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Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
: essential video:Following the successful 1998 video release of Cats comes another Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and it's a savvy choice. It hasn't been represented on film before, it's short enough (78 minutes) to present without cuts, and it has the star power of former teen icon Donny Osmond, who played over 1,800 performances across North America. Rather than record a live performance, Cats director David Mallet conceived Joseph as a film, ...
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Les Miserables - The Dream Cast in Concert
: :The 10th anniversary concert video of the international musical sensation Les Misérables might be the best thing to appease fans until a full-fledged movie comes along. Or it might be even better, as feature films are often subject to extramusical casting considerations and this 1995 dream cast is superb. Reprising their roles from the original London company are Colm Wilkinson (Valjean), Michael Ball (Marius), and Alun Armstrong (Thenardier). From Broadway come Judy Kuhn (Cosette), Lea Salonga (Eponine), and Michael ...
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Bernadette Peters in Concert
: essential video:Bernadette Peters is a glorious anachronism, a tiny New Yorker with a big voice, coppery pre-Raphaelite curls, and the sort of ripe physicality that made it logical she should ignore PC and have legendary pinup artist Vargas capture her for an album cover portrait. While most of her musical peers were getting funky, getting in touch with themselves, or getting high, Peters was honing her skills as a musical actress, setting her compass by Broadway with occasional ...
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That's Singing: Best of Broadway
:Description:Songs and performers: 1. Everything's Coming Up Roses--Ethel Merman (Gypsy) 2. Quadrille--the American Dance Machine (Can-Can) 3. Get Some Cash for Your Trash--Nell Carter (Ain't Misbehaving) 4. You Could Drive a Person Crazy--Donna McKechnie, Pamela Myers, Susan Browning (Company) 5. You Made Me Love You--Debbie Reynolds (Irene) 6. Try to Remember--Jerry Orbach (The Fantastics) 7. Shriner's Dance--Chita Rivera and the American Dance Machine (Bye Bye Birdie) 8. Summer Loving--Barry Bostwick and Carol Demas (Grease) 9. Sleeping Bee--Diahann Carroll (House ...
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Into the Woods
: essential video:Fractured fairy tales of a darker hue provide the remarkable context for Into the Woods, which deconstructs the Brothers Grimm by way of Rod Serling. While the faces and names are familiar, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and company inhabit a sylvan neighborhood in which witches and bakers are next-door neighbors, handsome princes from once-parallel fables are competitive (and equally vain) brothers, and all the stories intersect through unexpected new plot twists. Stephen Sondheim's Tony-winning score ...
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Nunsense 1 & 2 (2pc)
: :Nunsense The Little Sisters of Hoboken, residents of Mt. St. Helens Convent and teachers at the school, have a problem. It seems Sister Julia (Child of God) has accidentally killed off 52 sisters with a botulism-laced vichyssoise. But even worse, the remaining nuns only had enough cash to bury 48 of the dearly departed; the other four are in the freezer. Nunsense is a benefit concert staged by the Little Sisters to raise money for a proper burial (before ...
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Cats - The Musical (Commemorative Edition)
: essential video:This pop-cultural phenomenon has been performed on stage for more than 50 million patrons in 26 countries for almost 18 years, churning more than $2 billion in ticket sales. Now that Cats has finally made it to the small screen, attention must be paid not just by fans of this critic-proof show, but also by those entertainment mavens who have somehow avoided Cats until now. The video version has been restaged but, alas, not really reconceived for ...
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Stop the World I Want to Get Off
: essential video:This pop-cultural phenomenon has been performed on stage for more than 50 million patrons in 26 countries for almost 18 years, churning more than $2 billion in ticket sales. Now that Cats has finally made it to the small screen, attention must be paid not just by fans of this critic-proof show, but also by those entertainment mavens who have somehow avoided Cats until now. The video version has been restaged but, alas, not really reconceived for ...
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Hamlet / Kline, New York Shakespeare Festival (Broadway Theatre Archive)
: :Kevin Kline directs and stars in this first-rate production of Shakespeare's most famous play. Originally produced by Joseph Papp for the New York Shakespeare Festival, this version was adapted by Kline and television director Kirk Browning for PBS. While one occasionally longs for the live audience reaction, the television production does offer the advantage of seeing Hamlet with close-ups. The design is beautiful, with sets full of dark, gloomy halls and characters in elegant modern dress. Kline's interpretation of ...
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Sweeney Todd
: essential video:Stephen Sondheim's Victorian horror thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is generally considered his greatest work, macabre but darkly humorous with a viscerally powerful score that has found a home both on Broadway and in opera houses. George Hearn (who replaced Len Cariou of the original Broadway cast) plays the title character, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 18th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber), ...
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