Sundays with Sullivan: The March Edstravaganza

We've now come to the eighth compilation of Broadway musical performances on The Ed Sullivan Show.  As I noted each time, the Sunday night TV show is arguably the most valuable archivist of Broadway musicals, for 23 years keeping performances by the original casts in full costume, often re-recreating full scenes, that would otherwise be lost to history.

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

This collection (which like all in this series was compiled by Jim Berg) is shorter than the others, just 15 minutes.  But it's long sequences from two interesting shows.  We start with a continuation from the previous video, though it's most of the sequence from Look to the Lilies, which I've posted here before.  The musical, based on the movie classic Lilies of the Field, had a very short run, but has some nice songs in it from Oscar-winning legends Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne.  The show starred Shirley Booth and Al Freeman, Jr., and the material here includes the stage show's version of one of the movie's most memorable scenes, the song "Amen," which in the musical becomes "Follow the Lamb."

And it's followed by a seven-minute scene from The Rothschilds, the last musical that Harnick & Bock wrote together.  It starred Hal Linden who won the Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical.  He and his children sing the song "Sons."  Worth noting is that the young actor who plays 'Solomon' - who enters reading a book - is played by 16-year-old Robby Benson in his Broadway debut.