens and adoption, oh my!

Or, Bebe, Bernadette, and their lifelong commitment to animal welfare.

VOTE HERE: Bebe Neuwirth vs. Bernadette Peters

In 1995, founders Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters began what would become an annual event to promote animal adoption in the Broadway community. Broadway Barks brings some two-hundred adoptable dogs and cats to this star-studded event each summer in the hopes of finding them a forever home. Since it began, this event and the organization at large has placed thousands of pets (both young and old) with loving families.

As Broadway's foremost cat lady, Bebe has been a staple of these events. Owing to her involvement, Gotham Coffee Roasters (owned by Chris Calkins, Bebe Neuwirth's husband) has an offshoot company called Little Cat Coffee? 100% of the profits go towards animal shelters and rescues, and they frequently collaborate with Broadway Barks.

Produced by BC/EFA, Broadway Barks has seen many a Diva cross the stage with a heart-meltingly adorable animal in tow. Most recently, Bernadette has brought her beloved event overseas to the first ever West End event entitled "West End Woofs."

As staples of the Broadway community, Bebe and Bernadette are inextricably intertwined by more than just dog leashes and balls of yarn. These two curly-haired Divas may not have a shared show, but they've done more than a few collaborations, including the "New York, New York" single recording in the wake of 9/11, and many a Joel Grey birthday.

Recently, arranged in a super secret group chat consisting of Bebe, Bernadette, and Donna Murphy (and how do I get on that chain?), the three Divas cooked up a surprise event in Times Square for Joel Grey's 90th. And these photos are truly some of the greatest gifts we've ever been given.

I had a dream about this trio directly after this happened, but now is not the time to elaborate.

#bebe neuwirth #bernadette peters #with special appearances by donna murphy (my beloved) angela lansbury joel grey and betty buckley

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fieryphrazes · 3 years

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Top 5 musicals 🙇🏽‍♀️

Oooh 👼🏻

1. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812… my absolute beloved… I’m usually not one for schadenfreude but I confess I have been reading pans of Dear Evan Hansen with glee. DAVE MALLOY WAS ROBBED JUSTICE FOR THE GREAT COMET

2. Les Mis… a classic for a reason… is it possible to not love your mom’s favorite musical? I think no. It’s perfect transcendent incredible showstopping every time. To love another person is to see the face of god baby!!!

3. Jesus Christ Superstar… also known as “Lent music” in my house growing up. One of the only ALW shows I can stand (honorable mention to Evita, a problematic fav) and one of the only shows that I have actual Ideas for a production that I’m convinced would really work

4. Sunday in the Park with George… look I’m not REALLY a Sondheim snob, I’m not well-educated enough for that. But I love this show and I love impressionism and I love how fucking weird it gets in the second act and I LOVE MANDY PATINKIN AND BERNADETTE PETERS…

5. Company. THE musical. Simply what more can be said? Everything I watch reminds me of Company, because Company contains the seeds of all good storytelling and characterization.

And I realize these are all post-1970 BUT I want to give classic musical theater a major shoutout, because classic is NOT the same thing as boring, Rodgers and Hammerstein really went off, so did Lerner and Lowe not to mention Hart, and Oklahoma! always fucked you guys just weren’t paying attention

#thank u my love I love to talk about musicals as you know

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Ranking Cinderella Adaptations

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A dream is a wish your heart makes, and if your wish is to see countless takes on the beloved fairy tale of Cinderella, then consider your dreams having come true many times over—including this year, with a new Cinderella by way of Amazon Studios. This latest adaptation seems to have combined qualities of many of its predecessors: it’s playfully anachronistic and eschews the traditional Disney or Rodgers & Hammerstein songs in favor of a tracklist of modern pop covers; it also engages with Cinderella’s career aspirations beyond fitting her foot into a glass slipper.

But this Cinderella owes everything to the other soot-stained girls, animated and otherwise, who wished with all their hearts for decades before her. How does the new adaptation compare to the modern fairy tales, animated classics, and another fairy tale riff with an outstanding Stephen Sondheim tune? Check out our ranking of Cinderella adaptations, from worst to best.

10. A Cinderella Story (2004)

This cult classic is a clever retelling, with peak early-aughts casting of Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray as the star-crossed, Cyrano de Bergerac-inspired lovers: Sam toils away at her late father’s Southern California diner, under the heel of a delightful Jennifer Coolidge as her vain stepmother, while Austin is the closest thing to high school royalty as the quarterback with a sensitive side. Regina King as the longtime diner employee-turned-metaphorical fairy godmother who gets Sam to the homecoming masquerade dance is the other key bit of casting, but you’d have to really be a fan of the “fairy tales in high school” subgenre to get on board. Plus, the stable of derivative direct-to-video sequels makes the sparkle wear off with each new, formulaic installment released.

9. Cinderella (2021)

Kay Cannon’s (Pitch Perfect) progressive plot urging entrepreneurial dressmaker Ella (Camilla Cabello), her bitterly materialistic stepmother (Idina Menzel), and other original female characters to choose themselves over the supposed security of marriage is not quite enough to balance the cringey modern soundtrack and anachronistic witticisms. It’s too bad, because this Cinderella puts forth ambitious ideas, and any production with Billy Porter as the fairy godmother should be nothing but fabulous. Compared to most of her predecessors, this Cinderella is a distinctively fresh role model for the next generation of kids, but adults won’t find much magic in her story.

8. Ella Enchanted (2004)

This is a tough one, because the source material—that is, Gail Carson Levine’s 1997 middle grade novel—is unquestionably one of the very best Cinderella adaptations: Ella’s curse of obedience is an apt commentary on manipulating young girls into giving up their agency under the guise of people-pleasing. But the film—despite its adorable, baby-faced stars Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy—overcomplicates an already daring plot with a throne-stealing subplot (that Cary Elwes, as the unnecessary evil uncle, can’t save) and an unforgivably cheesy cover of Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” Hathaway’s voice is sweeter than Nicholas Galitzine’s rendition in the new Cinderella, but the giants dressed in early-aughts miniskirts strain even the most loose definitions of fantasy. Despite all that, it (mostly) sells Ella struggling against abuses of her obedience in a way that’s still more revelatory than many straight adaptations. Still, you’ve got plenty of better movie choices; forget this adaptation and just read the book.

7. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1965)

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II originally wrote their classic musical for television broadcast instead of the stage, though it has found its way to the latter. CBS’ second TV production (following the original 1957 version starring Julie Andrews) introduced a bright-eyed Lesley Ann Warren (a.k.a. Miss Scarlet from Clue) as Cinderella, and unlike its predecessor was able to be recorded in color. Between the vivid hues, Warren’s expressive acting, and the array of sets, it all contributed to the feeling of watching a taped performance—an incredibly charming one, at that. But the effect does come off as overwrought at times, making it the lowest of the three specifically Rodgers & Hammerstein adaptations on the list.

6. Cinderella (2015)

While visually Kenneth Branagh’s live-action adaptation of the animated Disney classic hews so closely to its source material that it feels like a lost opportunity to be more original, there are some sly plot tweaks. Lily James’ Ella is not hopelessly naïve about her abusive home situation, yet manages to keep up the mantra of “have courage and be kind” through even the worst mistreatment. Streamlining the classic songs to score strengthens the plot, with Ella’s rare occasion of singing being what ultimately saves her. Fans of the blue dress and romantic vibe will have much to swoon over, even if they’re not surprised.

5. Into the Woods (2014)

Or, then, what if I am? / What a Prince would envision? / But then how can you know / Who you are til you know / What you want? Which I don’t… Anna Kendrick brings us a relatably existential Cinderella in this movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical about various fairy tale characters who wind up with questionably happy ever afters—including Cinderella, who decides “not to decide,” then ends up with a philandering Prince. It’s not a complete Cinderella story, but it’s a more memorable performance in a handful of scenes than entire movies have attempted.

4. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1957)

Despite only surviving in black-and-white form, CBS’ original TV broadcast shines thanks to its star: Julie Andrews, then performing My Fair Lady on Broadway, who makes this Cinderella both an amalgamation of her then-current and future roles and a performance all its own. You can see glimmers of her comic talents as Maria in The Sound of Music—this Cinderella also has more wit than other versions—but it’s her voice that elevates Rodgers & Hammerstein’s adaptation of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale into something timeless.

3. Cinderella (1950)

Few Cinderella adaptations have achieved the same sweeping sense of sheer romance in the Disney animated classic: the painted backgrounds, the dreamy sequences reflected in soap bubbles and sparkling through the palace gardens, the surprisingly high emotional stakes that make the resolution all the sweeter. And while it’s become a common Disney trope, the requisite scene in which the stepsisters cruelly rip apart Cinderella’s dress adds a layer of wickedness not present in the Rodgers & Hammerstein adaptations, nor successfully recreated in any of the live-action versions. The same goes for the goofy mice singing “Cinderelly, Cinderelly”—every subsequent CGI mouse lacks the warmth that goes into a believable animal companion. That said, the animated movie’s legacy is somewhat marred by its direct-to-video sequels of diminishing returns, though you also have to give them props for pulling an Avengers: Endgame 12 years earlier with Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time.

2. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997)

For many of us, Disney’s animated Cinderella was a childhood classic, but The Wonderful World of Disney’s ‘90s production was the first time the story truly felt magical. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s songs were updated with contemporary beats, bridging the forty years between the first broadcast and this version: “Impossible” is one of the best songs from the show, but it hasn’t been truly sung until Whitney Houston is belting it out to a starry-eyed Brandy. The production’s effortlessly diverse casting—Whoopi Goldberg as the queen, Paolo Montalban as the prince, Bernadette Peters as the stepmother—only amplifies the universal nature of the story. Almost twenty-five years later, this adaptation still feels like the television event it was when it premiered.

1. Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)

A truly successful adaptation is one that doesn’t have to feel beholden to its source material. By opening with the Brothers Grimm explaining the inspiration behind their own interpretation of Cinderella, Ever After rewrites all of the familiar themes into a historical fiction—specifically, Renaissance-era France—context. Danielle’s (Drew Barrymore) misfortune as an orphan servant girl is so believable thanks to the cruelty of her stepmother’s (Anjelica Huston, a legend) abuse, but so is her determination and ingenuity to rise above her station. While Disney’s animated Cinderella is romantic, Ever After is a romance: Danielle disguises herself as a comtesse in order to spend time with Prince Henry (Dougray Scott), and they develop an actual relationship, complete with rejection once her subterfuge is revealed. Plus, Leonardo da Vinci is there for comic relief and an unintentional fairy godmother assist! If you want your Cinderella story with a compelling feminist arc but you’re also burnt out on the songs, this is your happily ever after.

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Cinderella will begin streaming on Amazon Video on September 3rd.

The post Ranking Cinderella Adaptations appeared first on Den of Geek.

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