Ladies First

Over the years, I've posted a bunch of clips for a wonderful PBS special done over 20 years ago in 1998, called My Favorite Broadway:  The Leading Ladies.  They did a series of these "My Favorite Broadway" specials, each with a different theme, and they were all wonderful.  I think the theme of this one should be clear...

Anyway, I found a video of the full show!  And it's a joy seeing all those earlier performances I've posted, along with so much more, all together.  Among the cast are Julie Andrews, Elaine Stritch, Audra McDonald, Jennifer Holliday, Anna Kendrick (at age 10, in a hilarious number I've posted here), Andrea McArdle Liza Minnellii and...well, a great many more, I won't give them all away.  Some people recreating numbers they performed on Broadway, like Priscilla Lopez singing "Nothing" that she did in A Chorus Line, others doing both well-known classics and lesser-known gems.  Among the latter is a wonderful piece I've posted here, "I Wanna Be a Rockette," from a show that never went anywhere Kicks (written by Alan Menken, who did The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and much more, and Tom Eyen, who co-wrote A Chorus Line), which I specifically (and perhaps solely) love because of the exuberant tour-de-force performance by the also lesser-known Karen Ziemba -- and staged in a way that not only fits the number as perfectly as it can, but which you wouldn't get anywhere else. (She's actually in a couple numbers here, including one from the revival of Chicago she did with Bebe Neuwirth.)  Linda Eder also gives a vibrantly-rousing performance of a song not generally performed by leading ladies -- "I, Don Quixote."  And I love a beautifully-arranged trio sung by the great Audra McDonald, the terrific Marin Mazzie and one of my faves, Judy Kuhn.  There even are a couple of men -- though it's totally fitting:  Robert Morse and Tony Roberts, who had hid in drag when they starred in Sugar, the musical based on the movie Some Like It Hot --. that even comes with an added opposite joke, which I won't give away.  And much more, including a really nice finale.

Anyway, it's all over two hours, and the video quality is excellent.  So, here's the whole show, done at Carnegie Hall.