Perhaps Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most seen but least performed musical, Cinderella was written for and played on television, for only one, non-taped time, on March 31, 1957, resulting in the largest TV audience in history up to that time. The typically lovely music and affecting lyrics softened some of the harder aspects of the fairy tale, and Julie Andrews (then a new Broadway star appearing in My Fair Lady) gave a wonderful performance in the title role. This recording features the TV cast and was made a couple of weeks before the broadcast. The score features memorable songs such as “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful.” The work was so successful that it was mounted again in 1964 with Lesley Ann Warren and in 1997 with Brandy. But neither surpassed Andrews. The 1999 CD reissue adds four bonus tracks drawn from promotional records sent out to radio stations in advance of the broadcast: Richard Rodgers plays piano versions of “Mother and Daughter March” and “Waltz for a Ball,” and conducts an orchestra accompanying Andrews on “In My Own Little Corner” and “A Lovely Night.” – William Ruhlmann