Monday, June 26, 2006

Dino, Orson, and Jack: a Little Sondheim

"Everybody Ought to Have a Maid"

(via YouTube)
I was looking for Orson Welles' frozen peas commercial, when I came across this clip, presumably from the Dean Martin show.
Dean Martin, Jack Gilford and Orson Welles doing a number from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. (Surprisingly, Gilford, who did the show and the movie, is reading his lines off cue cards).

The number is a lighthearted showstopper in the play. This version is kinda creepy.

2 comments:

cjereneta said...

Yes, this is extremely creepy.

But the original is pretty creepy too.

Or, at least, Richard Lester's version in the film adaptation was creepy.

The version we performed in high school was, while perhaps not gay in its subtext, so flamboyantly un-butch as to obliterate any remnants of creepiness.

Think of a Don Knotts-as-Mr. Furley leering kind of sexuality. But, um, less threatening still.

Deirdre said...

YYYYYyyyyyeah. What he said.