For theatre lovers, it doesn?t get any better than this!

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The Broadway's Lost Treasures Collection consists of the three volumes previously released on DVD plus a never-before-available fourth disc, The Best of the Tony Awards: The Plays. The first three discs deliver what the title promises: historic performances of great moments in American musical theater televised on the Tony Awards starting in the 1960s and into the new millennium. Unlike some other arts, theater has rarely been well-documented, so it's a treat to see these numbers performed by the original artists rather than experience them through audio recordings or tepid movie adaptations. Sure, sound and picture quality are only adequate, some of the numbers are minimally staged and some appear to be lip-synched, and some of the performances that do have excellent film counterparts seem rather lackluster here. But those are minor drawbacks compared to the chance to see Gwen Verdon performing "All That Jazz" and "Nowadays" from Chicago and "Whatever Lola Wants" from Damn Yankees; John Raitt singing The Pajama Game's "Hey There"; Alfred Drake singing Kiss Me Kate's "Where Is the Life That Late I Led"); a 33-year-old Jerry Orbach performing Promises, Promises' "She Likes Basketball"; and 12-year-old Andrea McArdle breaking hearts in Annie's "Tomorrow."

The second and third volumes feature newer, fully staged performances that are almost indistinguishable from an actual show, including scenes from splashy, high-energy revivals such as Anything Goes (Patti LuPone and company performing the title tune) and Guys and Dolls (the fabulous "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat"), and new shows such as Grand 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"), Ragtime (the opening number), and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Kristin Chenoweth's "My New Philosophy"). The new generation of splashy dance-oriented musicals are also represented by the likes of the 42nd Street revival (the title tune and "We're in the Money"), Fosse ("Sing, Sing, Sing"), and Crazy for You ("I Can't Be Bothered Now").

The Best of the Tony Awards: The Plays features 19 of the dramatic and comedy excerpts showcased on the Tony Awards telecasts between 1969 and 2001. From 1969 are James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in The Great White Hope and Art Carney in Lovers, and other performances include Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack in Lettice and Lovage (1990), John Lithgow and B.D. Wong in M. Butterfly (1988), Joan Allen and Peter Friedman in The Heidi Chronicles (1988), and Joe Mantegna and Ron Silver in Speed-the-Plow (1988). The performances aren't specifically organized by date or performer, but the collection concludes with four excerpts from August Wilson works followed by three Shakespearean works. The excerpts are brief, lasting 2-3 minutes each, and even though each segment is introduced by a narrator, this format clearly works better for musicals than it does for plays. Regardless, it remains a rare chance to see stage performances that for the most part are not available on home video. Collectors who already own the three musical volumes, however, will have to weigh how badly they want The Plays when they consider mostly duplicating their purchase with the Broadway's Lost Treasures Collection. --David Horiuchi