Customer Reviews

Evening Primrose

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Years ago a friend had a video tape of EVENING PRIMROSE complete with commercial breaks, etc. Now THAT was a find. His copy was probably 4th generation, but as I had seen it on t.v. when it was first shown, there was a good memory to be strengthened by whatever I saw in this copy. If, indeed, the filmmakers have been able to remaster and clean up this incredible "horror story with music", I'll be a happy camper. To watch Tony Perkin's first official foray into the musical world (or was GREENWILLOW before this?)acts as a reminder of his multifaceted talents. And having run from the Nazis in the film of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Charmian Carr finds herself in the clutches of the dark men. An excellent cast, terrific music and an important nod to Mr. Sondheims foundations.....

There are actually moments in the story where the music and the action bring about goosebumps and a pounding heart. Many have compared this John Collier story to the Twilight Zone 13TH FLOOR with Anne Francis, but I think it's much more frightening and sad, although the ending DOES allow the hero and the girl to become what they wished to be.

We've heard the music in many compilation albums, but now we can hear AND see the magic of this wonderfully mounted one act musical. Now, Collier estate, how about allowing a real stage presentation?

Quite a few decades ago, I was 17 years old and hanging out with my parents. STAGE 67 was, as I recall, a "summer replacement series".

There had been a few nicely done musicals for TV on this series, memorably a production of BRIGADOON with Robert Goulet and Peter Falk. My folks tuned in because the series was damn good television. We watched the broadcast on an enormous 17" B&W TV which was housed in an elaborate wooden console.

I do not recall if this was a taped production or live. I'll assume it was taped on 2" quad videotape which was state of the art at the time. But enough of TV 101.

The production lured me in and captivated. An early Sondheim fan, I found the music as haunting as the subject matter. It was the most sophisticated theatre broadcast I had ever seen.

For years I searched for a soundtrack recording. Later I searched for a VHS release. Around 2005, I "googled" (not sure if they were around yet) a search. I had long since forgotten the title and even considered that it might just have been a figment of my imagination.

Cross-referenceing Sondheim and TV, I got a title- EVENING PRIMROSE. Alas, I could find nothing more than a footnote- nary a script or production notes. I did learn that it was viewable at The Museum of Broadcasting. It remained one of those NYC visits I meant to do but never got around to. I'm a native New Yorker and I've never been to the Statue of Liberty.

A year ago I Googled again, and got a YOUTUBE link. I was delighted to find a few musical scenes. I realized that my obsession with this TV production was well founded. A complete air check still could not be found.

Yesterday I learned that a DVD was to be released from Amazon. I couldn't click fast enough.

Why all the hubub? This one-hour gem is modern musical theatre at its finest. The haunting songs are woven into a book that starts whimsically enough, but evolves into a surreal story of desparate lovers trapped in a nightmare. No "spoilers" here. Order the DVD.

The score of four "songs" is more than appropriate for the running time of 50 minutes (minus the commercial breaks) The production values are stunning, given the era and infancy of color TV cameras. The performances are world class and more than worthy of Broadway. For Sondheim fans unfamiliar with the score, EVENING PRIMROSE will be a major discovery. If you love musical theatre, this production is a must see. It is sweet, sappy, tear-jerking and surreal in the tradition of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. I fully expect to be enthralled.

I purchased this DVD without hesitation, even though I imagine it will show up on Netflix and similar outlets. No need for Blu-ray here. The original NTSC resolution is more than adequate for DVD. The reason for my purchase? Simple. This will remain a treasured addition to my Original Cast library. The stars of the show will steal your heart. To me, this is as much a "must-have" as any treasured collectors item. It is by no means an oddity. It is Stephen Sondheim at his youthful finest and a landmark of television musical history.

Prepare to be amazed!

PS- Happy 80th birthday Mr. Sondheim!

Years ago, I was enchanted on first listen by a song from the score of Evening Primrose that appeared on a live concert album, Sondheim Evening: A Musical Tribute. The song was called I Remember. Although I had almost no knowledge of the story behind Evening Primrose, I somehow knew that the song was sung by the character of a young girl who had lived most of her life in a department store, and its haunting lyrics represented her struggle to place her early memories of the world in the context of her limited recent existence - "I remember sky, it was blue as ink, or at least I think, I remember sky. I remember snow, soft as feathers, sharp as thumbtacks, coming down like lint..." The hauntingly beautiful words and the stark horror of her situation blended for me then in a series of cold shudders and goose-bumps, and since that time (shortly after the debut of the original production of A Little Night Music, nearly 40 years ago), I have dreamed of having a chance to see the original TV production of Evening Primrose.

Evening Primrose, first and only once broadcast in 1966, was an early musical effort by Stephen Sondheim, master of the musical theatre of the 1970's and beyond. Of course, Mr. Sondheim had had earlier stage successes - West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - and a few famous flops -Anyone Can Whistle, a legendary show, and Do I Hear A Waltz, one of the few Sondheim scores I still can't listen to, even to this day. But this was Mr. Sondheim's first musical effort for television, and what I had not realized before was that Evening Primrose boasted a book by James Goldman, who also wrote the book for my favorite Sondheim musical, Follies, and the play that became my favorite film, The Lion in Winter.

Armed with this knowledge, I looked eagerly forward to the release of the newly discovered and restored original kinescope of Evening Primrose, promised for the past six months and pushed back at least once. I received it yesterday, and watched it tonight with a few friends. What satisfaction! What a bizarre, Sondheim-esque experience!

The plot is simple. Anthony Perkins plays an idealistic poet, fed up with the world, who decides one day to hide out in a department store, where he will live in secret and work in an endlessly "inspiring" environment. Much to his surprise, after concealing himself in Sterns Department Store after closing, he finds that there is a community of like-minded (or are they?) individuals who have been doing the same thing for decades. Led by the eccentric Mrs. Monday, the department store people lead lives of rigid rules and constant fear, hoping against hope that they can live their days undiscovered and uninvolved in the world.

This 50-minute musical will not be to everyone's taste. Like it or not, it is essentially a horror story, with a shocking ending that younger viewers may not be able to believe could have been unleashed on an unsuspecting television audience in 1966. The cast, led by Anthony Perkins and Charmian Carr, is uniformly excellent, but aside from the young lovers, Dorothy Stickney stands out as Mrs. Monday, the formidable matriarch of the hidden community.

Surreal to the max, the best surprise was how simply and charmingly the leads deftly handled the intricate score, which, although containing a few of Sondheim's least-polished melodies, nevertheless proffered some very real portends of things to come, lyrically. Especially satisfying were the two celebrated songs, Take Me to the World and the earlier mentioned I Remember. I finished watching the DVD two hours ago, and I can't seem to get either melody out of my head.

Rounding out the DVD package are a generous offering of extras, including complete lyrics, a written introduction by Mr. Sondheim, essays, an interview with director Paul Bogart and more. A feast for Sondheim fans, James Goldman fans and lovers of musical theatre history, Evening Primrose is highly recommended.

James Morris' review posted here covers the basics of the story and the music contained on the DVD so there is no reason for me to reiterate it. Rather, I'd prefer to expand upon it. This hour-long (actually only 52 minutes, because there was space for commercials) music is a true gem. It combined a story that would not have been out of place on "the Twilight Zone" with a charming musical score (not unlike "A Little Night Music") and it does it without one boring moment. The film was cleaned up and restored early in 2010 by Jason Vitteretti at E1 who did all the transfer supervision (and he also set up and supervised the phone interview with Charmian Carr that appears as a bonus), and it was announced for this summer. But, before the final master was sent to be duplicated, Jane Klain archivist of the Paley Center for Media discovered a nearly pristine print in Europe. STOP THE PRESSES! "We can issue a better copy!" so the release date was moved, and moved again, but finally October 2010 came the DVD is reality. Klain is also responsible to the 23-page essay in the 28-page booklet that comes with the DVD. (I'm not sure this was mentioned in earlier reviews. The history of the show, as well as lyrics to the songs ("Sing-along Evening Primrose?), are there.

As noted in other reviews=ews, many of the songs are now cabaret standards but now they are placed in context.

Mr. Morris mentioned the bonuses but did not expound. First up comes a 30 minute interview with Director Paul Bogart who talks about the production. This is done as a "question printed on the screen and the Direct replies" format. So we never hear the interviewer. It's an engaging interview. Next we get 17 minutes of silent footage of Tony Perkins in test footage - often in and around the Sterns Department Store where the show was filmed. Interesting but something you probably won't watch a lot - unless you are a huge Perkins fan. Lastly comes an audio-only interview (I didn't time it but its at least 10 minutes) with co-star Charmian Carr by Klain via telephone. The first part is mostly Klain's voice until Carr opens up. She only made two films before retiring in her 20s. The other role was as Lisl in "the Sound of Music" and she discusses that here as well. After leaving the movies she became an Interior Designer and there is a GREAT story involving Michael Jackson here that I won't reveal, so as not to spoil the fun.

Like the Studio One set and "What Makes Sammy Run?" DVD, E1 (Formerly Koch Entertainment) needs accolades for not only making this available on home video, but for going the extra step of making it the best quality print we can hope for!

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

In a TV world dominated by reality television, it's hard to imagine how an anthology series as daring as "ABC Stage 67" could ever survive these days. Even back then, a show that featured original hour-long musicals and dramas, as well as documentaries and variety specials, proved too daunting to viewers who liked getting familiar with their favorite TV characters and personalities. It only lasted a season, but there was one jewel in the program, this 1966 production of an original work by Stephen Sondheim and writer James Goldman (The Lion in Winter). It's been locked in the vaults since its original airing 44 years ago, but the Archive of American Television has finally released it on DVD restoring a surviving black-and-white kinescope print. Although the original show was in color, it actually benefits from the monochromatic tones given the eerie nature of the tale being told.

The dark-hued story focuses on Charles Snell, a young poet too sensitive for the cold outside world. He decides to live in a department store and write his poetry but soon discovers he's not alone. A secret society headed by the aged Mrs. Munday has lived in the store for decades. Among her band is a young handmaiden, Ella Harkins, an innocent with whom Charles falls in love almost immediately. Abandoned by her mother in the store when she was a child, Ella is unhappy and wants to see the world. However, any plan for escape by the lovers is inevitably thwarted by the Dark Men. The The Twilight Zone-like ending points to the fate of Charles and Ella. Think of the classic 1960 Anne Francis episode set in a department store, "The After Hours". It's a similar ending. Interspersed throughout is Sondheim's mood-inducing music, including four songs sung by the leads.

I had no idea that Anthony Perkins sang, but he does well as the callow Charles even if he is a mite mature at 34 and suffers still from the shadow of Norman Bates. His opening solo, the driving, staccato declaration of emancipation, "If You Can Find Me, I'm Here", is the most animated part of the show as he skips along the darkened aisles of the store. Funny how Sondheim recycled the song's ending in "I'm Still Here" (Follies) little realizing this production would ever resurface. Fresh from her turn as eldest daughter Liesl in The Sound of Music, Charmian Carr is actually better served by Sondheim as Ella than even Rodgers and Hammerstein with her pretty, plaintive voice illuminating the show's two best songs, the quietly evocative "I Remember" and the beautifully yearning "Take Me to the World", a song rendered with poignancy by Barbara Cook in the recently staged Sondheim on Sondheim. Based on this performance, it's surprising that Carr never went on to a longer, more significant musical career.

Charles and Ella's interior monologue duet, "When", is pure Sondheim with its sophisticated interplay of lyrics, and Perkins and Carr handle the number with aplomb. Dorothy Stickney plays the dotty and ultimately malevolent Mrs. Munday, a familiar face if you saw the recently resurfaced 1957 version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. While this is not the lost masterpiece in the Sondheim canon, it is also far being a mere footnote specifically targeted to Sondheim completists. The 2010 DVD offers a bevy of extras for such a long-forgotten piece, including a newly recorded video interview with director Paul Bogart, a new audio interview with Carr, archival color test footage with Perkins and a 28-page booklet featuring written contributions by Sondheim and TV historian Jane Klain of the Paley Center. A very worthwhile purchase.

I have to agree with others in their excitement awaiting this release. I, too, couldn't wait to tear open the shrink wrap and watch. I think my initial curiosity keep me glued to the program, even though, at times things were only passable. The Sondheim score is interesting ( the ending he later revamped into I'm Still Here), I Remember, and Take me to Your World, both lovely songs. Plus the David Shire orchestrations ( and chase music)are of interest. I have seem much better early TV. The direction is pedestrian and Charmian Carr is terrible. She cannot act her way out of a paper bag, and her singing is of junior high quality. I really don't think I will sit down to watch again, but it does have a place in your musical theatre library. Though not particularly innovative, historically, it is early Sondheim, just coming off a couple of initial "flops".

The extas are hardly worth mentioning. There is an amaturish phone interview with Carr, some " test footage" that is little more than silent home movie shots, and a passable interview with the director, who owns up to the fact that he didn't know what he was doing. But, for some reason, the questions he was asked are written on the screen, instead of verbalized. If you are looking for a font of fresh information - skip viewing the extras. They are a waste of time. Without them I rate the DVD a 4.

I'm one of the multitude who has a fuzzy VHS copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy...of the bootleg. It was wonderful seeing this classic special from the closing days of the "Golden Age of Television," when TV was really worth watching, with almost the clarity of what the original broadcast must have had. Forget special effects -- and color -- and lose yourself in this simple, innocent fantasy. Two of Sondheim's most revered songs shine again in their original settings: Take Me to the World and (the incredibly poignant) I Remember. It's cliché to say this, but this is a Sondheim fan's "must have!" -- and a snippet of television history.

Made especially for TV but unseen in over 40 years. This is a mezmerising 50 minute show with an outstanding and flawless cast. A most unusual story that will keep you guessing even after it has ended. The extras are brilliant also.Don't miss seeing it-a vary rare chance to see television when it was at at is best . They don't make them like this today.

Besides being entertaining in its own right, Evening Primrose provides some intriguing insights both into the development of Sondheim's work and into the kind of transformation a story undergoes in moving from one medium and form to another. (Read the original short story, if possible, before seeing the musical.) Note the foreshadowing of phrases and devices Sondheim returns to in later work; Charles's proclamation at the conclusion of his first number, "if you can find me, I'm here!" is echoed in Carlotta Campion's "Lord knows at least I was there, and I'm here!" although Charles, of course, is retreating from the world while Carlotta is announcing her willingness to keep confronting it. (Interesting coincidence, the two names, Charles and Carlotta!) Likewise, you can't consider Charles's infatuation with Ella, and his beseeching her to "look at me," without it conjuring Anthony and Johanna; Ella is an early prototype of Johanna. (Though again, in an intriguing coincidence, her beseeching a lover not to look at her brings to mind Sally's first encounter with Ben in Follies, "No, don't look at me," in part because, again like Ella, how much she likes him will show. Sweeney Todd would also revisit the unorthodox choice of subject matter -- Evening Primrose is ultimately, a horror story as well as a love story, and perhaps this was a dry run/rough draft for his masterpiece. The plot of the original short story is more nuanced and the love story includes an ironic twist omitted from the musical; the short story's ending is more of a gut-punch for being implied rather than shown; and Sondheim's plot runs more along conventional lines, which is ironic considering that he's widely acknowledged as the innovator in departing from the conventions of American musical theatre. But for its day it was quite a departure, I could wish this were in colour, but ya can't have everything, and it's enough that we now have this. (If only contemporary TV offered this kind of fare.)

This is a minor piece by our very best, most literate Broadway composer, an hour long work from tv in the 60s, that has been very difficult to see since then. I saw it at the Museum of Broadcasting, back in the mid 70s and thought it was like discovering something for a tomb, unseen by human eyes for centuries. It's not really that great, but a fascinating attempt to bring theatrical intelligence, that rarified breed of creativity, to the home screens. It's based on an ironic short story with a clever premise. Anthony Perkins is wonderful in the lead role, completely devoid of the creepiness he was doomed to wear after PSYCHO was released, five years previous to this odd little cameo. Clever, macabre, but very much 'old tv,' simple sets except for some location work at a long gone NYC department store, basic cinematography, but very clever characterizations, performances, and most of all, lyrics.

The quality of this presentation is far better than the awful dupes that have been circulating for eons. And the extras are wonderful; a great conversation with Paul Bogart, the director, and terrific shots of Perkins, sitting in Herald Square among contemporary '66 New Yorkers and and his ultimate entry into Macys. Apparently, this was footage that was taken illegally, so we are getting a glimpse of real life.

Very nice for those of us who are followers of Sondheim, Perkins or 60s tv.