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here is abc's elizabeth vargas. >> reporter: an iconic disney tale has come to life on broadway.ollars at steak, the question is can the magic of aladdin translate to the great white way. >> lady, can you try something for me. >> reporter: "nightline" was backstage in the anxious days before opening night. >> come on down, come on in. >> reporter: directors were making tweaks to the production, searching for a winning formula. >> guys, let's go again. >> follow me! >> i just told them, you know, we're frozen. not going to change anything else. that day i didn't change it. >> had my last chance at that point. >> i like it. >> the beloved 1992 movie earned more than $500 million and won two oscars for best song and score. aladdin was a mega hit by every standard. still a classic. were you at all anxious about taking that on. >> of course, we see it doesn't work to take something that was a movie and put it on stage. you have to figure how to make it soar and be relatablen en in live audience. >> no detail is too small for the old school song and dance man, best known for a raunchy

here is abc's elizabeth vargas, call it the moment, winning an academy award for her performance in "" and this week nominated "people" magazine's most beautiful woman of 2014, and lupita nyong'o is ig night hnit career, and a conversation about race and what it mooeans to be beautiful. what do you think your 13-year-old self, today, that you and all your, you call it dark beauty, celebrated now. >> she would be pleased. >> reporter: she would be shocked? >> i think so. when i was 13. my mother was telling me that i was beautiful. i would roll my eyes. because she is supposed to say that. but at the same time her having repeated it over and over again was not for naught, you know, in the end i heard her. >> reporter: and so has the rest of the world. >> i am the new ambassador for lancome. >> she signed a lucrative deal to become spokeswoman for lancome, another barrier broken. as the the new face of lancome, do you think you have now a brand new stage on which to redefine beauty? >> yeah, and now i am here. and i know i am not alone. there has been others before me that have made it

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elizabeth vargas has that story. >> reporter: mother of the year she's isn't. 12 years ago, brenda heist dropped off her 8 and 12-year-old children at school, and then vanished. in news reports, her grieving family said they assumed she'd been kidnapped or murdered. >> it was tough. i mean every prom, my brother graduated from thihigh school a college, i graduated, and she wasn't there. >> reporter: but last year heist finally reappeared, looking stunning admission.made a she had abandoned her family on purpose. it's the rare extreme of a mom gone awol. the reaction? widespread revulsion. don't judge, says mom talyaa liere. she's no brenda heist, not even close, but she's faced similar scorn for deciding to live apart from her children. >> i had a lot of shame because of the, the way that we think about what mothers should be. >> reporter: that they would never leave their children? >> some people think that. >> reporter: talyaa is a so-called non-custodial mother, a mom without physical custody of her kids. in 2008 she moved to seattle after a divorce, leaving her three children, nathan

elizabeth vargas is here with that. >>> plus, the battle being waged in some of the country. real estate bidding wars are heating up for ♪ since 1984 ♪ but when i saw taco bell made a waffle taco ♪ ♪ i figured i would get with the times ♪ ♪ so i got a haircut ♪ and i got some tighter pants ♪ lost my flip phone, got a smartphone ♪ ♪ even took down my loverboy poster ♪ ♪ now i'm eating waffle tacos and a.m. crunchwraps ♪ ♪ and i just made like $700 on craigslist ♪ [ male announcer ] move on from your old macdonald breakfast... with taco bell's exciting new breakfast menu. [ alarm ring, bong ] ♪ [ male announcer ] spring is calling. get 10% off in-stock wood fence pickets and panels at lowe's. you may be muddling through allergies. don't get caught off guard. try new zyrtec® dissolve tabs. powerful allergy relief now in a tablet that starts dissolving instantly. new zyrtec® dissolve tabs. in this season's most important fashion trend, the long shirt. designed to flatter, with playful hemlines and length for everybody. the new long shirt. visit the shirt boutique, only at chico's

here now, david muir and elizabeth vargas. >> the sensational case in the national spotlight for one reason alone, the murder weapon. a stiletto heel. and the woman who used it is talking only to abc news. >> and details the jury never got hear. was she dressed to kill? >> her heel is being held here and testimony is going on. >> houston has some crazy, crime. and this is one of the craziest things that i think a lot of us have ever seen. >> reporter: in a town infamous for its crimes of passion, the proceedings in a houston courtroom this week may have set a new standard for strangeness. >> when you hear of someone dying, especially a brutal death, it -- they're being shot, they're stabbed. but no one ever thinks there's gonna be a stiletto heel in the middle of it, right? >> reporter: yes, whoever heard of assault by deadly footwear? the crime scene -- a ritzy condo in this high-end high-rise. and the accused -- a petite, soft-spoken mom looking at life in prison. telling her story exclusively to "20/20." >> it's very surreal. it feels like it happened to someone else, and i'm just

here's elizabeth vargas and david muir. >> tonight, you don't need us to tell you this was tax week. but are your tax dollars being spent by others who claim they're hurt? come on down. >> you're in for a showcase showdown. why are people too hurt to work showing up on game shows and going on vacations? cecilia vega tracks them down. >> reporter: say you're in the audience of "the price is right," and you hear those three famous words. >> come on down! >> reporter: you do what the man tells you. fast, like this woman, cathy cashwell. >> 1,375 dollars! cathy, c'mon up here! >> reporter: but a fortune in fabulous prizes wasn't the only thing cashwell was collecting. true to her name, cashwell was also raking in three grand a month in workers' comp, claiming an on-the-job shoulder injury left her totally unable to stand, run, reach or grasp. >> there you go, good luck. >> reporter: but there she is, spinning that big heavy wheel, not once, but twice. wow, who knew drew carey was a miracle worker? ♪ cashwell is just one of the countless people accused of faking an injury to collect on di

elizabeth vargas takes a look. >> reporter: an iconic disney tale that has come to life on broadway.he question is can the magic of "aladdin" really translate to the great white way. hot shot director choreographer, casey nick law was still making tweaks to the production. the beloved 1992 movie earned more than $500 million and won two oscars for best song and score. "aladdin" was a mega hit by every standard. >> absolutely. >> still a classic. were you at all anxious about taking that on? >> of course. we have seen, it doesn't always work to take something that was a movie and put it on stage. you have to figure out how to make it soar and be relatable in front of a live audience. >> first, what a show desperately needed was more music. movie featuring five songs but luckily casey and the creative team salvaged more songs from the disney vault. >> omar and kaseem were cut from the film to make room for the monkey. casey brought the trio back to help humanize the story. but can a mere mortal replace the shape shifting blue genie? an exuberant rising star plays the part with improbab

here's elizabeth vargas and david muir. >> tonight, if you think you have made it through the rest of the week, how many people came close to losing it out there? >> this story started with something that so many of us can identify with. the sound of a crying baby. but this father found out that if you play with fire, you get burned. >> reporter: if you drive four hours north of minneapolis, through desolate and winding tree-lined roads, you will find the rural town of babbitt, minnesota. population 1,600. nestled next to the superior national forest, just miles from the canadian border. >> it's a typical small town. you go to the grocery store and 90% of the people in there, you're gonna stop and talk to. >> everybody knows each other. sometimes everybody knows too much. >> reporter: it was here that ryan and stefanie scharber decided to raise a family. ryan finding work at the local mine. he even became a volunteer firefighter and within three years, he was chief. how many hours a month were you working as fire chief? >> a lot. >> i was gone all the time. >> reporter: those long hou

here now, elizabeth vargas. >>> good evening. david is away on assignment. tonight, what so many teenagers are doing right now, across the country, having parties, some of them with alcohol, drugs and in our first story, something else, revenge against controlling parents, for teenager tyler hadley, the party to end all parties began with these ominous words, when someone asked, when will your parents come home? he said, they won't, trust me. here's ryan smith. >> reporter: nestled on florida's treasure coast, 40 miles north of west palm beach, sits port st. lucie -- a city once designed for retirees, now teeming with working families. >> it's a maze of streets that all kind of wind together. >> reporter: there's the sense on these empty streets that something's amiss -- even the street signs aren't quite right. >> they didn't have time to spell the street names correctly. >> reporter: growing up here is a modest sort of happiness for any kid. but as novelist, nathaniel rich learned, that gets old. >> every teenager complained about how boring it was in port

. >> that's elizabeth vargas. >> this is elizabeth's cue. fellow. come here, honey. >> oh, no. oh, no. >> oh, no. >> yes. it happened. >> are you ready, matey? today international talk like a pirate day. shiver me timbers. ♪ >> oh! >> go. here in new york, tomorrow night, also featuring josh. >> on your shoulder. >> congratulations. >> i'm honored. an emotional reunion between service members and their loved ones. >> here with me i have sarina, josh's little girl. >> if there is a baby in the audience -- >> how are you? >> good. >> good. say hi, america. >> no. >> no. can you please spell for me the word archipelago. >> can you use it in a sentence? >> look at that archipelago. >> the whole thing about this is really the aroma. smell that. >> oh. you literally walked right into that. >> rain shower this weekend as max pointed out -- >> i'm just staying warm. >> name that game show tune. ♪ uh, you either need medical attention or you have an answer. and our winner, george. >> go nowhere. >> announcer: right then, here's the "play of the day."