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Reviewed by:
  • Broadway: The American Musical
  • Anna Wheeler Gentry
Broadway: The American Musical. DVD. Directed by Michael Kantor. [United States]: PBS Home Video, 2005. 88571. $59.99.

Have you ever wondered what made George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones so incredibly attractive to theatre goers in 1904? Perhaps you would be interested to see Bill Robinson's performance in Harlem Is Heaven (1932) with the Cotton Club dancers, or a performance of Stephen Sondheim's "Someone in a Tree" from Anatomy of a Song (1976). Have you been curious about what the New Amsterdam Theatre and the rooftop supper club were originally like, before their costly renovation and reopening in the 1990s? Have you ever wished you could have seen true novelty acts—such as women boxing on stage, trick elephants, contortionists, ballroom dance couples roller skating, late nineteenth-century physical comedy—as they graced the vaudeville circuits? Have you ever seen casual film footage of songwriters Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, George Gershwin, and Ira Gershwin? These are some of the examples of historic video preserved and now available through this marvelous set of DVDs through PBS Home Video.

This enjoyable documentary (in six parts) by Michael Kantor, hosted and narrated by Julie Andrews, takes the viewer on a 100year chronological journey down Broadway, from late nineteenth-century minstrelsy through contemporary musicals. Indeed, "[t]he optimistic dreams of a nation gave rise to a uniquely American art form: the Broadway musical."

Within this film, the viewer is offered in-depth explanation of American musical theater's developmental evolution as related to cultural phenomena and historic events, including World War I, the Ziegfeld Follies, Prohibition, the 1929 Stock Market crash, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), World War II, Hair and the 1960s, A Chorus Line and the revitalization of Broadway, and Disney on Broadway.

There are additional interviews of some of Broadway's legendary performers, choreographers, directors, composers, lyricists, as well as historians that make this a ready reference for the subject of American musical theater. In a moment of reverence, Mel Brooks affirms that "a musical blows the dust off your soul;" Hal Prince discusses political undertones in early pieces for the Broadway stage; Ben Vereen reflects on the legendary Bert Williams; Jerry Orbach reminisces about opening night of 42nd Street in 1980 when producer David Merrick announced to the cast before the show that director and choreographer, Gower Champion had unexpectedly died; Stephen Sondheim talks about the impact of Oklahoma as a milestone in the development of the book musical; while Carol Channing states that "American musical comedy is an outgrowth of every immigrant."

The thorough research (interviews with historians and authors Robert Kimball and Philip Furia, among others) and firsthand accounts presented within this film, arguably, offer greater historic insight into Broadway musical-theater history than exists in any other single film compilation to date. As a viewing experience, it is entertaining and provides deeper understanding to the novice, while offering exceptional detail for the knowledgeable.

As an excellent supplement to academic study of the history of the American musical, this documentary has a companion book, and companion CD compilation (both sold separately) with the same title and logo. The Broadway: The American Musical DVD set leaves no question as to why, as Julie Andrews states to the viewer, Broadway "is the street of dreams."

Anna Wheeler Gentry
Arizona State University
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