DVDs: Always Mademoiselle
Brandon Wardell Assassins, Thoroughly Modern Milie has been mentioned for the cast of Good Vibrations.
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DVD: BROADWAY'S LOST TREASURES II Acorn Media
When the DVD of the first edition of Broadway's Lost Treasures was released a year ago, no mention was made anywhere in the packaging of the fact that the Broadway musical numbers that made up the program were taken from Tony Awards telecasts. Now we have the DVD of Broadway's Lost Treasures II, and this time around it's acknowledged that the eighteen numbers included are indeed from the Tony Awards. The Tonys are mentioned on the back cover, and a sticker has been affixed to the front, reading "Best of the Tony Awards."
Broadway's Lost Treasures are produced and directed by Christopher A. Cohen, son of Alexander H. Cohen, who produced the Tony Awards telecasts from 1967 to 1986. But unlike the first installment of Broadway's Lost Treasures, the new DVD includes material stretching beyond the Cohen years, including several sequences from the '90s.
In a manner similar to the first Broadway's Lost Treasures, the new program aired in the summer on PBS as an hour telecast, but the DVD includes about a half-hour of additional, unaired material. The first edition featured seven numbers from the celebrated twenty-fifth-anniversary program of 1971; the second installment has three sequences from that gala evening. And once again, there are Tony-winning hosts for the program segments; this time around, they are Lauren Bacall, Bebe Neuwirth, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Jerry Orbach.
Broadway's Lost Treasures II is divided into four sections. "The Leads" emphasizes the stars and kicks off with Patti LuPone at her zestiest, in the title number from her second-biggest Broadway triumph, Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Anything Goes. LuPone was seen in two numbers from her biggest triumph, Evita, on the first Broadway's Lost Treasures. Next comes one of the most valuable items, Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur in "Bosom Buddies" from Mame. With both stars looking terrific, this is a recreation of the number on the 1987 telecast, when Lansbury hosted the Tonys. Both ladies were now major television celebrities, and thank goodness someone thought to have them reunite for this song.
"The Leads" continues with Robert Morse, in good form in How to Succeed...'s "I Believe in You," from the '71 program, then Jane Lapotaire as Edith Piaf in a gutsy "La Vie en Rose" from Piaf. The latter is probably the least necessary inclusion here, as it's not a show tune, and Piaf was not really a musical, but rather a play about a singer that featured her songs. Lapotaire won her Piaf Tony as Best Actress, not Best Musical Actress. The first segment concludes with host Brian Stokes Mitchell introducing his Man of La Mancha predecessor, Richard Kiley, recreating in costume and make-up his always potent "Impossible Dream" at the '71 Tonys. The latter sequence was pulled from the first Broadway's Lost Treasures prior to telecast; the thrilling Tony sequences from Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls were also pulled from the first Broadway's Lost Treasures, but still seem to be unavailable.
The "All Singing, All Dancing" segment leads off with a sequence from Ain't Misbehavin' featuring that peerless original-cast quintet. Next up is one of the new DVD's highlights, the showstopping "We'll Take a Glass Together" from Grand Hotel, featuring Broadway replacement and national tour and London Baron Brent Barrett, rather than David Carroll, who was nominated for the role but had already withdrawn from the production. Barrett does the exhilarating Tommy Tune number with Michael Jeter, whose performance here makes it easy to understand why he won a Tony for his role as the dying bookkeeper Otto Kringelein.
The number from Jelly's Last Jam serves as a reminder of a multi-talented star, Gregory Hines, and of a distinctive musical. Then host Bebe Neuwirth introduces her Chicago director, Walter Bobbie, leading the foolproof eleven o'clock number from the Guys and Dolls revival, "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat."
The third segment is entitled "Revivals and Record Breakers," and is led off by the splendid Cagelles, in full drag for "We Are What We Are" from La Cage aux Folles. Unfortunately, when leading man George Hearn joins them for "I Am What I Am," he isn't in Albin's drag, and while Hearn is in strong vocal form, that decision deprives the number of its full impact.
Next up is the stirring first-act finale from Les Miserables, followed by a disappointing "You'll Never Walk Alone," not the best possible selection from the glorious 1994 Carousel revival. To conclude the third segment, Orbach introduces his own clip, the grand "All I Care About" from Chicago, allowing one the opportunity to compare the original Bob Fosse staging with Ann Reinking's for the revival. Rumor had it at the time that Chicago divas Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera declined to perform on the Tonys because they were unhappy that A Chorus Line's Donna McKechnie had been nominated in their category rather than in the featured category. Whether that's true or not, one does wish that Verdon and Rivera had performed on the '76 telecast.
"All I Care About" is where the PBS telecast ended. But the five bonus performances on the DVD are led off by an item that, all by itself, is well worth the price of the DVD. This is from the 1969 Katharine Hepburn musical Coco, the longest sequence ever to air on the Tonys. The one liability: Because Hepburn declined to perform live on the telecast, the sequence was taped without an audience, and the laugh track later put in was awkwardly deployed.
Otherwise, you get a lengthy dialogue scene featuring George Rose, Jeanne Arnold, David Holliday, and the show's inept but lovely ingenue, Gale Dixon, followed by Michael Bennett's lush staging of the red-dress parade watch for Ann Reinking and Hepburn, feisty and fabulous, punching across the number in a choice display of star power. We're fortunate that this clip exists, and its inclusion on the DVD automatically renders Broadway's Lost Treasures II a major release.
Next is the catchy "Lambeth Walk" number from Me and My Girl, led by the expert Robert Lindsay. As recreated on the '71 Tonys, "The Name's LaGuardia" is valuable as the only visual record of Tom Bosley in Fiorello! From Nine, we get the number that was substituted when Anita Morris's "Call from the Vatican" was deemed too hot for TV. This was Kathi Moss and company in "Be Italian," in a staging much superior to that seen in the recent revival. Finally, there's a medley featuring sterling belter Laurie Beechman from the 1981 Broadway premiere production of Joseph.....
At the end of my review of Broadway's Lost Treasures I, I listed a dozen other numbers from just the Cohen years that I would recommend for future release. Only two of them Coco and Chicago are on Broadway's Lost Treasures II, so there's still a great deal of material remaining to be released in future installments. Broadway's Lost Treasures also available in VHS represent the first commercial release of musical numbers from the Tonys, and everything is seen in top-notch quality. In order to keep this laudable series going, these DVDs should be required purchases.