Museum of Television & Radio to Showcase Ruggles, Mattress, Our Town, et. al.

The Museum of Television & Radio will show a variety of special musical programs next month, including a digitally restored version of Ruggles of Red Gap starring Sir Michael Redgrave, a musical version of Our Town, with Frank Sinatra and Paul Newman, the original TV production of Once Upon a Mattress starring Carol Burnett, and a 3-hour selection of clips devoted to the work of Stephen Sondheim. The programming is running in conjunction with the New York Musical Theater Festival (NYMF).

The complete schedule is as follows:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

NBC Opera Theatre: Trouble in Tahiti (1952)
Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy, satiric opera about the lives of an unhappily married suburban couple, played by Beverly Wolff and David Atkinson. (5:30pm, 45 minutes)

Bell Telephone Hour: The Music of Harold Arlen (1965)
Performers include Dinah Shore, Duke Ellington, Gordon MacRae, Leslie Uggams, Gretchen Wyler, and ballet greats Edward Villella and Patricia McBride. (6:30pm, 60 minutes)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

Once Upon a Mattress (1964)
The first television production of the 1959 Broadway musical by Mary Rodgers, starring Carol Burnett as Princess Winnifred Woebegone and featuring Joseph Bova, Jane White, Jack Gilford, Bill Hayes, Shani Wallis, and Elliott Gould. (1pm, 90 minutes)

Celebrating Sondheim at 75: “Follies” and More
From the 1975 Tony Awards, Alexis Smith sings “The Story of Lucy and Jessie”; Yvonne DeCarlo sings “I’m Still Here” in a 1978 special Hollywood’s Diamond Jubilee; the cast of the original Broadway production of Follies joins the creative team on The David Frost Show in 1971; and from 1985, Great Performances: Follies in Concert, with Lee Remick, Barbara Cook, Mandy Patinkin, George Hearn, Carol Burnett, and Elaine Stritch. Plus, there is a 1973 featurette with Sondheim and Anthony Perkins on the making of the feature film The Last of Sheila; and a 2003 Chicago Tonight segment on Bounce. (2:30pm, 180 minutes)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 to SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30

Producers’ Showcase: Our Town (1955)
A musical version of the famed Thornton Wilder play, with a score by James Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn (with songs including “Love and Marriage” and “Look to Your Heart”); a cast featuring Frank Sinatra, Eva Marie Saint, and Paul Newman. (1pm, 80 minutes)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 to SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30

Ruggles of Red Gap (1957)
This long-lost live television musical by Jule Styne and Leo Robin has not been seen since its initial airing. The cast features Sir Michael Redgrave, Jane Powell, David Wayne, Imogene Coca, and Peter Lawford. (2:30pm 90 minutes)

For information about admission and hours, visit www.mtr.org.