Broadway's Lost Treasures DVD series

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 6:27am

I finally got this boxset (found it for 30 bucks Canadian completely by chance) and while I had most of these perofrmances in various quality on VHS before it's really great tohave them on DVD. I gotta wonder about some of the choices though...

Would Michael Bennett's estate not allow Dreamgirls or Chorus Line on--since those would be two fo the more famous and better staged Tony clips?? Where's the great Dance at the Gym from Jerome Robbins' Broadway? The OBC with Phylicia Rashad for ITW (or Passion for that matter though since we have both on DVD in full it's not as big a deal). Secret Garden? just a few obvious ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Any chances of a 4th volume?

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 9:26pm

Both of the Michael Bennett numbers were supposed to have been in the first edition, but got pulled. (Though in some PBS markets, a version with them did get shown once.)

As for the third edition, all I can assume is that no one consulted any show queens when it came to picking the selections. Or if the did consult them, they didn't listen to them.

I mean "Five Guys Named Moe"?!?!?! "Rose Marie"?!?!?!?!?

Now "Step To the Rear" from "How Now, Dow Jones" was really cool!

What I wish is that they would do one just of the flop numbers that have been broadcast on the Tony Awards. Now that would be one to get multiple copies of, for when you wear one out from re-playing it.

Just imagine:

"Rags"
"Merlin"
"Golden Rainbow"
"Hallelujah, Baby"
"I Remember Mama"
"Walking Happy"
Bea Arthur singing "There Goes My Life" from "A Mother's Kisses"

The mind boggles. (I have to admit that I recently came across a very old copy of the much missed magazine "Show Music" that had an article by the much missed Ken Madelbaum about the first 20 years of the Tony Awards describing the musical numbers from them.)

[WalkOn]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 9:29pm

I went to the Museum of Television here in L.A. and saw the GOLDEN RAINBOW stuff... I'm still HOWLING!!!

It was as if Roger DeBris from THE PRODUCERS had directed it.

[mattonstage]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 9:42pm

I'm still hoping they'll get around to putting some of the medleys they've done on DVD. They have a couple of clips, but I remember one particular moment with Dorothy Louden singing a song called "Vodka" which was brilliant. I'd love to see that again. I also wish they would put out the specials done in the late '70's or early '80s called "Musical Comedy Tonight" hosted by Sylvia Fine Kaye (Danny's wife). My favorite was the first special featuring "Company" with Sandy Duncan doing "Another Hundred People", Bernadette Peters and Richard Chamberlain "Barcelona", and Carol Burnett "The Ladies Who Lunch". Anyone else remember those specials, and am I mistaken and did Lynn Redgrave perform "The Saga of Jenny" on one of them?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 9:50pm

Shame about the Michael Bennett stuff--maybe we'll get the Dreamgirls clip on the movie DVD? But it does seem odd that the people who own the rights to his stuff, and go on about wanting to preserve his legacy wouldn't realize that releasing the clips that he himself had supervision for would help that...

You're right about them not consulting Broadway fans--we seem to have gotten nearly all of the "stars perform the songs they made hits, when they're 30 years too old for the roles" numbers but many of the "original" performances are still missing--many I'd think would be a necesity (the ones that interest me the most are the fully staged ones--or nearly fully staged). Of course many years they hardly staged them--though in 68 we got a pretty lavish Wilkomen from Cabaret, the next year the clip from Zorba was not really a direct cscene from the show--just some bouzouki players sitting singing (yes I knwo that was an element of the show but iit wasn't even done in costume)

Company, Night Music got nothing, Follies got a half assed Lucy and Jessie, with half the dancers, etc (odd as just before we got that 10 minute number from Coco--though i love that whole scene)

I'd love a DVD series for Ed Sullivan's musical clips (weren't a few released to video?) I have over 9 videos of clips from these, from the mid 50s till his show ended and many are GREAT (original West Side Story in the balcony scene and Cool, the Sweet Charity stuff, Camelot, even a nuimber from Little Me) but I never did track down some stuff I'd kill for liek Turkey Lurkey Time from Promises Promises.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 12:31am

Yes, mattonstage, they did a shortened version of "The Circus Dream" from "Lady In The Dark" with Lynn Redgrave as Liza Elliott and Richard Crenna as Charley Johnson and Danny Kaye sang "Tschaikofski"

Another series I wish that they would release on DVD is a 1970's British series called "Song by Song by." It was based on "Song by Song by Sondheim", but doing other lyricists (Lorenz Hart, Sheldon Harnick, Dorothy Fields, Oscar Hammerstein, etc) and with the same creative talent: David Kernan, Ned Sherrin, Millicent Martin and Julie MacKenzie. With Guest Stars like Elaine Stritch, Karen Morrow, Barbara Cook and Elizabeth Welch. I've yet to find anyone with even an old kinoscope of it.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 12:45am

I assume you mean "Side by Side by Sondheim"