Musicals

Broadway - The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There

It's not a comprehensive survey of the American musical theater, but Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There is an invaluable and moving salute to the art form composed of interviews with the people who were there in the 1940s through the 1960s. There are too many to list, but they include John Raitt, Angela Lansbury, Hume Cronyn, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Carol Channing, Jerry Orbach, Robert Goulet, Robert Morse (even he's gotten old!), Jerry Herman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Stephen Sondheim, and Harold Prince. There are also some rare performance clips, such as Ethel Merman in Gypsy, Patricia Morison in Kiss Me Kate, and Angela Lansbury in Mame, as well as more familiar television performances, but very few film versions (for either authenticity or rights reasons). Director Rick McKay's focus, however, is on evocative stills, a few too many shots of the city, and most of all the words from the stars themselves. Fact is, because Broadway shows are a live performance medium, there simply isn't a lot of footage available, which is why it's a treat--no, it's an obligation--that we hear the stories from the people themselves. It's the best way the form will survive. After a bit of a slow start, the interviews cover the culture of Broadway, hanging out at Walgreen's and Sardi's, taking a show on the road, and thoughts about the current generation. (Broadway in this case refers to the location in New York rather than the musical-theater genre, so non-musicals are a major part of the discussion.)

Broadway: The Golden Age had a limited theatrical run in 2004, and there will be inevitable comparisons to Broadway: The American Musical, the six-hour series that played on PBS in the fall of that same year. The PBS series is much longer (especially counting the DVDs' bonus interviews) and unlike The Golden Age, it attempts to be a comprehensive survey of 100 years of American musical theater. The ambition is admirable, but often hard to live up to. The Golden Age offers more rare footage, and a more powerful sense of nostalgia throughout the interviews. On the downside, there's no real structure to the film other than grouping the interviews by random subject, and director McKay relies too much on his own personal experiences as a jumping-off point. But it's a worthwhile, often passionate film that captures a priceless glimpse at a way of life as lived by so many memorable figures whose like will never be seen again. --David Horiuchi

Broadway's Lost Treasures II

The follow-up to the original Broadway's Lost Treasures delivers more of the same--historic performances of great moments in American musical theater televised on the Tony Awards--but is a step up in terms of sheer entertainment value. The first volume included only performances before 1987, and while they had bigger stars (Yul Brynner, Robert Preston), some of them were lip-synced and considerably less polished than their feature-film equivalents. Broadway's Lost Treasures II features newer performances that are almost indistinguishable from an actual show, including scenes from splashy, high-energy revivals such as Anything Goes (Patti LuPone and company performing the title tune) and Guys and Dolls (the fabulous "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat"), and new shows such as Grand Hotel (Michael Jeter and Brent Barrett in a gloriously exuberant "Take a Glass Together"), Les Miserables ("One Day More"), La Cage aux Folles (George Hearn solo and with a chorus line in drag in "I Am What I Am"), and Jelly's Last Jam (Gregory Hines tapping "That's How You Jazz"). There are classic performances too, including Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur's 1987 reunion of "Bosom Buddies" (Mame), Richard Kiley's "The Impossible Dream" (Man of La Mancha), Jerry Orbach's "All I Care About" (Chicago), and (in the DVD's bonus content) Katharine Hepburn in a 15-minute part-dramatic, part-musical scene from Coco. Fans were disappointed when performances from Dreamgirls and A Chorus Line were pulled from the first program due to rights issues, and those still aren't included here, but one can always hope they might appear in a future volume. --David Horiuchi

The annual Tony Award® broadcast provides the only filmed record of Broadway's best for audiences to experience as if they were front-row-center on opening night. This second compilation of great musical moments from the Tonys® features another dazzling array of stars and performances. Hosts Lauren Bacall, Bebe Neuwirth, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Jerry Orbach introduce these 18 one-of-a-kind performances and share their personal Broadway and Tony® memories.
"Praise be to the theatre gods. . . for what was `lost' is found." —Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the first Broadway's Lost Treasures.

THE LEADS
Patti LuPone, Anything Goes
Angela Lansbury, Beatrice Arthur, Mame
Robert Morse, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Jane Lapotaire, Piaf
Richard Kiley, Man of La Mancha

ALL SINGING, ALL DANCING
Nell Carter, cast, Ain't Misbehavin'
Michael Jeter, Brent Barrett, Grand Hotel
Gregory Hines, Jelly's Last Jam
Walter Bobbie, Nathan Lane, Guys and Dolls

REVIVALS AND RECORD BREAKERS
George Hearn, cast, La Cage aux Folles
Cast, Les Misérables
Shirley Verrett, cast, Carousel
Jerry Orbach, Chicago

BONUS PERFORMANCES
Katharine Hepburn, Coco
Robert Lindsay, Me and My Girl
Tom Bosley, Fiorello!
Kathi Moss, cast, Nine
Bill Hutton, cast, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

BONUS EXTRAS
Five additional performances not seen on the PBS broadcast
Historical information about the original Broadway productions
PLAYBILL cover art

Broadway - The American Musical (PBS Series)

Like its fellow PBS series Ken Burns' Jazz, Broadway: The American Musical is an ambitious and absorbing exploration of a unique American art form that has always been best experienced in live performance. Hosted and narrated by Julie Andrews, the six-part, six-hour documentary traces the history of musical theater from its roots in vaudeville, operetta, and minstrel shows, to the dawn of what would become the modern American musical, Show Boat, and on through many changes that seemed to reflect those in American culture itself. Significant creators discussed include Florenz Ziegfeld, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse, and David Merrick, and notable shows (Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Company, Cats, and recent hit Wicked, among others) are analyzed through performance clips and interviews with songwriters, stars, directors, producers, critics, and historians.

The series' most obvious weakness is its use of only brief excerpts of the performances--no song is heard in full. The sheer scope of the series no doubt played a part in that, as well as complicated rights issues, but the core problem is that musical theater has always been a live medium, rarely documented and even more rarely released to the general public. The documentary's producers make do with audio recordings, still photographs, and bits of footage, often in grainy black and white. Thankfully, they resist over-relying on feature-film musicals--which look much better and are sometimes excellent (but more often mediocre) translations--and when used such footage is clearly identified. That makes it all the more frustrating, however, that almost all of the other footage is not identified, because that is what fans are less familiar with and would be most interested in. The 1950s footage looks to be mostly from TV programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show; by the 1960s we have live footage from the Tony Awards (easily identifiable by the backdrops); and the newest shows might have been shot on stage. But early Ethel Merman and other random clips are mysteries, perhaps even to the producers themselves.

Because the series is designed to appeal to a general audience (again like Jazz), a lot of the information won't be new to diehard Broadway fans, but they should be especially pleased by the DVDs' bonus features, which include additional performances and about four more hours of interviews. Stephen Sondheim fans should be fascinated by footage of the composer-lyricist discussing "Someone in a Tree" at the piano, and then running through the song with original cast members of Pacific Overtures, as well as interviews of him talking about his own shows and songs (e.g., listing the songwriters he pastiched in Follies) and reminiscing about mentor Oscar Hammerstein II. Other bonus performances include vaudeville films from the Library of Congress, original-cast television performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "If I Loved You" (from Carousel, unfolding over 12 minutes) and "Some Enchanted Evening" (the reprise version from South Pacific), Rent's Jonathan Larson spoofing Sondheim, and two behind-the-scenes looks at Wicked. --David Horiuchi

Mary Martin and Ethel Merman - Their Legendary Appearance on the Ford 50th Anniversary Show

The unique record of a historic event, Mary Martin and Ethel Merman's appearance on The Ford 50th Anniversary Show on June 15, 1953, united two of the 20th century's greatest musical stars, both of whom are underrepresented on film. Merman stars things off with "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in front of a combo and sings "Mademoiselle from Armentières" (best known for the line "Hinky dinky parlez-vous") among a line of World War I Doughboys. Martin appears in a fashion-show pantomime comedy sketch, then both together lip-synch to an old Vaudeville number "Your Folks and My Folks." The last line of that song is the first time Martin utters a sound. The pièce de resistance is the closing 13-minute medley with the stars side by side. They begin with solo renditions of two signature numbers ("There's No Business Like Show Business" and "A Wonderful Guy") before trading off snippets of older songs such as "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" and "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie." More compelling is their series of "I" songs, which leads to more signature numbers ("I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" and "I Get a Kick Out of You"). From there, the medley closes in a rush, with the women singing in counterpoint then together on a reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business." The stars have very different styles, of course, but appear to be enjoying their time together. It would have been nice to have more than 27 minutes of the two-hour show (which included, among others, Marian Anderson, Rudy Vallee, and Kukla, Fran, and Ollie), but Merman and Martin were clearly the most interesting segment, and their duet takes its place among the historic TV musical events such as the duet between Judy Garland and a young Barbra Streisand 11 years later. --David Horiuchi

The famed June 15, 1953 television special brought together two of the greatest leading ladies Broadway has ever known. The highlight of the program is Merman and Martin's 13-minute duet medley, where they sing the songs that made them famous, plus much more. On their own, Merman sings two numbers and Martin performs a brilliant comedy routine about changes in fashion over the first half of the 20th century. 27 min.

Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway Favorites Collection (Cats / Jesus Christ Superstar / Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat / The Royal Albert Hall Celebration)

The Andrew Lloyd Webber Spotlight Performance Collection includes Cats, A Royal Albert Hall Celebration, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Jesus Christ Superstar. The 1998 video version of Cats stars a cast assembled from London, Amsterdam, and New York productions, including Ken Page as Old Deuteronomy and Elaine Paige (the original London Grizabella, the Glamour Cat) whose version of "Memory" remains definitive.

A Royal Albert Hall Celebration (1998) features more than two hours of hits from star after star: Elaine Paige delivering "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" and "Memory" with her usual power, Michael Ball and Donny Osmond stretching the last vestiges of boyish charm to the very limits but still sounding great; Sarah Brightman performing an outstanding selection from The Phantom of the Opera; Antonio Banderas; and Glenn Close, stupendous and moving in songs from Sunset Boulevard.

In Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the Old Testament tale of Joseph and his coat of many colors gets a splashy, vigorous treatment with an energetic cast, Las Vegas-style glitz, and catchy, eclectic songs, including "Any Dream Will Do" and the peppy "Go, Go, Go Joseph." Former teen icon Donny Osmond is perfect in the title role, while Maria Friedman performs well as the narrator.

The 1999 stage revival of Jesus Christ Superstar became the basis for this 2000 video production, which takes the show out of ancient Jerusalem to a mix of modern New York and timeless Rome. As Christ (Glenn Carter) sees his cult of personality overtake his message and struggles with the fears of his sacrifice, he reaches within for faith and forgiveness, giving the show the spiritual dimension it so often lacks. It's an entertaining, thoughtful, and well-sung production, avoiding the tepidity of Norman Jewison's solemn 1973 film.

Cole Porter - An All-Star Tribute (Bell Telephone Hour January 28, 1964)

VAI DVD 4299 52 songs. Ethel Merman, Peter Nero, John Raitt, Martha Wright, Gretchen Wyler. Originally broadcast on The Bell Telephone Hour Jan. 28, 1964 55 min., Color.

Broadway & Hollywood Legends - The Songwriters - E.Y. "Yip" Harburg & Sheldon Harnick

In the informal style usually reserved for show business parties, here is the unique performance writers bring to their own songs and the stories; the special moments, creative triumphs, occasional regrets, laughs and heartbreaks of their spectacularly creative lives.

Broadway & Hollywood Legends - The Songwriters Collection (Kander & Ebb / Alan Jay Lerner / E.Y. "Yip" Harburg / Sheldon Harnick / Burton Lane / Mitchell Parish / Arthur Schwartz / Charles Strouse)

Kander & Ebb / Alan Jay Lerner / E.Y. "Yip" Harburg / Sheldon Harnick / Burton Lane / Mitchell Parish / Arthur Schwartz / Charles Strouse

Broadway & Hollywood Legends - The Songwriters - Kander & Ebb and Alan Jay Lerner

In the informal style usually reserved for show business parties, here is the unique performance writers bring to their own songs and the stories; the special moments, creative triumphs, occasional regrets, laughs and heartbreaks of their spectacularly creative lives.

Broadway & Hollywood Legends - The Songwriters - Burton Lane and Mitchell Parish

In the informal style usually reserved for show business parties, enjoy the unique performances composer Burton Lane (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Finian's Rainbow) and lyricist Mitchell Parish (Stardust, Stars Fell on Alabama) bring to their own songs, as well as the candid, often touching and sometimes hilarious tales behind the magical world of musical theater.