It really is a shame Bennett isn't a household name and probably never could be at this point. He's is that small group of visionaries for the stage -- along with Robbins, Fosse, Prince, Champion, and a couple of others -- and while millions have seen his work live all around the world, little of it was preserved for future generations on film. When his two main masterpieces -- ACL and Dreamgirls -- were adapted for film, both threw out his staging and choreography (and replaced it with inferior substitutes) and with the exception of a few numbers from those shows and COCO and the "It's Turkey Lurky Time" from Promises, Promises that were done on the Tonys, very few of his showstoppers are readily available (it's criminal that "Tick Tock" and "Who's That Woman" and so many other numbers from FOLLIES, SEE SAW, BALLROOM etc aren't preserved).
At least Fosse has the films of Sweet Charity, Damn Yankees, Pajama Game, Cabaret and All That Jazz (and the videos of the shows "Pippin" and "Fosse" as well as Liza with a Z), de Mille has Oklahoma and Carousel and Robbins has West Side Story, Gypsy, King & I, Peter Pan and Fiddler (as well as many tapes of his ballets with City Ballet and -- though it's not commercially available -- his Tony winning career restrospective "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" was filmed in total). It'd be nice if American Masters would put together an hour long program with some of the clips that I know are out there in private collections of Bennett's stage work or if Breglio and the Bennett estate would simply commission a documentary on their own. His legacy deserves to be preserved and celebrated by many generations to come.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
