Brandy, Whoopi Goldberg and the cast of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella reunite

They starred on Disney’s racially diverse remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella from 1997.

And now Brandy, Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters and other stars of the ABC television movie have reunited virtually to remember working on the ground-breaking production.

The cast, which also included Jason Alexander, Victor Garber, Veanne Cox and Paolo Montalban for the conversation which was moderated by Entertainment Weekly.

The reunion was in honor of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella arriving on the Disney+ streaming service just after midnight on Friday, November 12.

Brandy (full name: Brandy Norwood) called the movie a ‘game changer,’ even though it hasn’t been available to stream in recent years and appears to be out of print on physical media, though copies of the DVD and older VHS tapes can still be found online.

‘It was a game changer, like it was just so different, and it just gave everyone an opportunity to just play these iconic characters, and see it in a different way. It was just so magical,’ she gushed.

Her costar Goldberg, who played Queen Constantina, added that ‘a lot of this came from the heart and soul of Whitney [Houston]. I know that a lot of what you’re seeing is what she wanted.’ 

The late singer, who died in 2012 at age 48, starred as Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother while also producing the film. 

Peters, who was simply credited as Stepmother in the movie, was honored to have been part of the ‘multicultural’ film years before Hollywood had recognized films starring Black actors as a major commercial force. 

‘It was an honor to be part of something so wonderful back then, and even now, and it was multicultural, and it was just so wonderful that children were watching it could just enjoy it and all the different kinds of people that were in it, and not even question it,’ she said.

Cox jumped in to recall how often fans shared their love for the musical with her. 

‘There are very few weeks that go by, even now after how many years — 25, where somebody does not come up to me and say how much it meant to them, and how much it changed their lives, and how much it started their lives,’ she remembered.

Alexander agreed, adding, ‘It does come up when you meet people often, and they talk about this particular Cinderella, and they claim it, and they go “Brandy was my Cinderella.”‘ 

Montalban, who starred opposite Brandy as Prince Christopher, concurred that the singer was the right person for the role.

He remembered how assured she looked in the scene where she makes her grand entrance into his family’s palace.

‘When Brandy came out in her Cinderella dress, no acting required, and actually I had to take maybe 10 extra breaths because she was so stunning at the top of the staircase,’ he revealed. 

‘And they probably took the first take because I just recently saw that portion of it and was like this man is not breathing because he’s seen the love of his life appear at the top of the steps.’

Montalban didn’t have any trouble playing the part, as he’d already played the prince in a high school production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical.  

The ABC version of Cinderella was originally intended to star Houston in the title role, but she felt she had aged out of the part by the time it was finally greenlit.

Instead, she sought out Brandy for the role. 

The TV movie was met with mixed reviews, but it became ABC’s most-watched musical in decades with the network’s highest Sunday ratings in 10 years, with an astounding 60 million people tuning in to watch.