Broadway’s Other Lost Treasures

Those of us who live in the New York metropolitan area are all looking forward to Sunday night, when we can see Broadway’s Lost Treasures on PBS. The rest of the country will have to wait a week or two, but before August concludes, most people who care about musical theater will be able to see this compendium of clips from the Tony Awards broadcasts. As they always say in TV-land, “Check your local listings.”

Broadway’s Lost Treasures has been assembled by Christopher A. Cohen, son of Alexander H. Cohen and Hildy Parks. The former was the producer of the awards from 1967-through 1986 while the latter wrote the scripts for many of the broadcasts. After that, the Cohens were forced to part company with the awards. So, given what Christopher Cohen had to work with, we couldn’t have expected to see such excepts from later telecasts as the galvanizing “We’ll Take a Glass Together” from Grand Hotel or the joyous, hand-clapping “Our Favorite Son” from The Will Rogers Follies. Maybe someone else will deliver these to us someday.

But, fittingly enough, Cohen is giving us Joel Grey leading the original Cabaret company in “Willkommen” — the very first number of the very first Tony Awards show that was broadcast from sea to shining sea when the ceremonies finally went national in 1967. Needless to say, Harold Prince’s and Ronald Field’s “Willkommen” is an astonishing production number in its own right, but it should especially be seen by those who weren’t theatergoers — or weren’t even born — at the time of the original production and have only caught the number as interpreted by Bob Fosse in the movie, Sam Mendes in the revival, or in stock and amateur productions. Nothing against any of those “Willkommens,” mind you, but seeing how and where it all began is something to be savored.

I’m relishing the thought of catching Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera doing “Nowadays” from Chicago, not to mention selections from Annie, Dreamgirls, Evita, 42nd Street, My One and Only, and Sweeney Todd. I’m even looking forward to Betty Buckley’s “Memory,” for unlike every other musical theater enthusiast I know, I’m not tired of the tune. When I like a song, I like it now and forever, no matter how many times I eventually hear it. As Zorba says, “But each time, for the first time.”

Speaking of Zorba: Wouldn’t it have been nice to see something from that show on Broadway’s Lost Treasures? It certainly was featured on the 1969 Tonys. Of course we’re all going to carp about what Cohen included and what he didn’t, but I do wish he’d handled the show differently. On paper, having Vivian Blaine, Carol Channing, Richard Kiley, Zero Mostel, Robert Preston, John Raitt, Yul Brynner, and Patricia Morison doing their big hits from their big musicals sounds good, but all of these clips come from one Tony show: the 1971 broadcast, a 25th anniversary tribute for which Cohen’s parents collected all the old-timers who were still around to reprise their show-stoppers backed by bulb-lit numbers representing the year in which their shows were up for Tonys. (How well I remember the sight of an aged but still game Stanley Holloway strutting around in his big My Fair Lady number in front of the illuminated 1957.)

This is terrific, but for Broadway’s Lost Treasures, it wasn’t the best way to go. What we really want is to see and hear the stars in the first bloom of their successes, not reprising their roles several years or even decades later. Granted, it’s good to see them under any circumstances, but I would have preferred that Cohen release the entire 25th anniversary show on one VHS/DVD unit. I still remember the next day’s Boston Globe calling the show “a milestone in television history” — and they weren’t referring to the moment when Paul Sand beat out Donald Pickering, Ronald Radd, and Ed Zimmerman as Best Featured Actor in a Play. Rather, they loved seeing everyone from David Wayne reprising his Og in Finian’s Rainbow to Lauren Bacall welcoming us to the theater in her big Applause moment.

What’s more, if Cohen had just released the 25th anniversary show as is, that background of illuminated years would have been thematically exciting; interspersed between full-blown productions numbers such as LuPone, Gunton, Patinkin, and the entire company of Evita singing “A New Argentina,” these sequences are just going to seem dull by comparison.

In addition to releasing the 25th anniversary show in complete form, I would have loved it if Cohen had simultaneously given us another VHS/DVD full of glorious production numbers from Tony-nominated shows. There was an enormous sequence of Katharine Hepburn in Coco; a startlingly effective “Turkey Lurkey Time” from Promises, Promises (thank Michael Bennett for that); a fun-filled “Step to the Rear” from How Now, Dow Jones (thank Michael Bennett for that, too, for he spruced up Gillian Lynne’s original choreography). How well I recall all the phones calls I received and made after the 1968 Tonys; so many of us were stunned at how well “24 Hours a Day,” the opening number from Golden Rainbow, had played on TV. I swear, not a year goes by that someone who’s been following the Tony telecasts from Day One hasn’t mentioned this one to me in a nostalgic, appreciative voice.

True, the sets for these production numbers were often skeletal — just a stick or two here or there — so they wouldn’t come across as dramatically as they played in the theater eight times a week. But some of the Tony numbers did offer full scenery because their shows didn’t perform live on awards night but, rather, taped their sequences earlier in the week on the actual stage and setting where they were then playing.

“The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea” from Pacific Overtures. “Be Italian” from the original Nine. Even the selection from I Remember Mama, with Liv Ullman singing. I know, I know: The general public can’t be expected to salivate over titles that are unfamiliar to them. But I’m not sure how many civilians are going to watch Broadway’s Lost Treasures anyway, let alone buy it in the fall when it comes out on both VHS and DVD (with some extras from Annie, A Chorus Line, and Sugar Babies). Cohen and everyone else connected with the project should know by now that Broadway’s Lost Treasures is going to sell primarily to those who treasure Broadway. If John Q. Public won’t watch the Tonys for free on a Sunday in June, he can’t really be expected to fork out cash for the shows’ remnants.

Don’t misunderstand me. Bless Cohen and Broadway’s Lost Treasures. The show is mandatory viewing, taping, and buying for those who care about such things. And maybe, if we all do our part, there will Volumes II, III, and IV that will include scenes from Purlie, Shenandoah, and Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death. (That last show had a great sight gag involving, of all things, a rat.) Now that the genie has been let out, I’m looking inside that bottle and searching for more.

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[Ed. Note: After this piece was written, contractual issues forced the removal of the Man of La Mancha, Dreamgirls, and A Chorus Line segments from both the telecast and home video versions of Broadway’s Lost Treasures. Replacements for these segments include the Tony Award broadcast presentations of musical scenes from The Apple Tree and Applause.]

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at [email protected]]