Sundays with Sullivan: The May Edstravaganza
- May 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 6
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 Eynsford-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.
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