“Some Enchanted Evening” December 7, 2007

Among Broadway fanatics, this is legendary: on March 28, 1954, General Foods celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary with a TV special honoring Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, simulcast on all four networks (ABC, CBS, Dumont and NBC). From that show, the only surviving clip of Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin, the stars of South Pacific.

If you’ve used to South Pacific from the original cast album, it might surprise you to see Martin singing in the intro, as the version on the album is just Pinza singing solo. Because Martin was terrified of singing with Pinza, the two never actually sing a true duet in the show, but only “twin soliloquies”.

This clip of John Raitt and Jan Clayton performing the bench scene from Carousel is from the same special. Excerpts from the special have appeared on the DVDS of several movies of R&H shows and in the PBS Richard Rodgers special; wouldn’t it be great if they released the whole special?

Technorati tags: Some Enchanted Evening, South Pacific, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Ezio Pinza, Mary Martin