The musical was written for television, and broadcast live the year Mr. Lester was born and was seen by 100 million viewers:

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I have a very vague memory of this…

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This version was choreographed by Rob Marshall (in 1997), who went on to direct Chicago (2002)

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An indication of how old I am, I frequently don’t know who the performers are I see on the covers of magazines…and I had to look up who these two are, but good on them for waking in the wee hours to perform live on the Today Show!

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Now, hands down the best version of this production I ever saw was at Hollywood High, sometime in the 1980s starring Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows as the King and Queen and a pair of soap stars as Cinderella and the Prince. The audience was full of enchanted children, and at intermission, when we went into the lobby we witnessed the following:

A little boy, giddy with the spectacle, swooping and singing—simply joyous…

LITTLE BOY: I wanna be Cinderella! Cinderella! Cinderella!

LITTLE BOY’S MOTHER: Don’t you mean you want to be the Prince?

LITTLE BOY: No! I wanna be Cinderella!

To which we say, may your dreams come true and good night.