Carol Channing & Pearl Bailey on Broadway

From the Editors

A once in a lifetime live concert, unseen for over 30 years! Carol Channing starred in the original Broadway cast of "Hello Dolly!" opening at the St. James Theatre on January 16, 1964. A few years later, Pearl Bailey played Dolly on that same stage and brought her own magical personality to the role. On March 16, 1969, ABC-TV aired a one-time-only concert on Broadway by these two very special stars. In a memorable medley of great showstoppers that were originally written for men, Carol gets to perform "If I Were a Rich Man" as Tevye, and Pearl sings a medley as "The Music Man." They team up for "The Oldest Established (Permanent Floating Crap Game)" from "Guys and Dolls" and "There is Nothing Like a Dame" from "South Pacific." The show builds to a grand "Hello, Dolly!" finale.
Description

Customer Response

A treasure!
I bought this for my dad (87) and we watched it together recently when I was visiting him in Florida. He and my mom had seen Pearl Bailey in "Hello Dolly" on Broadway years ago and, after the show, Pearl announced that Carol Channing was in the audience. To the delight of the audience, Pearl brought Carol up on stage to do a few numbers together. The CD brought back fond memories for my dad, since we lost my mom five years ago. We both thoroughly enjoyed watching these two amazingly talented, energetic women perform their solos and duets. Entertaining, enchanting, and worth every penny!

Love those ladies!!!
There is nothing better than two great ladies of the stage enjoying each others company in this classic television special. Carol Channing is a riot and Pearl Bailey smolders with her top-notch delivery and improvisations. Also, this show is filled with rare glimpses of these great ladies nigtclub routines. You will see Pearl Bailey singing Bacharach tunes and Carol's irrepressible Cecilia Sisson. This is a must for any musical theater fan and a glimpse of a golden age in performing not to be seen again.

Carol & Pearl... What A Pair!
If you enjoy performances of great legends of the stage, then more than likely you will enjoy "Carol Channing & Pearl Bailey On Broadway." Although the audio at times is a little muddy, watching these two dynamic women perform is worth the purchase of this DVD. Channing is hilarious as she does a great imitation of Marlene Dietrich. Bailey delivers a song, making it her own. She is definetly a talent that was taken from us too soon. The two women play off of each other like the best and dearest old friends. It is someting to watch and enjoy time and again.

Worth Owning...
Carol Channing seems prepared, but Pearl Bailey does not. Pearl tries to improvise, but it doesn't appear as if she is in control of her performance most of the time. Pearl's lack of preparation defintely took away from her performance - but ya gotta love her anyway. Carol is very interesting to watch, so funny and at the top of her game. You can see why she is a Broadway legend. The production is overall weak and that appears to have hurt the strength of the performances somewhat. Nevertheless, you can't get stuff like this anywhere else. It's worth every knickel. Buy it.

What a disappointment
Take a look at Mary Martin and Noel Coward in Together with Music (I have an old video of that); listen to Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (seemingly unavailable on video); then watch this. Seemingly barely rehearsed, this is a bad TV special thrown together hastily to promote the two greatest Dollies while they were performing in the role. Yes, these are two great stars. Yes, that occasionally comes through here, particularly when they are working alone. Yes, there ought to be a full video version of both of the Broadway productions of "Dolly", so we could see them really shine: acting, singing and dancing. Still, there was no need to release this video. The fan of either or both these performers would do better to acquire videos of films they have appeared in or to scour compilation tapes from TV variety shows like Ed Sullivan to find those that contain the best of Channing and Bailey. This is decidedly not that.

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