Here is #10 in our series of a dozen compilations (unless I find more…) of Broadway cast performances from 23 years of The Ed Sullivan Show, which might otherwise have been lost to history.  And as always, to give full credit, these videos were compiled by a fellow named 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 start with a continuation from the end of last month's Edstravaganza of the unlikely appearance by famed director/writer Joshua Logan (whose work includes South Pacific, Annie Get Your Gun, Mr. Roberts and much more) who had suffered a well-publicized nervous breakdown, and he comes on the show to, remarkably, talk about it – hardly what you’d expect anywhere, but especially on a TV variety show with jugglers, puppets, opera singers and more.  It unfortunately cuts off early, right after an odd point, but we get to hear plenty.  (If you missed it, you can watch the first part from last month here.)
 
Back to performances, next is John Raitt with one of his several signature songs, “Hey, There,” from the musical The Pajama Game.  Having said that, and though the performance is in costume and with a full set, I don’t exactly understand what this is – because The Pajama Game is a modern-day story about union workers at a garment factory, and this setting here looks like a medieval castle dungeon.  Raitt recreated his role in the movie adaptation, and the song takes place in his office, while talking into a Dictaphone.  (For those interested, you can see it here.)  So, I’m at a total loss what they were doing – most likely they just brought him back to sing the number and decided to put it in this weird staging.  But it’s still great to see him doing the song and at that time.  And stick around, because not much later in this compilation he returns with what is probably his most famous signature song, and done in a reasonably appropriate setting.
 
Next is another popular song from The Pajama Game, one of its stars Janis Paige singing “Hernando’s Hideaway.”  The thing is, though Janis Paige was the female lead in the musical…her character did *not* sing this song.  So, this is different staging and a different performer – but it’s at least a whole lot closer.
 
Because John Raitt was in The Pajama Game, he's there on the Sullivan TV show and brought in to sing, as noted above, his classic song from Carousel, the renowned Soliloquy.  No, this isn’t in the right setting, either but it’s reasonably close enough, since it was performed solo on stage, and that’s pretty much all that matters.
 
As part of the fifth anniversary celebration that the Sullivan show did for My Fair Lady, John Michael King (the original actor who played ‘Freddy Eynesford-Hill’) returned to recreate in costume his famous number, “On the Street Where You Live.”  And he gives a surprisingly enthusiastic (and wonderful) interpretation of a song that is generally considered low-key.
 
Interestingly, since it’s from the Broadway cast of My Fair Lady, this is not Rex Harrison, but the actor who temporarily replaced him when on vacation.  And the actor, Edward Mulhare – though perhaps not known at the time – later went on to star in the TV series, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, that aired from 1968-70.  And to make this all the more whimsical and bring it full circle, the 1947 movie that the TV show was based on starred… Rex Harrison!  Here, Mulhare sings “Why Can’t the English?”
 
And Mulhare returns right after to sing, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”  Though these two songs were written to be “talk-sung” for Rex Harrison’s limited singing range, it’s pretty clear here that Mulhare appears to have a nice singing voice, and – though he does “talk-sing” them, he veers into singing a bit more.  And as much as it would be great to see Rex Harrison here, he is on film in the movie, after all, and so it’s actually fascinating, valuable and terrific to see Mulhare’s interpretation.  There’s much similarity to Harrison’s performance, but with his own more gentle sensibility.
 
And finally, we end with a performance that isn’t Broadway, but Broadway adjacent.  This is Cyril Ritchard performing a number from what I believe is from a made-for-TV musical, Aladdin – which has its Broadway connection with its score by Cole Porter.  And it comes with some very surprising special effects.

We're back with the ninth 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.

Having said all that, first up is not from an original cast or even in costume.  But it's a replacement star from the original run of South Pacific - Florence Henderson as herself singing one of her character's big numbers.

But next is one of those treasures to have a record of.  This is an 11-minute scene from what would otherwise be a lost, legendary musical -- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, with Johnny Johnston and Marcia Van Dyke, and a score by the great Dorothy Fields and Arthur Schwartz.  The show also featured Shirley Booth, who I've previously posted singing several of her songs from the show on a variety show.  Though it only had a modest run, the musical has a certain fame because of Shirley Booth being so wonderful in her supporting role as the lively aunt that the show got rewritten to focus more on her, which imbalanced the story away from the husband and wife, who were the main characters.  And this moving sequence with two songs by the lead characters gives a sense of the original intent.

Then comes Elaine Stritch with a lovely and unique rendition of the Rodgers & Hart standard, "You Took Advantage of Me" from the 1954 revival of On Your Toes.  It's wonderful to see her at this point in her career, since she later went through a 10-year, fallow period until she returned to Broadway in 1970 and exploded in Sondheim's Company with what became her signature tour-de-force "The Ladies Who Lunch."

That brings Eartha Kitt at the start of her career with two songs from the revue, New Faces of 1953.

Finally, we have two songs and a dance number from Wish You Were Here, with a score by Harold Rome who wrote Fanny, from which I posted a wonderful long sequence a while back.  It's little-known today, but had a very successful run for 598 performances, a year-and-a-half.

Stick around, though, after the sequence, since Ed introduces famed director and writer Josh Logan (among his extensive credits, he directed and co-wrote the stage musical of South Pacific, and directed the film adaptation, directed Annie Get Your Gun for the stage, and the play and movie of Picnic, as well as co-wrote the play and screen adaptation of Mr. Roberts  - but also directed the above-performed Wish You Were Here,)  Logan had suffered a well-publicized nervous breakdown, and he comes on the show to, remarkably, talk about it - not the normal fare for a TV variety show.  We don't get the full speech before it cuts off, but there's enough to appreciate - and be surprised by it.  And it continues in the next compilation.  And as always, full credit for compiling these videos goes to Jim Berg.

Recently, I referenced some TV shows that held auditions to cast parts in stage show.  It was done both in the U.S. and England, though one that was only done in the U.K. was to cast the roles of ‘Nancy’ and “Oliver’ in a 2008 West End production of Oliver!  They called the competition show, I'd Do Anything.  And this was no small potatoes thing – it starred Rowan Atkinson as ‘Fagin (yes, Rowan Atkinson) and was produced by Cameron Macintosh.  I mention this because one of the contestants was an 18-year-old girl named Jessie Buckley.  She didn’t win (which is almost inexplicable, since the videos I’ve seen of her in the TV competition, she’s absolutely wonderful – and of course what we know of her work since…including – well, just winning the Oscar for Best Actress), though she did finish second.  I can only assume the winner was a gem.  But still…
 
This must have been a nerve-wracking experience since not only are you auditioning on national television, but two of the three judges were Cameron Macinstosh (who, as I noted, would be producing the stage production they were actually auditioning for) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (who I believe may have created the series.)  The host of the show was Graham Norton, who many people in the U.S. now known from his chat show on BBC America.
 
I should note that for anyone surprised about Jessie Buckley being such a good singer, she won the Olivier Award in 2021 as Best Actress in a Musical for Cabaret, and also made a movie in England – I don’t know if it got released in the U.S. – “Wild Rose” in which she plays a rough young woman trying to survive while her dream is to be a country music singer.  She sings throughout the movie, and even had a British hit that she performed at the BAFTA Awards.
 
It wasn’t long after she appeared on I’d Do Anything that I first became aware of her work.  Not as a singer (I didn’t know of this audition series until much later), but in a tiny role in the 2019 HBO limited series Chernobyl, and she leaped out to me from her few scenes, since I thought she’d be perfect for a film project I was working on.   When I initially brought her up, the response was understandably, “Who’s she?”  Over time, her talent became abundantly evident.   Now, it's "Yes, she's great.”
 
(By the way, to add to the “But still…” aspect of Jessie Buckley coming in second here, one of the other 12 contestants – and who didn’t make it to the finals -- was Samantha Barks.  She later went on to star in the movie of Les Miserables as ‘Eponine.”  And also starred on the West End as ‘Elsa’ in the stage production of Frozen, as well as originating the role of ‘Vivian’ in the Broadway production of the musical version of Pretty Woman.  She didn’t win either, though she finished third.  So, the second and third-place actresses were pretty darn great.)

I have two videos of Jessie Buckley from the finale, when it’s down to her and one other actress.  What’s worth noting, when saying that she didn’t win the audition, is that the judges don’t decide who wins in the finale.  That’s up to audience call-in votes.  And what’s interesting (and pretty clear) from the judges’ comments after both performances is that they had the wisdom to recognize how superb Jessie Buckley is.  And I’m 100% sure if it was up to them, she’d have been selected.  As it was, Jessie Buckley was a big fan favorite (just not quiiiiite big enough…), and it’s what helped launch her career.
 
First, here on the finale are Jessie Buckley and Gwion Wyn Jones (who was auditioning for the role of ‘Oliver’ – and won) adorably performing the song, “Truly Scrumptious” from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  (Considering that Cameron Macintosh was actually producing the stage production of Oliver! that this was for, you have to know – once you hear what he says after this performance – that he was aching for the audience to vote for her.

Jessie Buckley tends to get cast in very serious roles, often dark ones.  But I've always found her in her interviews to be very funny, and the total charm she shows here confirms that.

SIDE NOTE: After the performance, you'll see a little blonde girl in the audience cheering her and holding a sign, "Jessie for Nancy."  That's her little sister.
​

And finally, this is Jessie Buckley being Jessie Buckley, even at age 18, and blowing the roof off the house and singing “As Long as He Needs Me.”  And remember, as you watch this – the majority of the audience didn’t vote for her.  (But as you hear the deep praise Andrew Lloyd Webber says after this one, I have no doubt that Cameron Macintosh was nodding in furious agreement inside.  After all, we do see him on his feet wildly applauding and shouting “Bravo!!!”  (In fact, right before that, as she nears the crescendo of her performance, at the 1:05 mark, you can see Macintosh from the back, and I swear it's like he makes a very tiny "bounce" in his chair and turns -- sort of like looking at the other experts, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing??!")  So, you can only imagine how much he wanted her in his production.  Note: I’ve seen a longer clip, and only Lloyd Webber is asked to comment, so Cameron Macintosh's reaction isn't left out here.)  Still, it’s nice to know she’s done just fine since…

By the way, in his great praise of her performance, Andrew Lloyd Webber wonders if she'd be able to sustain that intensity night after night.  Given what we've seen of her performances and career in the intervening 17 years, the answer is -- yes.
 
Finally, for people who watch these competition-type shows, let this be a lesson that you don’t have to win to have an amazing career.  And even, a far more successful one than the winner.
​

Continuing our celebration of Opening Day, this is a fun song from the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which was adapted into an animated TV special.
​