Bye Bye Birdie

This TV adaptation of Bye Bye Birdie has a few things going for it. Vanessa Williams is sensational, and Jason Alexander, surprise, surprise, is a good singer and adequate hoofer. It follows the original play far better than the film, although, it also takes liberties with it. And doesn't have to pull its punches to quite the same extent as the movie did (1963 was kind of crossover year, where attitudes and mores were beginning to loosen up, but American movies were still stuck in the fifties.The TV version also gets rid of that horrible sped-up ballet that nearly ruins the movie version (the play had another ballet entirely, which is not in either the film or the TV version).

On the minus side, as good as Jason Alexander is, he wasn't right for the part. I'm not sure Dick Van Dyke was either, but he was better. George Wendt adds nothing to the mix, especially when compared to Paul Lynde. The character of Kim McAfee is pared back down to its original content, which is just as well. Chynna Phillips is woefully miscast as a teenager and really can't compete with Ann-Margert (who could?). Marc Kudisch's Conrad is a good imitation of Conway Twitty, who was the original template for Conrad (not Elvis), although Jesse Pearson (who looked like he was imitating Elvis) was better.

On the balance, worth watching if you're interested in Broadway musicals and their adaptations, but it's not a must-see.

I was extremely impressed when I sat down to watch this movie in December 2002. It is a lot like the Broadway musical, and even better! And I loved the new songs - Let's Settle Down, A Giant Step, and A Mother Doesn't Matter Anymore. Tyne Daly was extremely funny in her role as Mamma, I think this is the best thing she has ever done. Keep going!

I have always loved the original movie, but I decided to watch this version to see if this one was nearly as good. Although this version sticks closely to the stage play, and nearly keeps the same script, it is dull and I found myself fast forwarding many slow scenes. If you're going to watch the movie, watch the Ann-Margret version, which is absolutely wonderful. There are many MANY flaws with this one.

1. Could the dialogue scenes be any more boring?? This was not a problem in the original! Even some of the newer songs ("Giant Step", etc. just made it drag!)

2. You would think with Ann Reinking as the choreographer the dances would be brilliant. WRONG! The fast-paced songs consisted of the teens clicking their fingers. That's IT. Sure, sometimes they actually SKIPPED or something but basically songs like "American Boy", "Honestly Sincere", and "Telepone Hour" were standstill numbers.

3. Half the people in this movie can't act OR sing. Which you think would be one of the requirements when you are putting on a movie musical. Especially the females who play Kim and Mrs. MacAfee.

4. Casting Chynna Phillips as Kim was a TERRIBLE mistake. Sure, she's pretty but at the time of filming she was a 27 year old playing a 17 year old, and it shows! And she can't sing or act...and she's one of the leads!! I cringed when she opened her mouth to sing, enough said. This is a minor complaint, but isn't this Hugo just a little TOO cute to play a dorky teen like Bobby Rydell did in the original?

Now to the good parts! Jason Alexander is my new Albert Peterson!! He was BRILLIANT! And Vanessa L. Williams BLEW me away as Rosie!! Thank Goodness the director had some brains casting them!! They were amazing to watch. And even though people have complained about the girl who played Ursula - I thought she was the best teen in this whole movie - especially when she sings "Bye Bye Birdie" . She was a bubbly, obnoxious teen - which is what Ursula should be! That's another problem with this movie - they make the small songs like "An English Teacher" and "Bye Bye Birdie" the hits of the movie and the MAIN songs - well, boring. The last hour or so of the movie they should have cut, it was so boring! And don't even get me started on Conrad! Do they not know he was supposed to be sexy??? Watch the first half hour for Jason and Vanessa - then turn the TV off!!!

Poor BYE BYE BIRDIE! It can't get any respect.

A terrific unexpected hit on Broadway in 1960 (608p. April 14 - Oct. 7, 1961, at the Martin Beck, 54th Street & Shubert Theatres and reproduced by virtually every high school drama department in the country!), it was travestied as a 1963 film that threw out half the plot and tossed in a TOTALLY inappropriately old and slutty (except for libidinous teenagers and dirty old men) Ann Margaret as a supposed "teenager." At least IT had the good sense to retain most of the best of the Broadway Cast (except for the luminous Chita Rivera as "Rosie").

Now in 1995, falsely advertising itself as a "faithful" filming of the show, we are given for our sins a "cast by 'Q Ratings'" travesty (the supposedly innocent ...BIRDIE is set before "Loving vs. Virginia" and an interracial couple, Albert & Rosie, in Sweetwater, Ohio would have been more controversial than Conrad Birdie's supposedly worldly "bad influence") with three exceedingly dull songs replacing better ones and Michael Stewart's finely tuned book diluted by someone who seems to have thought the Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies were too challenging.

There are bright spots rising above the amateur re-writing and direction (can this possibly be the same Gene Sacks who gave us the original MAME on stage? Hollywood certainly didn't agree with him!): Marc Kudisch is a legitimately wonderful "Birdie," and the always superbly grounded Tyne Daly almost pulls off an appropriately cartoonish Mae (Albert's mother). Everyone else however is cast with as little concern for the characters they are playing as Ann Margaret was in the first movie version, but without the lecherous overlay, and consequently sink to new professional lows. Jason Alexander is a decent comic actor - always the "go-to guy" if you couldn't afford Nathan Lane (rather like Sally Ann Howes was to Julie Andrews), but if you remember Albert as a charismatic, lanky dancer like Dick Van Dyke, give this sad remake a very wide berth.

Some individually talented people are miscast and mismatched in this strained dud. Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams are not a match made in Heaven. Kim appears to be 30. And how do you screw up The Telephone Hour? They did.