MUSICALS ON TV
Musicals on TV
The Golden Age of musicals on television occurred from around the end of the Second World War and into the 1960s. Over 30 television programs in the United States offered theater on television. Programs like the Bell Telephone Hour (1940-1958), Tonight on Broadway (1948-1950), and the Colgate Comedy Hour (1950-1955) presented excerpts and shortened versions of Broadway shows adapted for television, along with made-for-television plays and musicals.
Over two hundred musicals have aired on television, including Cinderella, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Gypsy. This month we’re taking a look at 4 very different television musicals: Oh! Letty, the Ford 50th Anniversary, and Peter Pan.
Oh! Letty (1938)
As fans of Hamilton will tell you, it is not always the most popular or successful musicals of the day that receive live broadcasts. This is especially true of Oh! Letty, one of the first West End musicals to be featured on television.
Oh! Letty was a musical farce based on Anita Loos and John Emerson’s play The Whole Town’s Talking (not to be confused with Lupino Lane’s 1928 musical of the same name, which was a British adaptation of the American musical So Long Letty).
Originally entitled, Oh! You Letty, it is not clear when the musical’s name was changed. Musical theatre historian Kurt Gänzl notes the title was changed in anticipation of a tour following the West End run, however listings for the live broadcast, which took place during the West End run, use the shorter title.
After short engagements in Manchester and Oxford in November 1937, Oh! You Letty opened at the Palace Theatre in London on December 8, 1937.
Highlights from the musical were broadcast live on BBC television on January 18, 1938. Apart from listings in Radio Times and various British newspapers, there is scant evidence that the broadcast ever took place.
Even with extra publicity from the broadcast, Oh! Letty closed after 71 performances on February 12, 1938. The show toured briefly after its West End run, though some sources suggest the tour was also not successful.
A year a half after the Oh! Letty highlights were broadcast, Me and My Girl became the first musical to be broadcast in full on television, and live from the West End. You can learn more about Me and My Girl in the database.
The Ford 50th Anniversary Show (1953)
Though technically not a musical, the Ford 50th Anniversary was one of the first of many television variety spectaculars, which strongly featured Broadway performers and content, that were immensely popular on American television throughout the 1950s.
To celebrate Ford Motor Company’s 50th anniversary in 1953, the organization spent $500,000 on a starry television event “which would evoke the spirit of the past half century and be the biggest and best entertainment in TV history.”
Produced by Leland Hayward and Lawrence White, the show was a 2-hour event (trimmed down from the reported 5 hours that the original script called for), filmed live from the now-demolished Broadway house, Center Theatre.
The Ford 50th Anniversary Show featured performances from Marian Anderson, Charles Correll, Wally Cox, Eddie Fisher, Freeman Gosden, Howard Lindsey, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Edward R. Murrow, Frank Sinatra, Dorothy Stickney, Lowell Thomas, Rudy Vallee, Teddy Wilson, Kukla and Ollie, and Oscar Hammerstein II. The show was choreographed by Jerome Robbins, conducted by Jay Blackton, and directed by Clark Jones.
LIFE Magazine’s feature on the Ford 50th Anniversary stated that the show relied “heavily” on comedy, and that “the comedy was great. There were comic ballets, scenes from old plays and clips from old movies. Best of all there were Broadway’s great musical comedy queens, Ethel Merman and Mary Martin.”
The program was broadcast live on both NBC and CBS, and viewed by 60 million people. A record of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin’s musical theatre medley was released shortly after the broadcast and was immensely popular.
Several historians note the historical significance of the Ford Show. Tom Shales of The Washington Post has described it as “a milestone in television history and… one of the decade’s great cultural landmarks.” While the Ford Show was groundbreaking on television, the concept of a star-filled revue spectacular was not a new one and is reminiscent of the lavish musical revues produced in Hollywood in the early years of sound on film.
Television programs were rarely recorded in this period, but The Ford 50th Anniversary Show was preserved via kinescope, a film recording made from a television screen.
In 1963, MoMA held a special “television retrospective of outstanding programs” from the museum’s kinescope collection. Although the Ford 50th Anniversary was intended to be included in the screenings, the New York Times reported that “there were problems in obtaining clearances” and the show could not be screened.
Due to ongoing copyright restrictions, and the difficulty in gaining a wide range of permissions, the full program has not been released since it aired on television in 1953.
VAI, an American home entertainment distribution company specializing in live performance, has made some of the footage available. Releases include Mary Martin & Ethel Merman: Ford 50th Anniversary, featuring clips of the two legendary musical theatre comediennes, and Marian Anderson: A Portrait in Music, which featured the acclaimed singer’s Ford 50th performance and the previously released documentary “Marian Anderson on Stage and at Home.”
Peter Pan (2000)
Long before NBC’s 2014 Peter Pan Live!, there were several other incredibly popular television versions of the magical musical: the 1955 made-for-screen adaptation of the original Broadway production starring Mary Martin, re-staged and broadcast in 1956 and 1960, and the 2000 A&E production starring Cathy Rigby, the only version (so far) to be taped with a live audience.
Cathy Rigby was a well-known Olympic gold medalist and gymnastics commentator. She first appeared in Peter Pan in the touring NBC Arena Touring production in 1973, though the vocals were lip-synched. Following rigorous theatre training, Rigby once again appeared in a regional production of Peter Pan in 1986.
Cathy Rigby finally appeared as Peter Pan on Broadway in the third Broadway revival of the show, which opened at the Lunt-Fontanne on December 13, 1990. Although the revival only ran for a limited 45 performance engagement, it was nominated for two Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical (Cathy Rigby).
The production embarked on a national tour before returning to Broadway, playing at the Minskoff in 1991. This pattern was repeated in 1998 and 1999, with the tour performing in over 60 cities throughout the United States. Rigby returned to Broadway, playing at the Marquis in 1998, and the Gershwin in 1999. The 1999 revival earned Rigby the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
TV network A&E hosted a special performance of Peter Pan at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in California in early 2000 in order for the production to be taped for television. Cathy Rigby is quoted in Billboard Magazine as stating “We taped with an audience because their participation is what makes theater so wonderful.”
Peter Pan aired on A&E on Oct 8, 2000, and the DVD and VHS were released a few days later. The broadcast was nominated for 4 Primetime Emmy Awards, and won the Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program.
By the time she “retired” from the role, at the age of 60, in 2013, Cathy Rigby had performed the role of Peter Pan over 3000 times.
The DVD of Peter Pan is no longer in print, however second-hand copies are widely available online and much of the content is available on YouTube.
The Passion (2011 - Present)
Beginning with NBC’s The Sound of Music in 2013, live TV musicals have seen somewhat of a renaissance on commercial television. Jesus Christ Superstar Live! which aired earlier this year, was the first of this new generation of live musicals to be filmed with an in-person audience. Although it has not been expressly stated, JCS Live! was clearly influenced by the Dutch live concert and story-telling event The Passion.
In 2011, Dutch producer Jocco Doornbos and Eye2Eye Media created a modern re-telling of the last hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life using pop music. The high octane concert-style event included an enormous neon cross which was carried through the streets of Gouda (a city in South Holland) to the stage.
The Passion was broadcast live on television across the Netherlands, and has continued to be re-staged and broadcast in a new Dutch city every year since. Each concert is available via The Passion website, and the 2018 version was briefly available for free (or a small donation) on DVD.
US producer Dick Clark Productions bought rights to The Passion franchise, and an American version was broadcast live on Fox on March 20, 2016, Palm Sunday.
Fox’s The Passion set the story in modern day New Orleans. Filmed live on a stage in Woldenburg Park on the banks of the Mississippi River, and in 9 iconic locations around New Orleans. Actor Tyler Perry served as the narrator, while the characters sang a variety of staged rock, pop, and gospel songs. American-Cuban popstar Jencarlos Canela played Jesus Christ, supported by Chris Daughtry as Judas, Seal as Pontius Pilate, Trisha Yearwood as Mary, Mother of Jesus, and special guest Yolanda Adams.
The Passion was nominated for an Imagen Foundation Award for Best Primetime Program: Special or Made-for-TV Movie.
Netflix secured rights to broadcast The Passion for a brief period outside the United States and the Netherlands following the television broadcast.
The Passion is available on DVD, Hulu, and, if you don’t mind Dutch subtitles, also on Youtube.
Over two hundred musicals have aired on television, including Cinderella, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Gypsy. This month we’re taking a look at 4 very different television musicals: Oh! Letty, the Ford 50th Anniversary, and Peter Pan.
Oh! Letty (1938)
As fans of Hamilton will tell you, it is not always the most popular or successful musicals of the day that receive live broadcasts. This is especially true of Oh! Letty, one of the first West End musicals to be featured on television.
Oh! Letty was a musical farce based on Anita Loos and John Emerson’s play The Whole Town’s Talking (not to be confused with Lupino Lane’s 1928 musical of the same name, which was a British adaptation of the American musical So Long Letty).
Originally entitled, Oh! You Letty, it is not clear when the musical’s name was changed. Musical theatre historian Kurt Gänzl notes the title was changed in anticipation of a tour following the West End run, however listings for the live broadcast, which took place during the West End run, use the shorter title.
After short engagements in Manchester and Oxford in November 1937, Oh! You Letty opened at the Palace Theatre in London on December 8, 1937.
Highlights from the musical were broadcast live on BBC television on January 18, 1938. Apart from listings in Radio Times and various British newspapers, there is scant evidence that the broadcast ever took place.
Even with extra publicity from the broadcast, Oh! Letty closed after 71 performances on February 12, 1938. The show toured briefly after its West End run, though some sources suggest the tour was also not successful.
A year a half after the Oh! Letty highlights were broadcast, Me and My Girl became the first musical to be broadcast in full on television, and live from the West End. You can learn more about Me and My Girl in the database.
The Ford 50th Anniversary Show (1953)
Though technically not a musical, the Ford 50th Anniversary was one of the first of many television variety spectaculars, which strongly featured Broadway performers and content, that were immensely popular on American television throughout the 1950s.
To celebrate Ford Motor Company’s 50th anniversary in 1953, the organization spent $500,000 on a starry television event “which would evoke the spirit of the past half century and be the biggest and best entertainment in TV history.”
Produced by Leland Hayward and Lawrence White, the show was a 2-hour event (trimmed down from the reported 5 hours that the original script called for), filmed live from the now-demolished Broadway house, Center Theatre.
The Ford 50th Anniversary Show featured performances from Marian Anderson, Charles Correll, Wally Cox, Eddie Fisher, Freeman Gosden, Howard Lindsey, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Edward R. Murrow, Frank Sinatra, Dorothy Stickney, Lowell Thomas, Rudy Vallee, Teddy Wilson, Kukla and Ollie, and Oscar Hammerstein II. The show was choreographed by Jerome Robbins, conducted by Jay Blackton, and directed by Clark Jones.
LIFE Magazine’s feature on the Ford 50th Anniversary stated that the show relied “heavily” on comedy, and that “the comedy was great. There were comic ballets, scenes from old plays and clips from old movies. Best of all there were Broadway’s great musical comedy queens, Ethel Merman and Mary Martin.”
The program was broadcast live on both NBC and CBS, and viewed by 60 million people. A record of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin’s musical theatre medley was released shortly after the broadcast and was immensely popular.
Several historians note the historical significance of the Ford Show. Tom Shales of The Washington Post has described it as “a milestone in television history and… one of the decade’s great cultural landmarks.” While the Ford Show was groundbreaking on television, the concept of a star-filled revue spectacular was not a new one and is reminiscent of the lavish musical revues produced in Hollywood in the early years of sound on film.
Television programs were rarely recorded in this period, but The Ford 50th Anniversary Show was preserved via kinescope, a film recording made from a television screen.
In 1963, MoMA held a special “television retrospective of outstanding programs” from the museum’s kinescope collection. Although the Ford 50th Anniversary was intended to be included in the screenings, the New York Times reported that “there were problems in obtaining clearances” and the show could not be screened.
Due to ongoing copyright restrictions, and the difficulty in gaining a wide range of permissions, the full program has not been released since it aired on television in 1953.
VAI, an American home entertainment distribution company specializing in live performance, has made some of the footage available. Releases include Mary Martin & Ethel Merman: Ford 50th Anniversary, featuring clips of the two legendary musical theatre comediennes, and Marian Anderson: A Portrait in Music, which featured the acclaimed singer’s Ford 50th performance and the previously released documentary “Marian Anderson on Stage and at Home.”
Peter Pan (2000)
Long before NBC’s 2014 Peter Pan Live!, there were several other incredibly popular television versions of the magical musical: the 1955 made-for-screen adaptation of the original Broadway production starring Mary Martin, re-staged and broadcast in 1956 and 1960, and the 2000 A&E production starring Cathy Rigby, the only version (so far) to be taped with a live audience.
Cathy Rigby was a well-known Olympic gold medalist and gymnastics commentator. She first appeared in Peter Pan in the touring NBC Arena Touring production in 1973, though the vocals were lip-synched. Following rigorous theatre training, Rigby once again appeared in a regional production of Peter Pan in 1986.
Cathy Rigby finally appeared as Peter Pan on Broadway in the third Broadway revival of the show, which opened at the Lunt-Fontanne on December 13, 1990. Although the revival only ran for a limited 45 performance engagement, it was nominated for two Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical (Cathy Rigby).
The production embarked on a national tour before returning to Broadway, playing at the Minskoff in 1991. This pattern was repeated in 1998 and 1999, with the tour performing in over 60 cities throughout the United States. Rigby returned to Broadway, playing at the Marquis in 1998, and the Gershwin in 1999. The 1999 revival earned Rigby the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
TV network A&E hosted a special performance of Peter Pan at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in California in early 2000 in order for the production to be taped for television. Cathy Rigby is quoted in Billboard Magazine as stating “We taped with an audience because their participation is what makes theater so wonderful.”
Peter Pan aired on A&E on Oct 8, 2000, and the DVD and VHS were released a few days later. The broadcast was nominated for 4 Primetime Emmy Awards, and won the Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program.
By the time she “retired” from the role, at the age of 60, in 2013, Cathy Rigby had performed the role of Peter Pan over 3000 times.
The DVD of Peter Pan is no longer in print, however second-hand copies are widely available online and much of the content is available on YouTube.
The Passion (2011 - Present)
Beginning with NBC’s The Sound of Music in 2013, live TV musicals have seen somewhat of a renaissance on commercial television. Jesus Christ Superstar Live! which aired earlier this year, was the first of this new generation of live musicals to be filmed with an in-person audience. Although it has not been expressly stated, JCS Live! was clearly influenced by the Dutch live concert and story-telling event The Passion.
In 2011, Dutch producer Jocco Doornbos and Eye2Eye Media created a modern re-telling of the last hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life using pop music. The high octane concert-style event included an enormous neon cross which was carried through the streets of Gouda (a city in South Holland) to the stage.
The Passion was broadcast live on television across the Netherlands, and has continued to be re-staged and broadcast in a new Dutch city every year since. Each concert is available via The Passion website, and the 2018 version was briefly available for free (or a small donation) on DVD.
US producer Dick Clark Productions bought rights to The Passion franchise, and an American version was broadcast live on Fox on March 20, 2016, Palm Sunday.
Fox’s The Passion set the story in modern day New Orleans. Filmed live on a stage in Woldenburg Park on the banks of the Mississippi River, and in 9 iconic locations around New Orleans. Actor Tyler Perry served as the narrator, while the characters sang a variety of staged rock, pop, and gospel songs. American-Cuban popstar Jencarlos Canela played Jesus Christ, supported by Chris Daughtry as Judas, Seal as Pontius Pilate, Trisha Yearwood as Mary, Mother of Jesus, and special guest Yolanda Adams.
The Passion was nominated for an Imagen Foundation Award for Best Primetime Program: Special or Made-for-TV Movie.
Netflix secured rights to broadcast The Passion for a brief period outside the United States and the Netherlands following the television broadcast.
The Passion is available on DVD, Hulu, and, if you don’t mind Dutch subtitles, also on Youtube.