Applause

I wanted to see this movie for years and finally found a copy this year. Well, the actual production left something to be desired. The sets seemed cramped, and the whole thing has kind of a thrown-together feeling to it, but that's easy enough to overlook. The musical was obviously a lot of fun to make and all of the actors seem to really be enjoying themselves.

Lauren Bacall shows her usual dramatic star-power, but (Tony Award or no Tony Award) the woman really can't sing. Fortunately, for her part at least, it really doesn't matter. She's a strong enough actress that she can put emotion behind the lyrics and it doesn't really matter if it matches the melody or not. Larry Hagman plays Bill - but he seems almost wasted, having very little to do until the end. Penny Fuller was a fairly good Eve, but she was definitely no Anne Baxter. Still, I doubt Anne Baxter could have sung as well as Fuller did. Her last number was very impressive.

The real surprise to me was English actress Debbie Bowen completely stopping the show with the title song "Applause." She nailed it. I never even knew she could sing, and she nearly steals the entire show with just that one number. Very impressive talent, too bad she seems to have disappeared from the entertainment world. She was the one to watch in this movie.

The rest of the supporting cast is mostly forgettable. The plot line is pretty faithful to "All About Eve" although the script does seem to nicey it up a little too much. Why did they get rid of one of the best characters in the movie - Addison DeWitt? George Sanders won the Oscar for that role, it was probably the most intelligent character in the whole story. For a long time the audience is kept sympathizing with Eve and hating Margo, which is not the way the story is supposed to go at all. The end is rather abrupt and doesn't really come across as satisfying. But the music alone is a great, great asset to this. It's worth watching if you can find it.

APPLAUSE, the Broadway musical based on the classic ALL ABOUT EVE, was hastily filmed for television in 1973. The show first appeared on Broadway in 1970 and won Lauren Bacall a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical. The story definitely lacks the bite of the original, obviously because it's a musical, but it's still the same story of Broadway star Margo Channing (Bacall) taking a star-struck fan (Penny Fuller) under her wing who pays her back by trying to take over her life. This production seems to have been thrown together in sort of a hap-hazard fashion and Bacall and company deserve better. The score by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse (BYE BYE BIRDIE) includes "But Alive", "The Best Night of My Life", "Backstage Babble", "One of a Kind", and the classic title tune. Bacall works hard at making Margo likable as does Larry Hagman as Bill Sampson, Margo's much younger boyfriend. A curio to be sure, but worth a look if you can find it.

"Applause" was made as a TV movie in 1973 from the Broadway musical of the same title that ran for 896 performances from 1970 to 1972. The adaptation included most of the original Broadway cast, but Larry Hagman replaced Len Cariou in the role of Bill Sampson. The show and film are a musical version of the 1950 film, "All About Eve," that had an all-star cast and won six Academy Awards. It's a familiar plot which has been adapted a few times in other films over the decades.

The Broadway show won four Tony awards out of 11 nominations, including best musical, best direction of a musical, best choreography and best leading actress in a musical. It was Lauren Bacall's first of two Tony awards as best actress on Broadway. Although all of the cast are good, Bacall is the main reason to see this show, if one can find it. I saw it on DVD that was taped from its TV showing. The copy quality is very poor and the character images are not clear and crisp.

While Bacall and others of the cast can carry a tune, they are not professional singers. Ergo, this play and film don't have the punch and power of the great musicals that have featured professional singers or their voices. The music and dance numbers are good, and the choreography is very good. But, again, this film has the feel of a stage production and the star quality of performers doesn't match that of the great musicals that were made into movies.

Applause was a fun, sharp, sophisticated & very successful Broadway musical. What we are reviewing here is the tv version which is less successful. Some shows don't translate well to television. Applause is one of them. To have seen it in person & felt the joy of a live performance & then have to compare it to this version is slightly sad. It's still a tight show & Bacall is magnificent. (in spite of the nasty queen's insulting review here. He apparently has no taste. Just a viscous tongue & poor eyesight) But it's all we have & if we can stretch our imagination, we can still see how thrilling it must have been on Broadway. It won several Tony awards including Best Musical & Best actress for Bacall which it deserved. We have no other version left for us other than a cast album and so I am grateful for this flawed time capsule video version. Flawed? Yes but still, I love it.

I always wondered what this show was like.The musical version of "ALL ABOUT EVE" I have heard the Original Broadway cast album and was excited to see on the IMDB that there was a video version taped in 1973. I recently found a copy of it. I can now understand why this is never seen. The quality of the sets is like a cheap soap opera, the actors project as if they are acting to the last row of a huge arena. Lauren Bacall has never seemed so insincere. The "choreography" is sloppy, the Greenwich Village gay bar number is a blast, men throwing Lauren around while she sings, and trying to make it look like she is a dancer. At times I am reminded of Mae West in "SEXTETTE" The lip-syncing is obvious. But I love this show I wish they would put this on DVD with DTS sound and hours of extras. But this will most likely be shown no-where and never released on home video. The production was probably taped in a few days and it shows. I am sure the stage production was a lot better. But this is the only version of this musical around. It is a great record of the show if you can imagine the better production it must have been. The songs are stuck in my head. The dramatic lovers quarrels with Lauren and Larry Hagman are unbelievable. The ending is very strange with Margo (Lauren) giving up her career as an actress so she can be a real woman for her man. But that is all part of the fun. The "APPLAUSE" number is a real hoot with the cutesy "gypsies" doing parodies of "Cabaret," "Fiddler," West Side Story," "Hello Dolly," "Oklahoma-Oh Calcutta." among others. Highly recommended!