The Second Stage Theater annual gala recently gifted 1990s babies with an exciting reunion. 

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella stars Brandy and Paolo Montalban both attended the Nov. 15 event honoring television producer Debra Martin Chase and playwright Lynn Nottage for their invaluable contributions to performing arts at Pier Sixty in New York City. 

“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” the 1997 musical co-starring Brandy (left) and Paolo Montalban (right), also featured Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters and the late Whitney Houston and Natalie Desselle. (Photo: ABC/Disney)

According to Yahoo News, the evening’s honorary chairs included actress Viola Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, rapper-actress Queen Latifah, actress Condola Rashad, renowned producer-showrunner Shonda Rhimes, and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, alongside co-chairs attorney Carol Sutton Lewis, businessman William M. Lewis, Jr., philanthropists Stephen and Kitty Sherrill and record executive Lia Vollack. 

Performers for the evening included Brandy and fellow singer-actress Jordin Sparks. 

Montalban shared a clip from the touching reunion on social media, in which he makes clear: “We are here to celebrate Debra Martin Chase.” 

Martin Chase is shown hugging and gushing over the two Cinderella stars, saying, “they look amazing and are so lovely. And most importantly such lovely people. I’m so proud of you as people. Really, I’m so proud of you as human beings.”

Montalban replied, “Thank you for supporting us and cultivating us.”

Martin Chase was one of the producers of the now-iconic 1997 TV musical, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella — alongside its now-deceased featured fairy godmother, singer Whitney Houston — in which a teenaged Brandy played the title character, and Montalban played Prince Christopher. 

Also starring Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters, and the late Natalie Desselle, the beloved live-action fantasy was nominated for seven Emmy Awards. 

After years of being unavailable for streaming, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella was added to Disney+ earlier this year, much to the delight of fans. 

Actress Rachel Zegler, who will soon play Snow White in a Disney life-action remake, shared a clip of meeting Brandy on Twitter, writing, “yes I met brandy yes I told her she is my cinderella yes she told me that I am her snow white and no I am not well!!!!!! no more questions.” 

In an interview with People last year, Brandy said playing Cinderella “was a great time.” 

“My childhood dreams were to be a singer, touch as many people as I could, and to meet Whitney Houston, just meet her,” she told the magazine. “So to meet her, hang out with her and sing with her, it was unbelievable. For her to cast me in such a role, the first Black princess, I don’t know the words to really describe what that feels like.”

Martin Chase is currently the executive producer of CBS’ The Equalizer, which stars Queen Latifah. 

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