TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

mark.waltz Recent musicals come and go with quick closings (the very original and outstanding "The Last Ship" and a wonderful revisal of "Side Show"), and it is in looking back at the more than 150 years of New York musical theater that reflects on its rocky road from the days of Longacre Square to today's tourist trap. This documentary focuses not on the earlier days of New York's musical theater (skipping over "The Black Crook", the first long running show) but pretty much starting with the years of the "Ziegfeld Follies" and focusing on early Broadway celeb's as George M. Cohan, Al Jolson, Marilyn Miller, Fanny Brice, and quite sadly, black icons like Bert Williams and Ethel Waters who made good in spite of prejudices and earlier tragedies.From there, the songwriters take over, Jerome Kern ("Sunny", "Show Boat", the first serious musical play), Rodgers and Hart with their complexly written words and music, George Gershwin taking us down into rhapsodies in blue, and Cole Porter with his wit and urbane sophistication. Political and issue themed shows like "The Cradle Will Rock" and "Porgy and Bess" (giving white audiences a chance to see what squalor free black Americans were forced to live in) and jazzy musicals with Ethel Merman pre-dated "Oklahoma!" which began the golden age, leading to a series of never to be forgotten Rodgers and Hammerstein shows and other groundbreaking musicals which lead to the Sondheim era and a string of Jerry Herman hits. Sondheim gets more attention here, with only passing mention of "Hello, Dolly!" and one brief shot of the groundbreaking "La Cage Aux Folles". But in only 6 hours, there's only so much you can cover.While the musical pretty much goes up to the early days of the triumph "Wicked", it does also cover such memorable Broadway figures as producer David Merrick, choreographer/directors Bob Fosse, Gower Champion and Michael Bennett, the legendary Harold Prince (and his collaboration with Sondheim) and features some rare footage from not only the Tony's and the Ed Sullivan show but from other rare kinescopes as well. Broadway certainly has gone farther in building back up audiences since where the story ends here and shows no signs of stopping. Political history mixed with music appreciation make this fascinating not only for musical theater fans but also as a study of sociology. So let's here it also for the missing shows from here, including "Kiss Me Kate", "Mame", "Follies", "Annie", "Grand Hotel", "Aida" and those made after-my favorites being "Monty Python's Spamelot", "The Color Purple", and "Kinky Boots".Now if we could only get a documentary on Broadway's flops and why they didn't succeed, that would be great as well!

Jay Harris Greetings from California:In your excellent review questioned why John Lahr did not mention is father Bert Lahr (Cowardly Lion in Wizard of Oz) In the 1950's I was friendly with John's brother and was told that only he was not overly close to his father, John was raised by his mother (not my friends Mother) & was a good deal younger than John, He hardly ever saw John & John hardly ever saw his father.A closely knit family this was not.John Lahr has written a book as well on his fathers life & times. I have forgotten the title, however.

bijou-2 For many of us, with only a passing knowledge of American musical theatre, this is a godsend. I always suspected that these composers borrowed freely from each other and was not surprised to find out that they were often each others mentors. The section on the THE CRADLE WILL ROCK was an alarming history lesson in recent censorship and should be as much a part of school curriculum as prohibition or blacklisting. Perhaps New York would not be so quick to condemn other states if it faced its own history of oppression since the behaviour of the city has often been the forerunner of standards, including censorship, elsewhere.The series captures the social and artistic effects of SHOW BOAT, OKLAHOMA!, WEST SIDE STORY, HAIR and A CHORUS LINE among many others and beautifully highlights the effect they had not only on audiences but also on the talent behind the scenes. One surprising (and annoying) feature of this set is the misguided effort to highlight the contribution of African Americans by segregating black performances into sections. The final effect is an "us and them" result that will appear racist as the years go by. Surely the contribution of black talent is not any more or less important than that of any other minority in the melting pot and the series easily integrates Jewish, Irish and Hispanic contributions effortlessly. Surely there is no need to suggest that Ethel Waters brought more to the stage by way of personal baggage than Fanny Brice or Harvey Fierstein. One obvious and major contributing element that becomes an elephant in the room to anyone who has ever seen a Broadway musical is delicately footnoted. This element is the fact that these shows are usually, dare I say it, quite gay in every sense of the word. Perhaps this is a current mutation of the badly kept Hollywood secret that the studios were mostly run by Jews. Do the producers really think it unimportant or simply too obvious to address?

Loring Ivanick I have just watched the first segment of Broadway: The American Musical on DVD. I just received the DVD today and right now it is one a.m., so I won't be watching any more tonight. Here I am, a Broadway musical fan watching it on my DVD player some 8,000 miles away from the Great White Way on November 29, 2004. According to the notes and the PBS website, this series ran on American TV just a few weeks ago. Whether the series meets every one of my expectations or not (though watching an, as always, perfectly-coifed over-90 Kitty Carlisle Hart remind herself of how irked she was about following a wet and messy seal act in vaudeville 70 or 75 years ago was worth the price of the DVD set in itself), the fact that PBS has chosen not to make us wait five or ten years, but barely a couple of weeks to be able to own this series and watch all or part of it any time we want deserves all my plaudits. Bravo. I look forward to the rest of the marvelous history, the marvelous singing, dancing, sets, and costumes in the segments that remain for me to view.