VHS : Awake and Sing! (Broadway Theatre Archive)
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starring: Felicia Farr, Leo Fuchs, Robert Lipton, Walter Matthau, John Myhersdirected by: Norman Lloyd, Robert Hopkins
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780769726021
Format: Color, NTSC
ISBN: 076972602X
Label: Kultur Video
Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Kultur Video
Release Date: February 04, 2002
Running Time: 120 minutes
Sales Rank: 26144
Studio: Kultur Video
Theatrical Release Date: June 03, 1972
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Walter Matthau heads the cast of this television recreation of Clifford Odets' 1935 hit Broadway play, the first full-length work performed on the commercial stage by the legendary Group Theatre. This portrait of a Jewish family in a Bronx tenement perfectly captures the spirit of the Depression years, and is suffused with details of character and place that combine to be affecting even now. The Bergers, burdened by financial difficulties, have taken in a boarder, Moe Axelrod (Matthau), who lost a leg in World War I. Cynical and outspoken, Moe adds a spark to the somewhat accepting lives of the Bergers. The family fights to survive on $16 a week while the intellectual, Marxist-leaning grandfather (brilliantly played by famed Yiddish theatre star, Leo Fuchs) tries futilely to spur his family to action with the injunction, 'Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust .' (Isaiah 26:19). With Ruth Storey, Robert Lipton, and Felicia Farr.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Short run on Broadway
AS live on Broadway archives comparable cassics, buy "The Iceman Cometh" or "The glass menagerie" or"A long days journey into night". 3 goodies, but skip this one ?
Rating:  - Don't judge the play by this film version
There is a stage revival of this play recently presented in New York and I was curious to see this film version. I found it very dull. Walter Matthau acted very well but I thought him miscast (appearing too old, to me, for the part of the angry war vet). Felicia Farr (Jack Lemmon's wife) was excellent, though certainly there was no chemistry between her and Matthau. I don't know what happened to actor Robert Lipton; he does a good job here as the frustrated idealist. As a bit of theatrical history ... Read More
Rating:  - Walter Matthau's Towering Performance
Walter Matthau is brilliant as the physically and spiritually impoverished Moe Axelrod in this 1972 television production of Clifford Odets' Depression-era drama AWAKE AND SING! Matthau is the most famous "name" in the production, yet he blends beautifully into a top-notch ensemble cast that includes Ruth Storey as matriarch Bessie Berger, who has pretensions of culture and wealth; Leo Fuchs as Grandfather Jacob, who looks to both the Bible and the words of Karl Marx for inspiration during hard economic ... Read More
Rating: - Awake and Sing
This play was great. I feel that the playwrite caught the essense of the story & it's one of the best I've seen of Walter Matthau in the Broadway theater archive series. I am becomeing a real fan of broadway theater archive series as well.
Rating: - Great performance! Don�t overlook it.
I can't commend this highly enough. I saw it on the local Public Television station here in Chicago when it was first broadcast in the early 1970s, and it made a tremendous impact on me. This play, and the very similar "Paradise Lost," are depression era dramas written by Clifford Odets and originally produced for the stage in the mid 1930s, when they were the cutting edge of contemporary theatre and dealt with contemporary issues. These new DVDs contain television productions done with top-notch casts ... Read More
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