"Once upon a time" by Richard Rodgers - CBS Cinderella musical | TV Guide, 1965-01-23 Northern California

 

Anything worth doing is worth doing at least twice. That's why I wrote to William Paley, CBS's board chairman, a year ago, suggesting we go to work  on a new version of "Cinderella,' the musical which the late Oscar Hammerstein and I wrote for television in 1957. You'll be able to inspect the results of our labors Feb. 22, in color, on CBS. And you'll be seeing a bright new singing star named Lesley Ann Warren (that's Lesley Ann in the picture with me above). She's just 18, and I think she makes an ideal Cinderella. When you see her, you'll know why. But now let me tell you more about the show. 

We've supplied "Cinderella" with an entirely new book, written by Joseph Schrank, and one new song, "Loneliness of Evening," which, oddly, was composed originally for "South Pacific" and then was not needed for that show. By chance, we found a perfect place for it in "Cinderella." 

By another happy chance, we found our Prince, Stuart Damon, in an off-Broadway revival of "The Boys from Syracuse." Like Lesley Ann, he is making his first major TV appearance. During rehearsals Jo Van Fleet watched him perform and said to me: "This boy comes equipped with talent." He does indeed. The weeks of rehearsals and taping in Hollywood gave me a chance to pursue one of my favorite pastimes—observing actors in their natural habitat. I can report that Celeste Holm diverts herself by crocheting sweaters, Stuart Damon paces and Lesley Ann Warren eats great quantities of peanut brittle. The Cinderella story has always fascinated me because it dramatizes a hope we all have—that the underdog, the ugly duckling, the misfit can, in fact, come out on top. In "Cinderella" the classic boy meets the classic girl in, I hope, a classic TV show. . .