--- title: Julie Andrews as Cinderella: Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1957 TV Special description: Julie Andrews played a "slightly sophisticated, uncindery Cinderella" in the televised musical, seen by more than 100 million viewers. canonical: https://time.com/3732139/cinderella-1957/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-12T12:00:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:14.061Z og:title: See the Cinderella Whose Performance Reached 100 Million Viewers in 1957 og:description: Julie Andrews played a "slightly sophisticated, uncindery Cinderella" in the televised musical, seen by more than 100 million viewers. og:url: https://time.com/3732139/cinderella-1957/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa2671311dc0fbd7/6987821c428a9e2d85cc770f/150304-cinderella-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cinderella 1957 with Julie Andrews og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See the Cinderella Whose Performance Reached 100 Million Viewers in 1957 twitter:description: Julie Andrews played a "slightly sophisticated, uncindery Cinderella" in the televised musical, seen by more than 100 million viewers. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa2671311dc0fbd7/6987821c428a9e2d85cc770f/150304-cinderella-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the Cinderella Whose Performance Reached 100 Million Viewers in 1957  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 12, 2015 12:00 PM CUT  Julie Andrews as Cinderella, 1957. Julie Andrews as Cinderella, 1957.Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 12, 2015 12:00 PM CUT Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of _Cinderella_, which hits theaters on Friday, has a big glass slipper—or several, really—to fill. The movie is the umpteenth in more than a century’s worth of film renditions of the classic fairy tale, some of them forgettable but others, like Disney’s 1950 animation, simply timeless. Those who were tuned in to CBS on the evening of March 31, 1957, might find it difficult to refrain from comparing Branagh’s star, Lily James, to her most famous predecessor (at least in three dimensions): Julie Andrews. Andrews played the title role in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s TV adaptation, the only musical the pair ever wrote for television. Seen by more than 100 million people that night—mostly in black and white but in color for the small percentage of viewers with color receivers—Rodgers and Hammerstein’s _Cinderella_ served as a vehicle for Andrews, who was just coming off a stint on Broadway in _My Fair Lady_. Though TV musicals were common during the 1950s, they were mostly adapted from stage musicals. _Cinderella_, on the contrary, skipped the stage and went straight to TV. The 90-minute program, [LIFE wrote](https://books.google.com/books?id=XEoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA150&dq=cinderella&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PVX3VKmLNITFggTf0oKgBQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=cinderella&f=false "undefined"), told “the story of a slightly sophisticated, uncindery Cinderella whose evil stepfolk are clowns and whose magical life is filled with music.” A review in TIME praised Andrews’ performance (she “fitted the heroine’s role as if it were a glass slipper”) and Rodgers’ music (“the hero of the evening”) but panned Hammerstein’s script (“which kept shifting uneasily between the sentimental and the sophisticated, and making each seem lamer than the other”). Andrews received an Emmy nomination for her performance and continued to star onstage and on the small screen until 1964’s _Mary Poppins_ launched her film career. Though her turn in _Cinderella_ earned her an Emmy nomination, she seemed to hold a softer spot in her memory for Eliza Dolittle. For all Cinderella’s continued appeal, _My Fair Lady_, she said in an [interview](http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/printmember/and0int-1 "undefined"), is “the best Cinderella story, really.” _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at_ [_@LizabethRonk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk "undefined")_._  Julie Andrews as Cinderella, 1957. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Julie Andrews and Jon Cypher rehearsing music for the TV production of Cinderella. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. On royal stairway dancers wait for grand waltz while a technician listens for cue to start. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Watching the star, members of the cast gather around a monitor television set, some of their faces beaming satisfaction, others still nervous lest something go wrong in the last few moments of the show. They are listening to Julie Andrews sing A Lovely Night, a musical recapitulation of the royal ball. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A scene from Cinderella. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A scene from Cinderella. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A scene from Cinderella. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Audience of authors, Oscar Hammerstein II (left) and Richard Rodgers, watch the show unfold. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A scene from Cinderella. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. After the show Julie Andrews drinks toast to the rest of the cast from her glass slipper Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3732139/cinderella-1957/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3732139/cinderella-1957/"},"headline":"See the Cinderella Whose Performance Reached 100 Million Viewers in 1957","datePublished":"2015-03-12T12:00:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:14.061Z","description":"Rodgers and Hammerstein's televised Cinderella musical, starring Julie Andrews, was the TV event of the year","url":"https://time.com/3732139/cinderella-1957/","keywords":["Hollywood","photography","LIFE Magazine","Icons","gordon parks"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa2671311dc0fbd7/6987821c428a9e2d85cc770f/150304-cinderella-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa2671311dc0fbd7/6987821c428a9e2d85cc770f/150304-cinderella-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cinderella 1957 with Julie Andrews","caption":"Cinderella 1957 with Julie Andrews","creditText":"Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3732139/cinderella-1957/","name":"See the Cinderella Whose Performance Reached 100 Million Viewers in 1957"}}]}] ```