commorancy
While I would like to rate the actual telecast higher, I never got to see it live and I still haven't seen the actual telecast. In fact, no one may ever see the actual production again. The March 31st, 1957 telecast was live and may or may not have been recorded. A little bit of historySo, you're probably thinking, "Well, what about the kinescope copy?" This copy was not of the live March 31, 1957 production. I'll quote from the 1999 release of the CD liner notes written by Dider C. Deutsch:"By all accounts, the production of the telecast was not unlike a highwire act from the start; as Richard Lewine acknowledged in a recent interview, 'There was no room for error. Remember that everything was live then, and when we got on the air ... there was no possibility for a retake.... I suggested to my boss, Hubbell Robinson, that we should make a kinescope of the production, not for broadcast mind you, just to see what it looked like before we went on the air. He said, ''Do what you think is right, and if you have a problem let me know.... '' So, on March 17 we had a sort of preview in front of a small invited audience at CBS Color Studio 72, at 81st Street and Broadway, which is where the show was to be done.'The values of the full scale rehearsal were obvious. As Richard Lewine remarked, 'We made notes, we saw all kinds of things we wanted to change, in short there was our chance to do it the way wanted to do it.... For example, Dick (Rodgers) didn't like the way the designer had done the dress for Cinderella in the opening scene; it was a makeshift poor girl dress, he went on the stage and looked at it and said, ''This is a piece of junk...'' And he tore a piece off it...' (it was too fancy).Overall, the rehearsal might have added an estimated $20,000 to the production's budget of $350,000, but it helped make a sleek presentation that was far superior to anything that had been done on television." -- Dider C. DeutschBased on these notes above, the kinescope version was not of the actual March 31, 1957 telecast, but of the March 17, 1957 full-scale preview rehearsal. It makes no mention of a kinescope copy of the actual production. In short, there does not presently appear to exist a copy of the live telecast production in any form that I am aware of. The only version we have is of the full-scale dress rehearsal from March 17th. This is a fine point to consider when writing a review for this production. Since the kinescope version doesn't depict the live telecast performance, the final production may have had better production values than what we see in the kinescope copy as they had nearly two weeks to polish the production with better costuming, sets, lighting and practice.Note that 1956 saw the introduction of the color Quadruplex (quadrature scanning) tape recorders using Ampex tape. By 1957, NBC had such a recorder in its studio at the time of this telecast. CBS may or may not have had one. Some have theorized that NBC may have (or had), in its archives somewhere, a quadrature tape copy of this production in color that it taped on the night of the performance. CBS may have also had a color copy for rebroadcast purposes, but some theorize the tape was bulk wiped a week after presentation. I'm still hopeful that someone will find a quadrature tape of this color production in their archives and finally release the actual March 31st color presentation.Review of this productionWhat I will say about the surviving kinescope copy is that this version of Cinderella is charming and unique. Clearly, Julie Andrews pulls off her version of Cinderella perfectly. Her upbeat sweetness translates well to this classic version of Cinderella. The production does lack in-camera effects. Edie Adams plays the godmother in an almost sadistic way. It's like she enjoys trying to make Cinderella completely unhappy before granting her wish. Cinderella doesn't comply, though. She just wishes harder. More than this, the godmother compounds her sadistic streak with her odd cackling laugh right before she does something good. It's a weird combination. The rest of the cast pulls off their parts amazingly well, including Robert Penn, the town crier with his booming baritone voice.The R&H numbers work amazingly well across the board with the many strong vocalists chosen. In fact, this really is a televised stage production. CBS could have turned around and placed this right onto a Broadway stage immediately following the broadcast and milked a stage production in 1957. Unfortunately, there was apparently a lack of foresight for cross-marketing in 1957.The downside is that what we are seeing in the kinescope copy is not the actual production. It's a rehearsal. So, it's likely the sets and costumes may not have been fully completed. The actors may not have fully had their lines down yet. So, it appears to be rough in places. Overall, I enjoyed it enough to purchase the music in stereo which is well worth a listen.
movibuf1962
I'm gonna piggy-back right along with the previous comments. I just saw it on Maryland Public Television and it was a real event for me. I know both of the remakes, the Disney cartoon, the Prokofiev ballet, and the film EVER AFTER. But I'm a vintage T.V. junkie at heart, and more than anything else, this production was a phenomenal advancement in TV entertainment. Differing from the broadcast adaptation of the Broadway musical PETER PAN- and as Julie Andrews herself mentions in the opening monologue- this production was originally written for television by Rodgers & Hammerstein themselves. And it is the quirky, tongue-in-cheek script which is one of the show's delights. The biggest delight by far, is the fact that this was a LIVE performance, shown warts and all- like a boom mike shadow on a draping wall or a missed song cue in the second act. This performance occurred roughly six months ahead of the first ever videotaped images. No CGI or ILM movie effects here. Once you fully understand that, you can suspend yourself completely into a more innocent and wondrous frame of mind and let the performances and especially the music speak for themselves. A cleaned up, remastered kinescope film, you'll notice the unusually high contrast in some of the darker images and nighttime sequences. But the "Impossible" Act 1 finale with Andrews and gorgeous fairy godmother Edie Adams is still a stellar moment, from the sparkler lighting effects to the final shot inside the moving coach. And it is nice to see so many surviving cast members (Kaye Ballard, Edie Adams, and Jon Cypher) comment on this 47-year-old production. I loved it!!
r-meier
Just saw this b&w copy on KET2 (Kentucky Educational Television). What a treat! Julie Andrews' voice was marvelous (though I didn't think she quite captured the innocence of Cinderella, even at 21). Edie Adams really hammed it up as the fairy godmother -- she was terrific! And it was fun seeing familiar character actors such as Jon Cypher and Alice Ghostley in their earlier days. The version I saw broke in periodically for current-day commentary by Julie Andrews, Jon Cypher, Kaye Ballard, etc. It was fascinating that they did it in real time, with costume changes just barely beating the camera!If you get a chance to see this, go for it! It's a national treasure, even if the old Cinderella story is not your cup of tea.
