democratic impulse" that drives him to spend time among the citizens of his country in the hopes of better understanding them. Cinderella and the prince are also shown meeting and developing an interest in each other prior to the ball, lessening the "love at first sight" element at the behest of the producers, by having Cinderella and the prince meet and talk to each other first, an idea that would be reused in subsequent adaptations of the story. Cinderella has a conversation with the prince in which she explains that a woman should always be treated "like a person. With kindness and respect", which some critics identified as the studio's attempt to make the film more feminist. Cinderella was provided with a more empowering motive in that her fairy godmother reminds her that she has always been capable of bettering her own situation; she "just didn't know it" yet. According to Entertainment Weekly contributor Mary Sollosi, none of the script's dialogue requires that any of its cast or characters be white, with the film also lacking references to the races or ethnicities of the characters whatsoever. The Los Angeles Times critic Howard Rosenberg wrote that the prince's inability to recognize that some of the women trying on the glass slipper in his search for Cinderella are white as part of "what makes this "Cinderella" at once a rainbow and color-blind, a fat social message squeezed into a dainty, glass slipper of a fable." Casting Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella was the first time the "Cinderella" story was adapted for a racially diverse cast, having been conceived in this format from inception. The producers hoped that the cast's diversity would enhance the film's "universal appeal" and interest children of all ethnicities. The casting directors recruited performers from various entertainment facets, spanning the Broadway, television, film and music industries. Casting the stepmother proved particularly challenging since most of the white actresses considered for the role felt uneasy about acting cruelly towards a Black Cinderella; Bette Midler was among several actresses who declined. Bernadette Peters was ultimately cast as Cinderella's stepmother, her second villainous role after originating the Witch in the stage musical Into the Woods (1986). Peters' stepmother was adapted into a more comical version than previous incarnations of the character due to the actress' comedic background. Jason Alexander was cast as the prince's valet Lionel, an entirely new character created for comic