Composer Richard Rodgers and Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, best known as Rodgers and Hammerstein, brought many iconic musicals to audiences in the middle of last century. Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I and The Sound of Music are just a few of their classics which have seen continued success on Broadway and through tours across the world. Given my family history in the performing arts, their works are the ones I grew up with, and have a nostalgic affinity to.
Opera Australia and the Gordon Frost Organisation have teamed up on many R&H tours across Australia including The King and I and South Pacific; in addition to a range of other collaborations including the upcoming The Secret Garden, My Fair Lady and Anything Goes. Early this morning it was confirmed that the producers will be pairing up again for an upcoming tour of Cinderella.
Specifics around dates, venues and castings are all up in the air, but expect to hear more in the coming months.
Above: Preview of the original 2013 Broadway company of Cinderella
About Cinderella
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is the Tony Award-winning musical from the creators of The Sound of Music, Carousel and Oklahoma which has delighted audiences with its surprisingly contemporary take on the classic tale. This lush production features an incredible orchestra, jaw-dropping transformations and all the moments you love – the pumpkin, the glass slipper, the masked ball and more, plus some surprising new twists. Be transported back to your childhood as you rediscover some of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most beloved songs including In My Own Little Corner, Impossible/It’s Possible and Ten Minutes Ago in this hilarious and romantic experience for anyone who’s ever had a dream.
Based on the fairytale story of Cinderella, this is the only collaboration by Rodgers and Hammerstein written for television. Cinderella aired on 31 March 1957 on CBS. More than 100 million viewers saw the broadcast, more people than any other program in the history of television at the time, and Julie Andrews was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance as Cinderella. Cinderella was re-made for television in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren in the title role, Ginger Rogers and Walter Pidgeon as the King and Queen, and Celeste Holm as the Fairy Godmother. A further television remake followed in 1997 with Brandy as Cinderella, Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, Bernadette Peters as the Stepmother, Whoopi Goldberg as the Queen and Jason Alexander as Lionel. The stage version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella debuted on Broadway for the first time in January 2013, featuring a new book by Douglas Carter Beane and direction by Mark Brokaw, and ran for two years.
