of The American Musical editor Raymond Knapp believes that Brandy's sitcom experience negatively affected her acting, writing that she often overreacts and delivers lines "as if they were punch lines rather than emotionally generated phrases." Theater director Timothy Sheader found the production "harsh and unmagical". In 2007, theatre historian John Kenrick dismissed the film as "a desecration of Rodgers & Hammerstein's only original TV musical" despite its popularity, advising audiences to only watch the previous versions of the musical. In its year-end edition, TV Guide ranked the program the best television special of 1997. The diversity of the cast prompted some members of the media to dub the film "rainbow 'Cinderella'", Laurie Winer of the Los Angeles Times summarized that the film's cast "is not just rainbow, it's over the rainbow", observing that "the black queen (Goldberg) and white king (Victor Garber), for instance, produce a prince played by Filipino Paolo Montalban" while "Cinderella withstands the company of a white stepsister (Veanne Cox) and a black one (Natalie Desselle), both, apparently, birth daughters of the mother played by Bernadette Peters." A writer for Newsweek believed that Brandy's Cinderella falling in love with a non-Black prince reflects "a growing loss of faith in black men by many black women", explaining, "Just as Brandy's Cinderella falls in love with a prince of another color, so have black women begun to date and marry interracially in record numbers." The Sistahs' Rules author Denene Millner was less receptive towards the fact that Brandy's Cinderella falls in love with a non-Black prince, arguing, "When my stepson who's 5 looks at that production, I want him to know he can be somebody's Prince Charming." Awards and nominations The film received several accolades. Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special. At the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1998, the film was also nominated for Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program, Outstanding Choreography, Outstanding Costume Design for a Variety or Music Program, Outstanding Directing for a Variety or Music Program, Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special, and Outstanding Music Direction, ultimately winning one for Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program, which was awarded to Julie Kaye Fanton, Edward L. Rubin and Randy Ser. Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella was the 13th most nominated program at that year's ceremony. The