Opera Australia and John Frost have announced that they are collaborating again to stage Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Cinderella, having previously staged the legendary duo’s musicals The King And I and South Pacific. It will be the first time that the show has been staged professionally in Australia.

Cinderella is the only musical that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote for television, creating it as a vehicle for Julie Andrews. It aired on CBS on March 31, 1957 and was viewed by more than 100 million people. It was subsequently remade for television in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren in the title role, with Ginger Rogers and Walter Pidgeon as the King and Queen, and again in 1997 with Brandy as Cinderella, Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, Bernadette Peters as the Stepmother, Whoopi Goldberg as the Queen, and Jason Alexander as Lionel.

Santino Fontana and Laura Osnes as the Prince and Cinderella in the 2013 Broadway production. Photograph © Carol Rosegg

The musical has been adapted for the stage in various iterations, including a pantomime version in London’s West End and a New York Opera production that closely followed the original television version. Opera Australia...