'Broadway' explores Golden Age of musicals
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
Every few years, someone issues a death certificate for the American musical, then along comes a "Lion King" or a "Rent" on Broadway or a "Chicago" on the screen, and talk of a great resurrection begins. Still, it's difficult not to be nostalgic for the musical's so-called Golden Age, though no one seems to be able to explain exactly when that was.
As a consequence, we get a lot of occasionally contentious but mostly illuminating debate in "Broadway: The American Musical," a six-part documentary made for PBS, where it will premiere Oct. 19, but already available on DVD (Paramount).
Director Michael Kantor surveys 100 years of musical theater, tracing the musical from its roots in operetta to its current fascination with rock scores and spectacles.
"Broadway," narrated by Julie Andrews, tries to cram a lot of clips and interviews into six hours, which would be the approximate amount of time I spent in "Starlight Express" before seizing the opportunity to flee, but fans will undoubtedly enjoy the opportunity to see rare film clips and re-creations (though the latter are not identified as such, which could cause some confusion) and enjoy the recollections and anecdotes of people like Kitty Carlisle, who was married to Moss Hart.
The best segment may be the one devoted to black musicals and race, if only for its tribute to the great comic Bert Williams, a pivotal if often overlooked figure in theater history.
"Broadway" also explores how musicals translated to film and how, more recently, films have been refitted for the stage.
And that reminds us that three of the best clip movies ever made were 1974's "That's Entertainment," a celebration of the great MGM musicals; its equally fine 1976 sequel, "That's Entertainment Part 2" (which mixed in comedy and even dramatic sequences); and the almost-as-good "That's Entertainment III," from 1994, now collected as the "That's Entertainment Trilogy Giftset" (Warner.).
The films are also available individually. The box contains a fourth disc titled "Treasures from the Vault."
Jerry Lewis is back
Quick, ask yourself, did Jerry Lewis ever do Broadway? (The answer is yes. He played the devil in the 1994-95 revival of "Damn Yankees.") But Lewis, who in emulation of Jackie Gleason once conducted a series of orchestral records, almost always incorporated musical numbers into his films. Two brilliant examples are found in two of the Lewis films newly released by Paramount.
The first number happens to be in a brilliant film, 1963's "The Nutty Professor," a Jekyll-and-Hyde-inspired comedy in which Lewis plays a geeky scientist who, upon drinking his own formula, is transformed into Buddy Love, a swinging, singing, lounge lizard.
The other is the classic bit in 1961's "The Errand Boy," in which Lewis' put-upon movie studio gofer sneaks into the chairman's office, seats himself behind the desk and pantomimes a string of executive decisions to a big band song on the score. It's a piece of seated choreography that qualifies as a production number.
Along with Lewis' 1960 debut as a director, "The Bellboy," those are the best of the remastered and, in most cases, remixed-for-Surround titles. But as hard as it might be to imagine for those who know Lewis only from TV and telethons, there are a couple of bits in all of Lewis' 1950s and '60s solo movies that render them worth watching.
These include his first film as a solo, 1957's "The Delicate Delinquent," in which a role intended for Dean Martin was reduced and given to Darren McGavin when Lewis and Martin broke up; and 1960's, Frank Tashlin-directed "Cinderfella," the first time we see Lewis' maudlin streak get in the way of the gags.
But wait. There are more movies: 1961's "The Ladies' Man," with Lewis as an unlucky-in-love nebbish who takes a job as handyman at a girls school; 1964's "The Patsy," in which the pathos begins to overpower the humor; "The Disorderly Orderly," which is hilarious slapstick; and 1965's "The Family Jewels."
Also available on DVD for the first time is 1953's "The Stooge."
And there's more
The week's major recent theatrical rerelease, the environmental disaster epic "The Day After Tomorrow" (Fox) is not a complete disaster, but it was something less than eventful, though you would hardly know it from the array of extras and the care of presentation afforded the DVD.
Less noticed but far more entertaining is the comedy "Saved!" (MGM), starring Jena Malone as a Christian high school student who sleeps with her boyfriend because he's worried he may be gay. She gets pregnant and becomes an outcast in a school whose standards are set by a pious hypocrite played by Mandy Moore.
Even more overlooked was the tense Italian chiller "I'm Not Scared" (Miramax). It's about a boy in rural Italy who discovers a frightening secret that puts his family and his innocence in jeopardy.
