PBS to Air Vintage "Cinderella" Musical with Julie Andrews

By Andrew Gans
April 27, 2004

PBS plans to air the 1957 television broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" starring Julie Andrews.

Variety reports that PBS, Andrews and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization have joined forces to rebroadcast the classic television musical prior to its release on DVD by Image Entertainment. The search is on for a color copy of the fifties musical; however, if one is not found, it will be distributed in black-and-white.

Andrews will also narrate the upcoming six-part documentary "Broadway: The American Musical." The six-hour program will examine the Broadway musical from the turn-of-the-century to today, including a spotlight on the new Stephen Schwartz musical Wicked. "Great Performances" producers David Horn told the industry paper, "[The documentary] is a social history as well as [a] musical [one]."

Julie Andrews — who was born in Surrey, England — starred on Broadway in the original productions of The Boyfriend, My Fair Lady and Camelot, the stage version of Victor/Victoria, and in the Off Broadway Stephen Sondheim revue, Putting It Together. She won an Academy Award for her work in "Mary Poppins" and Oscar nominations for "The Sound of Music" and "Victor/Victoria."