Broadway or Bust

A Broadway artiste turns a faded film star's comeback vehicle into an artsy flop.

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.

Ambitious stage mother Rose Hovick wants desperately for her daughter, June, to become the vaudeville star she never was. With the help of savvy but kind-hearted agent Herbie Sommers, Rose realizes her aspirations for June, but when her new star rebelliously elopes, June's shy sister, Louise, reluctantly steps into the spotlight, transforming herself into the legendary burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee.

Gertrude Lawrence rises to stage stardom at the cost of happiness.

The road-show troupe of a top Broadway show go cross-country while taking the audience along on the on-stage scenes as well as what happens and is happening back stage of the production. The spectacular dancing ensembles and colorful costumes and pulchritude on-stage offers a contrasting background to the drabness of the backstage, where joy, sorrow, tragedies, deception, and romance are intertwined.

Broadway producer Johnny Demming is only interested in big-name talent and scoffs that his sister, father and other small-time talent could be used in a successful show.

Biographical movie about the early 20th century broadway stars Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth.

The story takes place at a summer theater in the Berkshire Mountains, where heroine Joan Barry (Carol Bruce) is staging a Broadway-bound musical comedy. Only one problem: two guest stars are shot and killed on two successive evenings, right in front of the audience. Hoping to solve the mystery, detective William Demarest demands that everyone -- actors and theatergoers alike -- return the following weekend to restage the show. But with no major performer willing to assume the fatal guest-star slot, Joan is forced to hire the Three Jolly Jesters (Al, Harry and Jimmy Ritz), Manhattan washroom attendants with showbiz aspirations.

This Pirates of Penzance is primarily a historical document, part of the Broadway Theater Archive television series. It presents, with some inevitable, tiny technical shortcomings, a live 1980 performance in Central Park, not the 1983 movie of the same name that also starred Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline. Those who remember that film, which had the benefit of retakes and editing, a lavish production budget, and the spaciousness of a Hollywood studio, may find this video less polished. On its own terms, it is nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable.

New Faces was a musical revue with songs and comedy skits tied together by a quirky plot. It ran on Broadway for nearly a year in 1952 and was then made into a motion picture in 1954. It helped jump start the careers of several young performers including Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, Eartha Kitt, Carol Lawrence, performer/writer Mel Brooks (as Melvin Brooks), and lyricist Sheldon Harnick. The film was basically a reproduction of the stage revue with a thin plot added. The plot involved a producer and performer (Ronny Graham) in financial trouble and is trying to stave off an angry creditor long enough to open his show. A wealthy Texan offers to help out, on the condition that his daughter be in the show.

A girl from a show-business family seeks a backer for her boyfriend's musical.

Relive the dazzling show stopping songs, dances and production numbers from some of your favorite Broadway musicals. Great Broadway Musical Moments from The Ed Sullivan Show brings you legendary musical entertainment performed by a galaxy of great Broadway stars like Ethel Merman in "Annie Get Your Gun," John Raitt in "Oklahoma!," Julie Andrews in "Camelot," and more! This exciting event includes exclusive interviews with legends Shirley Jones, Joel Grey, and Rex Reed.

Broadway dancing star Adele Dorey who, overworked and exhausted, suddenly ups and leaves New York in favor of a country village. But when promoter Bobby Lewis (Egan) of the barnstorming Gay Girlies Burlesque Company arrives in town, he picks an incognito Adele among all the pretty village girls to star in his new show. On a lark, Adele introduces her maid Jane (Louise Fazenda) as her mother and accepts a contract. When Adele's identity is finally revealed, the slumming star apologizes for her deception by offering Bobby a Broadway job.

Dames at Sea is a musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise. The musical is a parody of large, flashy 1930s Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals in which a chorus girl, newly arrived off the bus from the Midwest to New York City, steps into a role on Broadway and becomes a star. It originally played Off-Off-Broadway in 1966 at the Caffe Cino and then played Off-Broadway, starring newcomer Bernadette Peters, beginning in 1968 for a successful run. The television version was broadcast on the Bell System Family Theater on NBC on November 15, 1971. The cast had extra chorus girls and boys, and there were full production numbers, turning into the very thing it was spoofing. Ann Miller was singled out for praise, especially when "she was allowed to tap out her brassy...temperamental star..."

Madame Adele, once a great star of the Paris theatre, has fallen upon hard times. But she allows a young American performer, Marie Duval, to perform as the Madame Adele of old, and both become the darlings of Paris, one again and the other newly-crowned.

A songwriting duo tries to create a hit with a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

Country music stars collaborate with performers from other musical genres and exchange stories about their mutual love for music.

Fifteen-year-old Maddy wins the ultimate contest prize, her own reality TV show with her best friend Julia. Of course, being a reality TV star isn't as glamorous as they thought, or as easy. Every embarrassing thing they do is seen on TV by their high school friends... and the whole country! But through all the mistakes, drama and awkward moments, Maddy and Julia prove that true friends stick together no matter what.

This six part documentary miniseries presents the evolution of the Broadway musical from its inception in 1893 to current day 2004. It presents those influential players both on stage and behind the scenes, as well as a variety of influential Broadway shows, a handful which are known to have transformed the musical into what the audience knows it to be today.

They are some of the toughest, most extreme survivalists from across the nation. In the second season of Ultimate Survival Alaska, four teams - woodsmen, mountaineers, military veterans, and endurance athletes go head-to-head in an epic arctic competition that only National Geographic could inspire.

Workaholics' star Adam Devine takes over a swank LA mansion and fills it up with the freshest stand-up, the loudest bands and his own bro-busting comedy -- in this rowdy, genre-smashing series. You're invited to the ultimate Hollywood house party!

In this intense obstacle course series, elite athletes from the U.S. and other countries compete for cash prizes, individual glory and national pride.

Mel Giedroyc and Graham Norton present the talent search to find five performers to play the members of a fictional boyband in a new nationwide touring musical inspired by Take That.

When a music label announces a contest for a band to open for a big time pop star, Zoe recruits a group of talented teen performers to form the band Totally Amp'd. Can they overcome their differences for a shot at winning the musical competition of their lives?

Host Guy Fieri gathers the world's greatest chefs for the most-intense culinary competition ever held. Emotions run high in the single-elimination, sudden-death bracket tournament as the competitors face off in head-to-head battles to stay alive. As the pressure mounts, shocking surprises unfold both inside and outside the arena. All the chefs have the talent and skill to walk away with the ultimate championship title in food, but only one will win the Tournament of Champions.

Top cowboys from across the United States compete to win a herd of cattle, a coveted belt buckle and a lifetime of bragging rights.

Reality competition series showcasing the most outrageous, unique and jaw-dropping acts of enormous scale and magnitude that simply can’t be confined to a theater stage. Contestants will vie for a chance to win a $500,000 prize and the ultimate title, the champion of “America’s Got Talent: Extreme.”

Get ready for a one-of-a-kind look inside Broadway's longest-running musical, The Phantom of the Opera, with the hit show's strong-voiced title star, Ben Crawford.

The Cher Show star Jarrod Spector (Sonny Bono) creates video vlogs for Broadway.com.

14 of the world’s biggest reality superstars from some of television’s most iconic series – “Jersey Shore,” “Love Is Blind,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Geordie Shore,” “Acapulco Shore,” “Rio Shore,” and “Bachelor in Paradise” – come together for an epic vacation at the ultimate shore house in the Canary Islands, to battle it out for a cash prize and global bragging rights.