A 1956 Music Video by Gower Champion!?

While perusing the public domain site archive.org, I happened upon Once Upon A Honeymoon a fifteen minute music video directed by Gower Champion. À la Michael Jackson's Thriller, this video is a complete story about recently married (m)ad man Ward Ellis who works too much so has never had a honeymoon; Virginia Gibson is a standout as his lovely wife and the premier vocalist of the video's song, A Castle in the Sky. A few solid character actors (Chick Chandler, Alan Mowbray and a small yet pivotal turn from Leo G. Carroll) round out the cast in this lost (and now found) infomercial from the 1950s.

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The Nance (2013)

The Nance takes place in the mid 1930s - a time in which burlesque was on life support - and tells the story of a prancing homosexual performing from the closet. More than a straight play and less than a musical, it interpolates old burlesque bits with original comedy and songs in a way that makes the play all the more thoughtful. It's a fascinating, historical story with a poignant performance by Nathan Lane and an excellent supporting cast of burlesquers including Cady Huffman, Jonny Orsini, Jenni Barber, Lewis J. Stadlen and Andréa Burns.

My ass covered in $40 swag from The Nance

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Jeanne Eagels And The Letter (1929)

(Eugenia) Jeanne Eagels, a theatre and film actor who died at age 39 from a mix of booze, pills and heroin, is best remembered for a salacious 1957 film biography starring Kim Novak and her performance as Leslie Crosbie in the 1929 film of the W. Somerset Maugham play The Letter (for which she is also recognized as the first actor posthumously nominated for an Academy Award). Eagels plays Leslie Crosbie who kills her lover, claims rape to her husband and is jailed, a story with more than a few similarities to the 1928 play Chicago in which Eagels was cast as Roxie Hart but quit during rehearsals. Although Katherine Cornell originated the Crosbie role on Broadway and not Eagels (who did originate the role of Sadie Thompson on Broadway in W. Somerset Maugham' play Rain), Eagels is convincing in a crazed sort of way and the film feels contemporary - with a visceral end that must have been a real shock back then because it was a real shock right now.

Watch The Letter now from archive.org

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...Show Business: The Road to Broadway (2007)

Show Business: The Road To Broadway is an excellent documentary about the creation of four Broadway shows (Wicked, Avenue Q, Taboo, and Caroline, Or Change) from inception to Tony Awards. The excellent interviews (by the likes of Idina Menzel, Boy George, Rosie O'Donnell, William Goldman, and Jeffrey Marx) are funny, human and enlightening. And, if you watch the DVD of this must-see film for anyone with an interest in theatre, it contains many extra features including more interviews and clips - for the musical diva in you.

...Funny Girl (1968)

Very rarely do a role and an actor become so entwined in popular culture that it is difficult to discern where one begins and the other ends; Barbra Streisand picked up a richly deserved Oscar statuette for accomplishing just that in Funny Girl. The ugly duckling that makes it against all odds story is universal in appeal, and La Streisand tears the roof off the sucker in musical number after musical number [People, I'm the Greatest Star, and I'd Rather Be Blue Over You (Than Be Happy With Somebody Else) to name a few]. Though the film loses steam towards the end, Streisand, like a juggernaut that takes a locomotive and tugboat to see her man, never does.

Moon Over Broadway (1997)

Moon Over Broadway is a fascinating look inside the creation and production of the Broadway comedy, Moon Over Buffalo. Carol Burnett is not portrayed in the best light and neither are director Tom Moore nor playwright Ken Ludwig - all three showing a lack of ability in their respective jobs. It's Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker's willingness to let actions speak that make this film a must see for theater, documentary and Burnett enthusiasts.

...Man of La Mancha (1972)

Man of La Mancha is such a beautiful and powerful musical about Miguel de Cervantes and his creation, Don Quixote, that one would assume a studio could phone a filmization home by hiring talented filmmakers. One might also assume that the filmmakers, in turn, would hire actors who can sing and the result would not have the pacing of a tortoise. One would be wrong.

...My Sister Eileen (1955)

Columbia Pictures made My Sister Eileen when their deal to buy the film rights to Wonderful Town, a Broadway musicalization of the play My Sister Eileen, became too expensive. They hired Jule Styne and Leo Robin and made this second musical from the same (slight) source material that is only effective when not concentrating on silliness and long even when ending too quickly. So the songs are nice but forgettable, Betty Garrett is wonderfully staid as Ruth, Janet Leigh surprisingly adept as Eileen, and Robert (Bob) Fosse sweet as Eileen's suitor and athletic in a marvelous dance off with Tommy Rall.

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...A Chorus Line (1985)

You know something's wrong when the best part of a movie (in this case, A Chorus Line) is a performance by Audrey Landers, the blonde pseudo-icon most infamous for roles in the late 70s/early 80s trash triad of The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Dallas. For reasons known only to himself, director Richard Attenborough has selected a cast to play Broadway gypsies who can't carry a tune and, with the exception of Michelle Johnston, Charles MacGowan, and the late Gregg Burge, can't dance with any semblance of energy or panache. And every time non-actor/non-singer/non-dancer Michael Douglas and the screamingly bland Alyson Reed (in the woefully rewritten role of Cassie) appear on screen, I am reminded of just how ridiculously they have appropriated an honest, emotional, and raw piece of theatre and turned it into a treacly, hopelessly dated (parachute pants?) and sour piece of shitema.