Once again, we have another compilation of musicals from the 23 years of The Ed Sullivan Show, a remarkable archive of the original casts of Broadway shows that would otherwise be lost.  As always, to give full credit, these videos were compiled by Jim Berg.

(I try to post these on the first Sunday of every month.  If you miss any, just do a search for the word "Edstravaganza".)

We begin by concluding the video that got cut off at the end of the previous compilation. This Anthony Newley finishing "Nothing Can Stop Me Now," and then going into the hit song "Who Can I Turn To?" from the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint -- The Smell of the Crowd.  Worth noting in his performance of the latter is that it makes fully clear that, contrary to all other pop music recordings of the song, it is not a love song sung to a woman, but rather a man at a low point in his life, a bit lost, looking up to heaven for help from God.

Hallelujah, Baby has an odd history.  It won the 1968 Tony Award for Best Musical - but when it came time to put on a performance for the Tony Award, they had to get the cast back together, because the show had closed, after 293 performances.  In fact, it won five Tony Awards, including Best Actress in a Musical for Leslie Uggams.  She sings two songs here, "Being Good" and the title number.

While this clip of Mame is from the original production, it's not the original cast.  Rather, it's Jane Morgan who was the third replacement.  But the song "It's Today" is an enjoyable one and a lively production number.

Zorba is probably my favorite of the lesser-known Kander & Ebb musicals (who wrote Cabaret and Chicago, among many others).  Unfortunately, it was hindered by an unfair problem -- its two leads, Herschel Bernardi and Maria Karnilova starred together on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof as 'Tevye' and 'Golde."  (She was in the original cast, he was the first replacement.)  Both shows were written by Joseph Stein.  And both shows took place in Eastern Europe.  So, Zorba got looked at as if it would be just like Fiddler - and it was not at all.  But audience's expectations hurt the show, which had only a fair run of 304 performances.  (Interestingly, years later, a revival of the show was done with Anthony Quinn and Lila Kedrova repeating their famous film roles, and the movie's director Michael Cacoyonnis director the stage musical, and Zorba had a very successful tour of the country - where I saw it in Los Angeles -- and a solid return to Broadway.)  Here, we get to see the musical's original cast with Herschel Bernardi performing the opening song and an enthusiastic production number.
 
Husband and wife Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé starred in the musical Golden Rainbow.  So, officially they're the "original cast" here - though their appearance is just singing the title song.  (The show had a big hit to come out of it for Sammy Davis, Jr., "I Gotta Be Me.")

Promises, Promises, which starred Jerry Orbach, is based on the Billy Wilder classic - and Oscar-winning Best Picture, The Apartment.  (It's also the second musical I ever saw actually on Broadway.)  The number here, "Turkey Lurkey Time," is a ridiculous song with insipid lyrics and doesn't advance the plot or define character one inch, but it's a lively dance number. 

We only see a few seconds from Look to the Lilies before the compilation cuts off.  But I've posted it here before - and the next compilation with have the full sequence again.
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Operation Mincemeat is a British musical based on a totally ludicrous but true story about a oddball plan by MI5 in WWII to trick the Germans into thinking Britain planned to invade Greece, when the real target was Sicily.  At the heart of the plan was the use of the dead body of a tramp, designed to be a British officer complete with military plans, official documents and even a love letter from his fake girlfriend.  Among the intelligence team was a young officer named Ian Fleming, who of course went on to write the James Bon novels.  It’s been adapted into a couple of very good movies, The Man Who Never Was, and most recently Operation Mincemeat with Colin Firth and Matthew Madfadyen.
 
And in 2023, a lively, rambunctious comedy musical opened on the West End, where it was nominated for six Olivier Awards, winning two, including Best Musical.  It’s now on Broadway, where got four Tony nominations, including Best Musical, winning for Best Supporting Actor.  The casting mix-and-matches genders, with some women playing male character, and several of the mean playing women.
 
My pal, the inveterate Chris Dunn, saw the show in New York, raved about it, and sent me a link to one particular song which is what I want to post here.  It was really wonderful, but to put it in a fuller context, I’m going to start with what I think is the opening number.  They performed it at both the Olivier and Tony Award telecasts, and it's wildly energetic and, from what I know about the show, is the sensibility of the evening.  I’ll add that the song goes very fast, so I’ve never caught most of the words, though you can put on the Closed Captioning option (though it's a bit hard to keep up).

We’re back with the sixth compilation of Broadway musicals numbers that were performed on The Ed Sullivan Show,  during the show’s 23 years as a remarkable archive of musicals whose original cast performances would almost all otherwise be lost.
 
I try to post these on the first Sunday of every month.  If you miss any, just do a search for the word "Edstravaganza".
 
We start today with the continuation of  The Most Happy, that was interrupted at the end of the previous compilation.  (As a refresher, you can check out that December Edstravaganza again here.)
 
This is followed by a performance of Lerner & Loewe’s Paint Your Wagon, with one of the hit songs, “I Talk to the Trees,” from the original cast member Tony Bavaar.  In the somewhat-odd, 1969 movie adaptation of the show, it was sort of, kind of sung by Clint Eastwood.  From this clip, you get to hear it actually sung.
 
In an previous compilation,  we had a song from The Sound of Music.  It was the original production, but from the replacement cast.  This is the original cast, with two songs, including Patricia Neway singing a particularly moving rendition of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”.
 
Next comes another song from Destry Rides Again, for which we also had a clip in an earlier compilation.  The musical starred Andy Griffith, though this is a dance production number.  Worth noting is that the first outlaw who enters is introduced as Marc Breaux.  He went on to have a very successful career as a choreographer for movie musicals, most famously Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
 
A wonderful treat comes next.  Two songs from the hit musical Carnival! featuring the show's two stars – Anna Maria Alberghetti and (for those who still might not know what a truly major Broadway star he was) Jerry Orbach.  I’ve never understood why Carnival! has never been made into a movie (or TV musical, which I tried to push once, suggesting it to someone who had a deal with Disney TV) – after all, it was nominated as Best Musical and is based on a classic dramatic movie, Lili, with Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer.  It's seemed ideal for a film version.  So, all the more a joy to have this footage preserved.  (Fun Fact:  Carnival! was very loosely inspired by Kukla, Fran and Ollie.  The original short story by Paul Gallico which is the basis of the show, was set in a TV studio and about a shy puppeteer whose characters talk with a woman out front.  When Gallico later expanded it into a novella that takes place in a European traveling circus, he dedicated the book to Burr Tilllstrom, who created KF&O.)
 
Then comes Anthony Newley from the show he co-wrote with Leslie Bricusse, The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd.  Long ago, I posted his performance of one of the show’s big hits, “Who Can I Turn To?, but I’d never before seen this number, “Nothing Can Stop Me Now,” which Newley's beaten-down character ‘Cocky’ sings after finally, to his amazement, wins the “game” he’s been playing with the lordly ‘Sir,’ who makes up all the rules.  We get a minute-and-a-half of it here, but it unfortunately cuts off at that point.  However, it concludes and also adds “Who Can I Turn To?” in the next compilation upcoming.  Watch this space.  And as always, to give full credit, these videos were compiled by Jim Berg.

​Since it is now officially 12 days to Christmas, I figured what better time to post the song "12 Days to Christmas" from the musical, She Loves Me.  The show has a score by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, who wrote Fiddler on the Roof, among others.

Rather than just post the audio of the song, this is a video of it, along with the last several minutes of the show.  It's comes from the Roundabout Theatre production in 1983 that starred Judy Kuhn and Boyd Gaines.

She Loves Me is based on the Hungarian play (and its subsequent Hollywood movie, Shop Around the Corner) which were the foundation of the movie You've Got Mail.  If you've seen any of those, you'll have a good idea of what's going on in the sequence here.  During the course of the song, the young man, Mr. Novak, tries to build up his relationship with Amelia Balish, with whom he had long been sniping, but only recently discovered has been his pen pal with who he's in love.  

The video jumps from this to the finale, when Miss Balish at last realizes he has long been her secret pen pal who she's in love with, as well.  (The line he sings, to prove who he is, "I am so sorry about last night," is the first line in the letter she wrote to her pen pal, apologizing for the screw-up when they were supposed to have met at a restaurant.)  And it all leads to a reprise of the wonderful song, "Ice Cream," with new lyrics for the final scene -- and then into the curtain call.
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And what the heck, it's 12 days to Christmas, so as a bonus lets go to "The 12 Days of Christmas."  Although, this is a bit of a different version.

Here are Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas from SCTV as 'Bob and Doug McKenzie' with their version of the classic song, on their “Great White North” album.