Keke Palmer Becomes First Black Actress To Act Cinderella On Broadway

joan

August 5, 2014 4:00 PM

The TV host and actress says she's very excited but nervous to take the role!

Keke Palmer has become the first black actress to play the fairytale princess, Cinderella in a new Rodgers & Hammerstein production which has also been given a sly and witty makeover by famed director Douglas Carter Beane.

The 21 year old TV host and actress describes the opportunity, "It's honestly one of those things that I can't believe is really happening," adding that, "I'm very excited. Very excited and nervous as well – a bunch of feelings all at once," she said when the news broke on Monday.

Palmer will fit into Cinderella's famous glass slippers which also happens to be custom-made by designer Stuart Weitzman and is now preparing to premier in her new role on September 9.

The sparkly shoes was first worn by Tony-nominated Laura Osnes, then put on by "Call Me Maybe" Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen and currently worn by Paige Faure, who launches a national tour in the title role this fall. Meanwhile, songs by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II will hit the film too and they include In My Own Little Corner, 'Impossible/It's Possible and Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?

Palmer, who will be making her professional stage debut, will rely on a host of skills she's developed from film — including Barbershop 2: Back In Business and Akeelah And The Bee — her BET talk show, Just Keke, and on TV in Showtime's Masters Of Sex." but

"Theater offers so much more than I haven't been able to access doing film and TV and everything like that,' she has said of the transition from big screen to big stage. 'I'm very excited to learn all that it has to offer — that focus and that dedication to perform at a certain level every night”.

joan