Broadway's Lost Treasures II
The follow-up to the originalBroadway's Lost Treasuresdelivers more of the same--historic performances of great moments in American musical theater televised on the Tony Awards--but is a step up in terms of sheer entertainment value.  The first volume included only performances before 1987, and while they had bigger stars (Yul Brynner, Robert Preston), some of them were lip-synced and considerably less polished than their feature-film equivalents.Broadway's Lost Treasures IIfeatures newer performances that are almost indistinguishable from an actual show, including scenes from splashy, high-energy revivals such asAnything Goes(Patti LuPone and company performing the title tune) andGuys and Dolls(the fabulous "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat"), and new shows such asGrand Hotel(Michael Jeter and Brent Barrett in a gloriously exuberant "Take a Glass Together"),Les Miserables("One Day More"),La Cage aux Folles(George Hearn solo and with a chorus line in drag in  "I Am What I Am"), and Jelly's Last Jam (Gregory Hines tapping "That's How You Jazz"). There are classic performances too, including Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur's 1987 reunion of "Bosom Buddies" (Mame), Richard Kiley's "The Impossible Dream" (Man of La Mancha), Jerry Orbach's "All I Care About" (Chicago), and (in the DVD's bonus content) Katharine Hepburn in a 15-minute part-dramatic, part-musical scene fromCoco. Fans were disappointed when performances fromDreamgirlsandA Chorus Linewere pulled from the first program due to rights issues, and those still aren't included here, but one can always hope they might appear in a future volume.--David Horiuchi