BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL - new series on PBS

Maria Friedman is in The Woman in White, the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical which I saw in London in September. I had never heard of her before, either, but I thought she was very good -- if only she had had interesting music to sing, she could have been sensational.

That's a shame about Woman in White. (I had a feeling you might have seen Friedman at one time.)

I'll be danged if I can find out when the Cameron Macintosh special was aired. I see it's at Auction EBay, but no date. No DVD, just VHS. Julie Andrews doesn't sing in this special, but at the conclusion of Jonathan Pryce's "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face", her voice is heard speaking the famous line, "I washed my face, etc." She then walked on to the stage to thunderous applause. (Maybe four years ago)

Bernadette Peters just finished singing "Being Alive". Audience loves her.

Are the names Millicent Martin and McFerrin (didn't get the 3rd singer) familiar? They performed "Side by Side".

I'll try to find it on DVD as I don't remember when this was on PBS but I remember it was sometime this year and I missed it.

LW: Did you see the earlier threads. It's called Hey Mr. Producer, the Musical World of Cameron Macintosh. It was a performance before Queen Elizabeth at the Lyceum Theatre in London. PBS didn't offer it on DVD, just VHS.

Yes, I couldn't find it even in the on saleDVD PBS list currently running at Amazon.

In the last couple of seasons of the TV show "Frasier", Millicent Martin played Daphne's incredibly annoying mother. Before that, she had a long career onstage, mostly in London but occasionally on Broadway. IBDB (the Internet Broadway database, which is kind of like the Broadway equivalent of imdb, only not nearly as complete) shows that she was in the original Broadway production of The Boyfriend (in which Julie Andrews made her Broadway debut, when she was still a teenager) in 1954-55, and also appeared in a Sondheim revue in the 1970's and the Gower Champion-directed revival of 42nd Street (as opposed to the production that's currently on Broadway) in the 1980's.

When I looked up Millicent Martin on imdb, I was delighted to see that she's in the cast of a movie called Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, which is scheduled for release in 2005. The reason I was delighted is that the movie is based on a novel by Elizabeth Taylor (the English novelist, not the actress) which I love. Joan Plowright is playing Mrs. Palfrey, and there are several other familiar names in the cast, so it should be good.

By the way, if you scroll down on Millicent Martin's imdb page to the list of her appearances as "Herself", you'll see a listing for the Cameron Mackintosh show. If you follow that link to the page for the show itself, and then click on "Release dates" on the left side, it says it was shown in the U.S. on November 8, 1998. And if you click on the U.S. format-DVD symbol in the box at the upper right of the page, it takes you to an Amazon page that says the DVD will be available in "1 to 2 months" (but we know what that means).

Wow. Thanks for the info, Bree. I haven't watched Frazier in quite a while. From the applause of the audience, it was apparent that she is well-known to the theatre-going public.

I've got the Broadway site in my favorites. I'll check out IMdb a little later re the DVD info. (I have ordered a lot of CDs from Amazon, and the Andrea Marcovicchi (SP?) CDs are the only ones I've had difficulty in obtaining. But, then there's Mac's book. (lol)

I'm going to check out Mrs. Palfrey, too.

I deleted the first part of my recording from my DVD accidentally (meant to delete the station's pledge part) and am now starting all over. I don't mind though. I'm listening while I'm chatting here. (lol) Miss Saigon's on right now with Pryce and Salonga.

Mac: I don't want this Broadway thread to get lost. OK?

Check out your PBS TV schedule for Broadway's Lost Treasures II (Tony Award performances between 1967 and 1986) It's on here this Friday at 10PM. I don't know whether it's an old show or not, but I don't have it on tape so I'm going to watch it and it looks great.

I'm taping the 1993 Kennedy Center Honors now and I just watched the tribute to Stephen Sondheim. Now, I know earlier I said Judi Dench was my favorite "Send in the Clowns" performer, but -- I just watched Angela Lansbury performing it and now I'm not sure. Sondheim is a charmer - what a gorgeous smile! Edward Valella danced to Little Night Music and, of course, Bernadette Peters performed, as did Scott Bakula (No One Will Harm You) and Jason Alexander -- and all of them together doing Side by Side. WOW.

I checked over the next week and a half, but that program's not listed.

I always love the Kennedy Center Honors. I remember the one you're describing.

Arthur Mitchell's Harlem dancers are performing for him now.

Please let me know when you see this year's Kennedy Center Honors posted if you think of it. I don't want to miss it. The honorees received their Awards on December 5.

I've got 10 Kennedy Honors shows taped, but I've missed some really good ones, Lucille Ball, Katharine Hepburn and Jack Lemmon among the missing.

The Kennedy Center website says it will be a two-hour special on CBS "later in December."

So I went to the CBS website and found out that they will be broadcast on Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 9 p.m. ET.

Mark your calendars.

Bravo, Mac. I just marked my calendar.

Just thought I'd give this thread a little boost.

"Broadway Treasures 11" which I mentioned awhile ago never showed up on PBS, but I've just finished taping the PBS special "Broadway Love Songs, Festival 2001" onto DVD, and have added two more Broadway ladies to my favorites list.

1. Rebecca Luker sang 'Til There Was You" and "Too Late Now" from Royal Wedding (WOW)

2. and Marin Maazie sang "So in Love" and "Not A Day Goes By".(love her voice)

Ron Raines did Gigi songs (I like him, too)
Linda Eder sang "What Kind of Fool Am I", and some others. (I'm more familiar with her as I have her performing Jekyll and Hyde on CD.)

Bebe Newwirth and Nathan Lane performed. (delightful)

Peter Gallagher and Barry Manilow did some songs, too.

And the finale was Michael Crawford singing "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" and waltzing with Julie Andrews.

Just thought I'd share my most recent Broadway trip.

just came back from an afternoon performance of "crazy for you" put on by students from queen's university performing arts guild; they are finishing a ten-day run tonight - full house. great broadway tunes, great singing and dancing, 1st class 26 piece pit band. it was a great afternoon while the outside temperature hovered around minus 22 C. the university has a well-known school of music which helps when putting on a show. in march they'll be performing 'elixir of love' by donezetti - can't wait. hbg

Raggedy and hamburger, it sounds like you both had great musical afternoons!

And I saw Bob Fossee, too.

and Hamburger, I didn't have to trudge through any snow to see my shows. (lol)

"Broadway Treasures II" did show up on my local OC PBS channel but I wasn't sure what it was and if I'd seen in. I guess I'd better check closer!

didn't have to trudge through the snow ! car is parked under the carport - we drove right into the covered garage adjacent to our local theatre ! but have to go out and push/shovel snow now. we are still under extreme windchill warning - minus 30 to 40 C. so we better be careful. sun is shining, though. hbg

Hamburger: That's a mighty convenient theatre. (lol) And I thought it was cold here. Our wind chill factor is only 15 below.

Lightwizard: Our station Guide listed B'way Treasures II to be shown on PBS, but PBS aired another show instead.

I didn't see it in the programming in time so I wouldn't know if the preempted it.