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Broadway Shows - Why not archive on DVD? (MERGED THREAD) (1 Viewer)

MatthewA

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DeWilson said:
Heck, there's the 1981 "Snow White At Radio City Musical Hall" that Disney put on Tape 30 years ago!
That's the rarest of them all, and by rare I mean mint-condition-Japanese-Song-of-the-South-laserdisc rare, and it's rare because a now-dead cast member sued for royalties the same way Peggy Lee did. Apparently, it saved Radio City Music Hall,* showing that Disney had no hard feelings about any of the editing room fracases in which they were implicated.**


*Which made it possible for Annie to go to the movies on her first trip to Hollywood. Now I wonder whether the "watch the movie before it's done" gag in Spaceballs, which Thomas Meehan co-wrote, was a response to the Camille anachronism.
**True to form, Disney cut two songs and some stuff from the video, but if you can find and afford it but can't find a copy of the original HBO broadcast, then that's all there is my friends, so let's keep cursing the names of those responsible. Of all the things they did wrong at the House of Mouse when Card Walker and Donn Tatum were the big cheeses, the most insulting thing they did was the systematic wholesale butchery of musicals that started in post-production and, in some cases, never lets up!
 

PODER

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PETER JABLONSKI
Fortunately, I still have my Beta copy of SNOW WHITE AT RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL. Probably time to get that transferred to
DVD while it's still playable. An old Beta is hardly in the same category as "mint-condition-Japanese-laser disc", but
it's better than nothing.
 

MatthewA

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Not in terms of quality, but in terms of rarity. The VHS fetches a 3-digit sum used. Unfortunately, there was never a laserdisc.
 

DeWilson

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The Sad thing is there are lots of live-TV Adaptions of Broadway shows that aired on TV in the 1950's-1960's that still exists that will never see the light of day.

Mary Martin (1950's) and Ethel Merman (1960's) both "Annie Gets Your Gun!", There was a 1960's TV Version of "Damn Yankees!" done on NBC in the mid-1960's and so forth.

Until someone is willing to clear the rights, pay the fees, and make it profitable, it will never happen. That is if the owners are willing to licences the original material!
 

Roger Grodsky

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Even sadder, the tape of the Merm's ANNIE GET YOUR GUN was apparently erased by NBC and doesn't seem to exist (there remains a delightful Ed Sullivan performance of "I Got the Sun in the Morning").
 

Eric Vedowski

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One company that is willing to deal with the issues is VAI (Video Artists International) but their focus is primarily classical stuff.


http://www.vaimusic.com/category/DVD-M.html


Julie Andrews has recently bemoaned the fact that so much of the TV she did pre movie career is unavailable. You could put a whole DVD together with just material from the original Broadway run of "My Fair Lady" from the various variety shows & specials, cast replacements too.


Showtime did quite a few adaptations of Broadway shows back in the 80's, "Broadway on Showtime" the series was called. Many never otherwise filmed. I've always wondered why they never show them-they have so many channels.


As for the Merman "Annie," from what I've read the NBC donation of videotape to the Library of Congress still hasn't completely been cataloged. Dina Merrill paid to have a search done for the "What Makes Sammy Run?" show she appeared in and they found it-it was presumed lost for many years. The musical "Junior Miss" with Carol Lynley & Don Ameche also turned up after many years at LoC. We can always hope but...
 

Erik_H

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One of those Showtime productions from the 1980s was a taping of Lena Horne's "The Lady and Her Music" --- a 1981 production that was intended as a limited run of a month or two and became such a phenomenon that the Broadway engagement was extended for more than a year (and a constant sell-out) followed by an international tour. Horne won a special Tony and the LP/cassette recording of "The Lady and Her Music" won her the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance.


After airings on Showtime and PBS, "The Lady and Her Music" was released on VHS, probably sometime in the mid-1980s. Never reissued on VHS, or released on DVD or Blu-Ray. And the CD version of the album wasn't released until 1995 or so. I assume that the lack of availability on home video (and the lengthy delay in releasing the CD) is due to music rights issues.


A shame that this legendary performance isn't as well known as it should be today.
 

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