Lauren Bacall won a Tony for her performance in Broadway’s “Applause.” Here’s a rare video clip of the late, great icon singing “But Alive.”
Bacall was part of the original cast. “Applause” ran for 896 performances, from March 30, 1970 to July 27, 1972.Â
“It’s very 70s, and truly a classic. Just seeing Bacall play the gay diva and sing and get flipped and flung around by the guys is worth the price alone,” the YouTube video notes read, adding, it “had been filmed for TV two years after it opened on Broadway. That special only aired once on network TV and has never been seen again. This is just pure fun, especially if you love stuff like this.”
Pure fun, indeed.
The New York Daily News writes of Bacall and “Applause”:
The show’s book writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green crafted the story for her, and noted in the souvenir program: “When Miss Bacall enters a million-watt bulb miraculously switched on inside people’s heads. And when her she lets out her dirty, throaty laugh … the occasion becomes a celebration of life.”
Her second Tony came for headlining “Woman of the Year,” a musical version of the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy movie.
The CD of “Applause” (image, top)Â is still available on Amazon.
Lauren Bacall passed away at the age of 89 yesterday.
RIP.