Sign My Petition to Release Caroline or Change on DVD!- Page 3

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 7:04pm

About an hour of home movies of the original production of FOLLIES from New York and Los Angeles has been discovered, and probably more is out there. The footage is all silent but some diligent Sondheim fans have done a pretty amazing job of syncing it with live recordings.

Obviously, it will never be commercially released, but its an amazing archive. And no, the original production wasn't taped for Lincoln Center. It was a couple of years before they began doing tapings for their archives.

Posted: 5/2/07 at 7:32pm

The Silent/sound FOllies clips are fascinating but not really of much better quality (fairly jerky filming etc) than the Chicago home movies most people have seen. However a VERY good print of 15 mins of them was recently on youtube before being pulled down... So it's out there for those looking

I just posted this in another thread but it's a pretty good rundown of some of the 70s shows and what exists (I wish ANYTHIGN existed of Night Music--I'd love to see that set in action) Besides the B&W Company, the archives have the taped for Japanese TV Pacific Overtures OBC (which was talked about to get an Image DVD release *sigh*) and one of I believe the original cast of Sweeney--

ANyway from the Lincoln Center thread post:

"From Mandelbaum's Michael Bennett book's appendix about Bennett work on video [the pre Company stuff isn't included as TOFT collection didn't exist then)

Company: A complete performance with the original staging (minus the automatic elavators on the set) was taped at the end of the national tour on May 20, 1972 in DC. The B&W tape, featuring McKechnie in her original role, Gary Krawford as Robert, Julie WIlson as Joanne and Tandy Cronyn, Jane Johnston, Louisa Flaningham, Joy Franz, J Cromwell and others, preserves Bennett's electric opening sequence, the "side by Side" number and "Tick Tock" with McKechnie particularly thrilling in the latter. It can be seen at TOFT

Follies: One of the most legendary productions in history, there are only three short videotapes in existance that preserve portions of the original staging. The TOFTcollection has two half hours, one silent and one with sound shot in Los Angelas after the Broadway closing--these are also ccirculating in private collections. The sound tape was shot during a rehearsal while the silent tape is edited and combines footage shot from the wings and above the stage with footage shot from the orchestra. LA replacements Janet Blair and Ed Winter are in the silent half hour. There is also a fifteen minute compilation of sequences shot during the final New York perforamance. This tape is in private collections only. Alexis Smith performed "Lucy and Jessie" onthe 1975 Tony Awards but this version features barely one step of Bennett's original great choreography.

Seesaw: Sadly nothing in full costume or choreography from this Bennett show exists--Michele Lee performed I'm Way Ahead at the 1974 Tony Awards after closing and a year later "Nobody DOes it Like Me" on the Dinah Shore show.

A Chorus Line: Thhe original New York Shakespeare Festival off Broadway production was taped at the Newman Theater in 1975. This black and white tape is of very mediocre quality but is of course an invaluable document. It is in the TOFTcollection as well as most private collections. [I love how he calls bootleg collections "private"] The original cast can best be seen on the 1976 Tony Awards in a slightly cut openign sequence and the very end of the finale. The TOFTCollection also has a one hour dialogue on tape from 1977, with Bennett and Avian which covers the genesis of the project. Also in the collection is a tape of the #3,389th Gala Performance. The finale of that was also telecast on the NBC program Live and in Person. McKechnie recreated only parts of her original choreography when doing Music and the Mirror on the 1980 HBO program Showstoppers.

Ballroom: Sadly, while this show opened after TOFT had decided to start preserving most major productions, Ballroomw as never recorded. Loudon performed "Fifty Percent" on the 1979 Tony Awards

Dreamgirls: A complete performance of the show taped near the end of the original Broadway run in August 1985 is in the TOFTCollection. This performance is interesting as by then they had incorporated Bennett's revisions he added tot he tour in LA including the elaborate new Act II opening with the boys and song medleys which Bennett called his "Jack Cole truibute to Monroe updated". The original Act I finale, with minor cuts was performed on the 1982 Tony Awards.

Hope that helps--i wish there was similar info for other major Broadway talents and what film exists "

[C is for Company]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 7:48pm

I've seen the full 30 minutes of recordings with sound from LA and 20 minutes of the one with the sound dubbed in. The 36 hours that those Youtube videos were for were some of the best hours of my life I was just unaware that there was a near definitive knowledge of the possible videos out there. Thanks guys!

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 7:59pm

I read here a few years ago that a poster spoke with someone from HBO and they said that they had filmed the entire show on Broadway. And for a short time, Caroline or Change was listed on the HBO site but no information was included. If I remember correctly, the poster said that the person from HBO said they were not sure what they were going to do with the film. But who knows if that was correct information.

Updated On: 5/2/07 at 07:59 PM

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 8:10pm

What is TOFT?

Posted: 5/2/07 at 8:15pm

Theater on Film and Tape or something I think it stands for--the Lincoln Center archives.

I believe Ken Mandelbaum did a similar article for Sondheim shows in one of the old SOndheim Reviews--I'll have to look

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 8:16pm

It wasn't filmed. Neither was THE SECRET GARDEN or MOVIN OUT. All these titles were announced for television taping but none panned out. Of course the problem is when these things happen they never announce the event as canceled - so that's how these things enter into some Broadway folk myth of sitting on some shelf somewhere being hidden from the world.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 8:29pm

Well, out of the three, I certainly wish CAROLINE OR CHANGE had been filmed. Unfortunately, Tonya Pinkins' voice was in bad shape when she had to perform at the Tonys, and they also had to trim "Lot's Wife" which is a shame. Oh well, moot point by now.
Wasn't CABARET supposed to be filmed at one point with Richardson and Cumming?

[iliketheater]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 9:12pm

# 231

[The_Jackal2]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 9:37pm

I don't know how much good it'll do, but I'm #232!

[B3TA07]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 9:40pm

#233

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 10:32pm

As the clips from the original Broadway production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE that I've posted on that site can attest -- I've had the show on DVD for years.

I assumed EVERY fan of the show had it.

Guess not, huh?

Posted: 5/2/07 at 10:34pm

Brody you troublemaker--you know very well people mean a legit, commercial one :)

[C is for Company]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 10:52pm

Clips don't necessarily mean owning the dvd though right? If so I'd love to get the Youtube poster with the Follies footage on the phone!

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 11:07pm

Dont Know how true this is but someone told me the show had been filmed when it played in the UK and BBC4 were going to show it sometime???

They are tons of Caroline or change DVDs around(Whistles and Looks up to sky) just not in the legal sense.

Here is hoping the BBC rumor is true, bbc have done musicals before on their channel, Kiss Me Kate,Jerry Springer, Our House etc etc

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 11:23pm

It'd be great if the show indeed was filmed in London. However, the main reason I'd have loved to see a DVD of the Broadway production is because it boasted one of the best company of any show in recent memory: Tonya "I should have won the Tony" Pinkins, Anika Noni Rose (whose Tony-winning performance I missed, unfortunately, what I'd give to see her "I Hate the Bus" or "Mr.Stopnick and Emmie"), Capathie Jenkins, Veanne Cox, Larry Keith, Chandra Wilson, Chuck Cooper, Aisha de Haas, young Harrison Chad, the best trio of black women since DREAMGIRLS Tracy Nicole Chapman, Ramona Keller, and Marva Hicks. Does it get any better than that?

[Elphie3]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 11:24pm

#234!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 11:26pm

Well...those clips were taken from the DVD, so...yes -- the entire show does survive in DVD form. I would know.

Not to toot my own horn (yet again!), but I also have that FOLLIES footage, as well as those home movies of the 1975 CHICAGO, and footage of MACK & MABEL, and an archive copy of the original London production of SOUTH PACIFIC, as well as a full show audio of Barbra Streisand on Broadway in FUNNY GIRL, and...

Heck...I even have Lauren Bacall in WOMAN OF THE YEAR and Chita and Liza in THE RINK.

Time for a little Marin Mazzie in the Actor's Fund concert of ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY before bedtime or a little snippet of Jennifer Hudson in the recent Actor's Fund concert of THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS. Yawn.

I can't be the ONLY one with these goodies on DVD? IMPOSSIBLE!

[IAMmyownMUSICAL]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 11:29pm

I dont think this will ever work, but I will sign anyways!

Caroline, Or Change is amazing

[IAMmyownMUSICAL]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 11:32pm

#238

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 11:38pm

BrodyFosse123 - You are not the only one with those. lol. I have a few.

I don't want to say everything I have (I'll be here all night) but I do have a full crystal clear audio of Ethel Merman in Hello Dolly!. It's amazing.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 5/2/07 at 11:43pm

brodyfosse
yeah them dvds are all over the place , i have 1 or 2 of them "kind" of shows(well about 200)

[C is for Company]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 12:19am

Brody, were you the one responsible for putting the Follies LA clips up, 3 of them at 10 minutes each, on Youtube last year?

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 12:41am

I made that petition two years ago...I had no idea this thread still survived...weird.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 1:55am

It would blow your mind some of the "archival" tapes and videos of Broadway shows some people have in their private collections that are carefully kept under lock and key and never circulate. Unbeliavable stuff going way back to the 40s.

And sorry to say - no, I'm not one of those people.