Glitzy and Glamorous don't always mean better Rented this one once and would not do it again. Brandy is ok at the part, but she can't act. Her singing is more suited to pop, not Rodgers and Hammerstein. Hate the way this production murdered the wonderful R & H songs to give them more of a "pop" flavor. The 3 additional songs that were not in the 1965 production were totally unnecessary (and whatever happened to Lonliness of Evening???) If I recall, Lorenz Hart (who co wrote at least one of these additional songs and who was Richard Rodgers' partner before Oscar Hammerstein was) had NOTHING to do with R & H's Cinderella, be it 1957 (Andrews) or 1965 (Warren), and therefore his music should not have made it into this production.
Bernadette Peters was OK as the stepmother, but she looks WAY too young. The first time I saw this production (on the Disney Channel), I thought that Peters' character was one of the stepsisters, not the stepmother. The costumes and scenes were way overdone and were just plain tacky and ridiculous. The stepmother (Jo Van Fleet) and stepsisters (Pat Carroll and Barbara Rurick) in the 1965 production were just hilarious and they didn't even have to try hard. I just LOVED the "faults" that their mother and the Prince found in them (batting eyes and creeking knees). On the other hand, their counterparts in the 1997 show tried too hard to be mean and funny, and they didn't succeed at all.
The multi racial cast in this production is a nice idea to appeal to a new generation and to appeal to people of all backgrounds, but they could have found better actors and screenplay adapters than this.
If you want something that appeals to all people, go with this version. If you want good acting and good music with real meaning, go with Lesley Ann Warren in the 1965 production.
If an edition of Cinderella ever made it into the Rodgers and Hammerstein boxed set (which also contains Carousel, State Fair, Oklahoma, South Pacific, the King and I, and the Sound of Music), let's hope it's the '65 version.