![]() ![]() But it’s also found new meaning in a global pandemic.įor Sondheim’s 90th birthday concert earlier this month, a socially distanced but emotionally adjacent Zoom affair, I Remember reverberated off the tiled walls of crystalline soprano Laura Benanti’s bathroom. It’s an important document in Sondheim’s artistic legacy. Here was a prime-time TV platform to showcase his skills, with a post-Psycho heartthrob in Anthony Perkins as leading man, opposite a coquettish Charmian Carr (eldest Von Trapp daughter Liesl in The Sound of Music, on screen a year earlier) as Ella. And ushered one moderate hit (Roman farce A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) and one box office bomb (Anyone Can Whistle) to the stage as composer.Īnthony Perkins and Charmian Carr in Stephen Sondheim’s 1966 made-for-TV musical about people living in a department store after hours. He’d served an apprenticeship as lyricist to Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story), Jule Styne (Gypsy) and Richard Rodgers (Do I Hear a Waltz?). Long before Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods, before he became the greatest balladeer of the English language theatre, 30-something Sondheim was still proving himself on Broadway. (In fact, the original colour mastertape was lost only a black-and-white recording remains.) It would have long been taped over, perhaps, were it not for the up-and-coming young composer who penned the music and lyrics, one Stephen Joshua Sondheim. The sudsy pantomime, as absurd as its gender roles are dated, was far from a ratings hit and was never broadcast again. ![]() It’s a strange and strangely comforting ride in 60s televisual romanticism. It’s available to stream at Amazon (and grainy segments can be found, of course, on YouTube). Until, of course, the dashing Charles enters, a dewy-eyed poet searching for some tranquility to write, who captures Ella’s heart and opens the door to freedom.Įvening Primrose was a 1966 hour-long made-for-TV musical, part of an anthology series on the ABC network in the US. ![]()
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