It’s Possible: How Brandy’s Cinderella gave us all something to sing about

Today Disney+ released the 1997 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. After 24 years (yes, that made me feel old too), the film still holds up as a beautiful rendition of a classic tale and a powerful example of how inclusionary casting makes good art.

I was six years old the first time I saw a stunning princess with dark skin and long braids floating across the ballroom in the arms of a handsome prince. Brandy Norwood played Cinderella, glowing in perfect lighting and styled to perfection. Paolo Montalbán, a Filipino-American actor, played Prince Christopher — with a jawline you could cut your hand on and shoulders so broad, you’d fall just so he could catch you. The moment he started singing, Paolo became my first non-cartoon crush (Prince Eric, move aside!).

While some folks likely argued that interracial casting would distract from the story, six-year-old me was too busy ooing and aahhing at sparkly ball gowns while someone who looked familiar to me fell in love. Dancing across the living room floor during Cinderella’s Waltz, I was wholly unconcerned with the supposed historical accuracy of fairy tales.

When Whitney Houston executive produced the film, she knew she was trail-blazing. In an interview during production she described it as “a rainbow cast” and acknowledged that “we were doing something new here.” She never called it “race-blind” casting, because erasure was never her goal. She called it rainbow…