The Best of the Tony Awards The Plays

Product Description Four-time Tony®-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein is your host for a compilation of amazing dramatic performances from the archives of the Tony Award® broadcasts. Legendary stars perform key scenes from 19 legendary shows, performances seen only once in their original telecast. Collected here with commentary by a Broadway veteran, they become a treasure-trove for fans of great drama. James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, cast, THE GREAT WHITE HOPE Gary Sinise, Tim Sampson, cast, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO?S NEST Maggie Smith, Margaret Tyzack, LETTICE AND LOVAGE John Lithgow, B. D. Wong, M. BUTTERFLY Robert Prosky, Sam Waterston, A WALK IN THE WOODS Annette Benning, Timothy Daly, COASTAL DISTURBANCES Robert Klein, Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn, SISTERS ROSENSWEIG Art Carney, Anna Manahan, LOVERS Joan Allen, Peter Friedman, THE HEIDI CHRONICLES Michele Lee, Linda Lavin, Tony Roberts, THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST?S WIFE Joe Mantegna, Ron Silver, SPEED-THE-PLOW Philip Bosco, Victor Garber, LEND ME A TENOR Charles S. Dutton, Rocky Carroll, Carl Gordon, S. Epatha Merkerson, THE PIANO LESSON James Earl Jones, Courtney B. Vance, FENCES Viola Davis, Brian Stokes Mitchell, KING HEDLEY II Ed Hall, Delroy Lindo, Mel Winkler, JOE TURNER?S COME AND GONE Kevin Kline, HAMLET Len Cariou, LONG DAY?S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT Morgan Freeman, AS YOU LIKE IT BONUS EXTRA: Original PLAYBILL® cover art Amazon.com Previously released as part of the Broadway's Lost Treasures Collection, The Best of the Tony Awards: The Plays features 19 of the dramatic and comedy excerpts showcased on the Tony Awards telecasts between 1969 and 2001. From 1969 are James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in The Great White Hope and Art Carney in Lovers, and other performances include Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack in Lettice and Lovage (1990), John Lithgow and B.D. Wong in M. Butterfly (1988), Joan Allen and Peter Friedman in The Heidi Chronicles (1988), and Joe Mantegna and Ron Silver in Speed-the-Plow (1988). The performances aren't specifically organized by date or performer, but the collection concludes with four excerpts from August Wilson works followed by three Shakespearean works. The excerpts are brief, lasting 2-3 minutes each, and even though each segment is introduced by a narrator, this format clearly works better for musicals than it does for plays. Regardless, it remains a rare chance to see stage performances that for the most part are not available on home video. --David Horiuchi Review It's our good fortune that such superb work is saved for posterity. -- Encore Magazine The DVD features rare gems for the theater historian to savor. -- The Washington Post DVD of the week B+. -- St. Petersburg Times, June 2007 The climactic line-up of scenes from August Wilson plays is the essential reason to own this DVD. -- New York Press This DVD is a real treasure trove of plays and actors. -- Connecticut Post