PBS DOCUMENTARY A song and dance for the Broadway musical

The six-part special premieres Tuesday, but is already available on DVD.
By TERRY LAWSON
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Every few years, someone issues a death certificate for the American musical, then along comes a "Lion King" or a "Rent" on Broadway or a "Chicago" on the screen, and talk of a great resurrection begins. Still, it's difficult not to be nostalgic for the musical's so-called Golden Age, though no one seems to be able to explain exactly when that was.
As a consequence, we get a lot of occasionally contentious but mostly illuminating debate in "Broadway: The American Musical," a six-part documentary made for PBS, where it will premiere Tuesday, but already available on DVD (3 stars, Paramount, $59.99).
Director Michael Kantor surveys 100 years of musical theater, and although the result is loosely chronological, tracing the musical from its roots in operetta to its current fascination with rock scores and spectacles, it jumps around fairly freely in exploring ideas and issues.
Crams in a lot
"Broadway," narrated by Julie Andrews, tries to cram a lot of clips and interviews into six hours, which would be the approximate amount of time I spent in "Starlight Express" before seizing the opportunity to flee, but fans will undoubtedly enjoy the opportunity to see rare film clips and re-creations (though the latter are not identified as such, which could cause some confusion) and enjoy the recollections and anecdotes of people like Kitty Carlisle, who was married to Moss Hart.
The best segment may be the one devoted to African-American musicals and race, if only for its tribute to the great comic Bert Williams, a pivotal if often overlooked figure in theater history.
"Broadway" also explores how musicals translated to film and how, more recently, films have been refitted for the stage.
'That's Entertainment'
And that reminds us that three of the best clip movies ever made were 1974's "That's Entertainment," a celebration of the great MGM musicals; its equally fine 1976 sequel, "That's Entertainment Part 2" (which mixed in comedy and even dramatic sequences); and the almost-as-good "That's Entertainment III," from 1994, now collected as the "That's Entertainment Trilogy Giftset" (4 stars, Warner, $49.92.).
The films, which together collect nearly all of the great musical performances you remember and many you've forgotten, are also available individually ($19.97 each). The box contains a fourth disc titled "Treasures from the Vault" that contains more of the outtakes and alternative versions that made the third film such a delight, as well as three documentaries. It's more than five hours in all.