Product Description

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 05/27/2008 Run time: 140 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11633 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2003-10-21
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Cast Recording, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 146 minutes

Amazon.com
Star, legend, force of nature--whatever you call Elaine Stritch, it probably applies, and it's never more apparent than in her deeply personal one-woman show, At Liberty. With only an oversize shirt, black tights, and a chair, Stritch mesmerizes a full house at London's Old Vic Theatre with tales of her 50-plus-year career on stage and screen. It's a priceless glimpse of backstage theatre to hear her recount how she served as standby for Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam in New York at the same time she had a featured role in Pal Joey playing in New Haven, Connecticut. And she tells about the people she mingled with (Noel Coward, Judy Garland, Rock Hudson), her disappointments both professional ("I blew The Golden Girls!") and personal (her bouts with drinking). At Liberty is more of a monologue than a musical performance, though she does perform some of her signature songs like "Zip" and "The Ladies Who Lunch." At Liberty won a Tony Award in June 2002 for Special Theatrical Event, but Stritch's triumph was tempered when she was not allowed to complete her acceptance speech. Her response to it here is just one of the touching moments in a remembrance of a historic career. --David Horiuchi

From the Back Cover
Without question one of the Grandes Dames of Broadway, Elaine Stritch has a career spanning over 50 years with diverse roles in Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, Noel Coward's Sail Away, and most famously, Stephen Sondheim's Follies and Company, as well as numerous films and award-winning television series. Now at 77, she's as dynamic as ever, giving an astonishing performance in this highly acclaimed one-woman show. In a series of vignettes punctuated by songs from the shows in which she starred, she tells stories from her career ranging from the hilarious to the deeply moving. Hear about her disastrous but extremely funny date with Marlon Brando, her standing in for Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam in New York while perofrming at the same time in Newhaven in Pal Joey, working with Noel Coward, failing to get a starring role in The Golden Girls after insulting the writer, and her ultimately successful struggles with alcohol and diabetes. Songs include: "Broadway Baby," "But Not for Me," "I've Been to a Marvellous Party," "The Ladies Who Lunch," "There's No Business like Show Business," "Zip," and "I'm Still Here!"

Customer Reviews

Ansolutely mesmerizing. A legend, center stage.
This DVD brilliantly recaptures the sold-out show which played to packed houses at New York's Public Theatre before moving to Broadway. Eliane Stritch, one of the great ladies of the theatre, recounts her long, fascinating career and her life offstage with a candor which is nothing short of astonishing. In her inimitable voice, Ms. Stritch belts out a generous plateful of songs, including her still-potent THE LADIES WHO LUNCH, from her career-defining performance in Stephen Sondheim's musical hit COMPANY...but it's the revealing, often wrenching details of her long battle with the bottle and her struggle to face her demons head on which make this truly compelling viewing. The DVD perfectly captures the theatrical experience.

Elaine really chews up the scenery in this one!
No small feat. The scenery consists of a chromium bar stool and 60-foot brick wall.

Theater-buffs recognize Stritch as the legend she is. And most of us are rather pleased that her work in film has always been secondary (her best work in that medium was in Woody Allen's SEPTEMBER)...and that her heart will ALWAYS be in the THEATAH. Although this one-woman-show has plenty of musical numbers, it is mostly an autobiographical tirade, designed to woo our sympathies. As a stage performance it was incredible; as a filmed performance with many close-ups it's a bit disconcerting, like sitting on the corner stool in a prize fight. This is not to diminish the writing, pacing, humor, or the brilliance of Stritch's performance. It's just a little overpowering. At the center of her angst is her Catholic upbringing, lack of luck in love, and her struggle with alcoholism. In fact, she is so tough on herself that you almost fail to notice how tough she is on others. Just short of libelous, we get some very interesting glimpses of her fellow performers: Gig Young, Ethel Merman, Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Gloria Swanson, and Rock Hudson, to name a few.

So move your barcalounger back twelve feet, get out your handkerchief, and hang on to your hat (does anyone still wear a hat?) And enjoy a legend!.

Once-in-a-Lifetime Performance by a Legend!
This bare-bones DVD (no cute extras) captures (on high-quality video) one of the finest one-woman shows ever to hit Broadway and the West End. Elaine Stritch, caught here in London, struts the boards with her still-lovely 78-year-old legs (in black tights) to share tales of life, love and lots of booze on the wicked stage. She has truly "been there, done that, got all the T-shirts"; she's dated Brando, understudied Merman on Broadway (and simultaneously stopped the show in "Pal Joey" in New Haven!), served as Noel Coward's muse, dazzled Richard Burton, drunk Garland under the table, and managed to give incredible performance after incredible performance-- with the help of alcohol for many years.

Stritch can still sell a song, even with her bellowing rasp of a voice (once described as sounding like a stickshift being shifted without the clutch), and she claims chestnuts like "Broadway Baby" and "I'm Still Here" as her own in this piece. But she's also a fierce talent as an actor, and grabs your attention throughout the two-plus hours of this show. Her funny stories are hysterically so (witness her stammeringly ask Merman to allow her to slip up to New Haven to "Pal Joey's" opening during a blizzard, and Merman bray her reply: "Oh Elaine just go up to New Haven for chrissake and sing the #@%&*%!song!!"). Her stories of heartache are truly heartbreaking; her too-brief marriage to John Bay moves her to sing "There Never Was a Baby Like My Baby", and she still misses him twenty years after his death. Her final goodbye to alcohol (after a dangerous hypoglycemic episode) is tinged with sadness; for years alcohol was her constant companion on stage.

But now she's healthy, reclaiming the life she almost missed in a boozy haze. And we get to enjoy a huge, vital talent, still in her prime, still making great theatre. Long Live Elaine Stritch!