Singer/songwriter extraordinaire Tom Waits has become an American musical institution over the last few decades. His audience continues to grow, more artists cover his songs and he has risen from the basement filled with 'eccentric artists' to hugely influential cult hero status, and deservedly so. This 1978 Austin City Limits live performance features Waits casting his spell on an audience of believers and a handful of punters experiencing his magic for the first time. Features 'Bullets', 'On Nickel', 'Romeo Is Bleeding' plus a few spine-tingling medleys ('Small Change/Hey Big Spender', 'Silent Night/Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis') and more. Alpha Centauri 2006.
Taped in 1978, Waits and his band of Herbert Hardesty, Arthur Richardson, John Thomassie and Greg Cohen were in Austin to support the release of Blue Valentine. We get a first-hand look as Waits transforms from more jazz-based compositions to bluesy grunts. There’s also a Christmas carol, Tom Waits style, as the singer-songwriter treats the audience to “Silent Night / Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis.”
Bringing his unique sense of humor to this bizarre and original piece of moviemaking, Tom Waits takes the audience through a musical journey with his jazzy, quirky, bluesy tunes presented as you would never, ever, ever expect.
Broadway salute to Tony Award-winning actress Angela Lansbury in a star-packed gala November 17,1996 at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. The event was to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS research (AmFAR) and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Long a supporter of AmFAR and a deeply committed friend to all people with HIV/AIDS, Lansbury was also presented with a humanitarian award at this star-packed celebration.
If Carol Channing didn't exist, no one could have made her up. One in a billion, Carol , at 89, remains an unstoppable, megawatt dynamo. Broadway diva extraordinaire is just the icing. Carol Channing hovered at the pinnacle of the entertainment world from the late-1950's through the 1960's and beyond, living life sensationally large. As Carol has observed, '...if you're lucky enough to have two hit shows, the world passes through your dressing room'. At 89, she remains irrepressible.
Part fact and part fiction, Zoot Suit is the film version of Luis Valdez's critically acclaimed play, based on the actual Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the zoot suit riots of 1940s Los Angeles. Henry Reyna is the leader of a group of Mexican-Americans being sent to San Quentin without substantial evidence for the death of a man at Sleepy Lagoon. As part of the defense committee, Alice Bloomfield and George Shearer fight the blatant miscarriage of justice for the freedom of Henry and his friends.
In 1995, ABC presented a telemovie version of the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie produced by RHI Entertainment. It starred Seinfeld's Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams of Desperate Housewives. While this version remained mostly faithful to the original musical (Michael Stewart remains the only credited author of this version), several songs were added and re-arranged, and dialogue was slightly rewritten to smoothly facilitate the musical changes. The musical revolves around an Elvis Presley-type rocker who's about to join the Army. To mark the occasion, his manager's secretary arranges for him to kiss a random fan goodbye on The Ed Sullivan Show. Bye Bye Birdie earned four Tony awards in 1961, including Best Musical and Best Actor in a Musical for its original star, Dick Van Dyke. In addition to Alexander and Williams, ABC's production starred Tyne Daly, George Wendt, Chynna Phillips and Mark Kudisch.
A reclusive musician, once a huge rock star, takes a young female protegee. While on a tour she meets a younger, more popular rocker and switches her loyalties.
Four pianists take part in the preliminary round of an international piano playing competition. Each has a story that is different and unique. One is a former child prodigy who stopped playing when her mother died. One is a Julliard student. One is a new face and yet comes recommended.
TV musical based on popular Russian fairy tale with many famous artists. The evil cabaret owner Karabas-Barabas has deviously enslaved a trio of dolls with an enchanted contract. But Buratino (Russian Pinocchio) has fallen in love with one of them and searches for the Golden Key, which will free them all by making them human.