Sunday with Sullivan: The January Edstravaganza
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.
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