Since there’s a lot of other theater/musical buffs on SDMB I decided to start this spinoff of the now huge “What’s Your Favorite YouTube Clip” thread.
YouTube has some great clips from Broadway shows (musicals and non), Tony Awards musical numbers, college & community theater productions (of VASTLY varied quality from “Ed Wood Presents” to “this could be pro”) to clips of movies based on plays. There are lots that I love, but for now I’ll just post professional productions. Please add your own favorites and they can be movie clips, professional, amateur, or anything remotely applicable.
I’ll start with my favorite big budget musical numbers:
The Circle of Life from The Lion King (Tony Awards presentation, though nothing can capture the experience in person- this number alone is worth the price of a ticket if you ever get a chance to see it on Broadway or the touring company- the only standing ovation I’ve ever seen after an opening number)
Down Home from a televised stage production of Purlie. I saw this on TV and watched my VHS of it until it wore out; it’s currently unavailable on video. Guillaume was brilliant in this role (even Ossie Davis, who detested the musical of his play, said this much). I hope they’ll add more- New Fangled Preacher Man or 10 Feet Tallespecially.
Cool Cool Considerate Men from the movie 1776. Because it can be construed as an anti-Conservatives number, Richard Nixon personally requested its deletion of his friend Jack Warner and so it was cut from the theatrical release and did not reappear until the second release of the DVD.
Opening Number of Ragtime, abridged from the full number, presented at the Tony’s. I would buy a tape of this play the second it was available: Brian Stokes Mitchell (wasted on Trapper John MD) is just ab-fab. Would love to see Coalhouse Demands added if it was ever filmed.
There are many more that I love but there are many more and I’m curious to see what others post (assuming others post).
My current favorite, however, is not a musical but the clips from a one-man show written by and starring (in a brilliant performance) a character actor I’m not very familiar with named Jim Brochu. The play is Zero Hour and Brochu portrays Zero Mostel, the brilliant obese comic actor best remembered as the original Max Bialystok (or perhaps as Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum or as Tevye from the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Fiddler on the Roof), but like most “famous funnymen” his life was often tragic. Mostel was extremely intellectual, well read on many subjects, polylingual, equally devout as a Jew and as an atheist (I realize the contradiction) and very much the stereotype of a “theatrical personality”: self-absorbed, erratic, moody, impractical, prone to obnoxious outbursts and tantrums, simultaneously very deep and very shallow, and never knowing when to keep his mouth shut. He was also an unapologetic Marxist at one time and of course this was not a good thing for his career in the 1940s/1950s.
- Zero discusses the blacklist
- Zero testifies before the House Unamerican Activities Committee
Mostel’s career was destroyed by McCarthyism in general and the testimony of (flamboyantly gay choreographer) Jerome Robbins (ne’ Jerome Rabinowitz, which I mention because Zero had problems with what we would call “closeted” Jews in entertainment). Reviving his career was a slow uphill climb for more than a decade. When he received the lead in Forum the show had such major problems and such dreadful out-of-town reviews that its producers called in consultants to fix it so as not to lose their already significant investment, and one consultant was (flamboyantly gay choreographer) Jerome Robbins.
3)Brochu as Zero tells about his “reunion” with Robbins.
All the clips are both very funny and very serious, particularly number three. Here’s a transcript of the final portion of 3, where after everybody greets Robbins cordially they part to let Zero, whose reaction they are all very nervous about, say hello. CAPS indicated agitated talking.
[QUOTE]
Mostel’s first words to Robbins:
If you don’t want to watch the clips, here’s a transcript of my favorite part
Zero achieved a slow comeback on stage and was of course cast as Pseudolus in the original cast of Forum. While Forum was having its out-of-town tryouts it
Enjoy and if you have any faves PLEASE post them. I can’t get enough theatre, good or bad.
