This is a reference to Queen Charlotte, played wonderfully in a greatly enhanced role by Golda Rosheuvel. Look at everything it is doing for us, allowing us to become.” But I wasn’t sure if the show would address the issue head on until I watched the fourth episode, where Lady Danbury says, “We were two separate societies divided by color until a king fell in love with one of us. There is clearly still racism and oppression in this world part of the plot hinges on the old Duke of Hastings’ desire to continue his line and maintain their place in society. However, the discussion of race is slightly different than in Cinderella, mainly because there is one. Lady Danbury and the Duke of Hastings in BridgertonĪs a fan of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series of romance novels, I’ve really enjoyed the Netflix adaptation, and I think the casting decisions are definitely a strength of it. And another show now streaming owes it a debt as well: Shondaland’s Bridgerton, which cast black actors as members of Regency England aristocracy. We will soon be seeing another black Disney princess, with Halle Bailey cast as Ariel in the upcoming live action remake of The Little Mermaid. And of course, the representation for BIPOC was hugely important to a generation of little girls who could finally see themselves as a Disney princess, or in a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. It is such a satisfying take on the Cinderella tale that I included it in my Top 5 Versions of Cinderella. This Cinderella succeeds on so many levels: it’s fun and funny and beautiful to look at, with songs that hit perfect emotional beats. However, the fantasy nature of the story makes it particularly easy to skim over this and suspend our disbelief. No mention of race is ever made, almost to the point of illogicality, as you can see women of many races trying on Cinderella’s glass slipper, which had clearly been originally worn by a black woman. Cinderella’s stepfamily also has black and white members. The producers wanted to use a “color-blind casting” approach, resulting in a black Cinderella (Brandy) and Fairy Godmother (Houston) as well as a Filipino prince (Paolo Montalban) with a black mother (Whoopi Goldberg) and a white father (Victor Garber). Whitney Houston had been wanting to do a diverse take on Cinderella, and it finally coalesced as part of the re-launch of ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney in the fall of 1997. The story behind Cinderella is quite interesting, and you can read more about it in Kendra James’s 2017 oral history for Shondaland. #Cinderella1997 /IyimkaOWBe- Disney+ February 4, 2021 Anything is ✨possible✨ Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella arrives February 12 to #DisneyPlus.
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