This is absolutely the worst musical adaptation EVER with the most inadequate, atrocious, inept performance ever recorded by a major star. Lauren Bacall is soooooooooooooooooooooo bad in this it is not to be believed. She can't sing or act. I've seen better acting in my high school productions by almost everyone. That being said her performance is so bad that it must not be missed. Truly a howl - I have parties where I show this on TV and my friends and I sit there screeching with laughter and disbelief. One must see this to believe the travesty that APPLAUSE truly is. Bacall is like a drag queen doing bad drag. When she tries to croak the horrible tune "HURRAY BACK" it sounds like she is saying "HAIRY BACK". This adaptation has bought me endless hours of pleasure and laughter for all the wrong reasons. How Bacall ever won a Tony for this is beyond belief. I heard a story that Ethel Merman was sitting in the audience of this (or maybe WOMAN OF THE YEAR) and the minute Bacall opened her mouth to try to sing she screamed out "JESUS Christ" Don't know if this story is true or not but it is a great tale. Why Lucille Ball is derided in MAME and Lauren Bacall is praised in this totally bewilders me. While Lucy is no great MAME she is monumentally better than Bacall could ever hope to be and LUCY can ACT! Rent this, by this and get your hands on it - it is an unintentional comedic masterpiece!!!

I wanted to see this movie for years and finally found a copy this year. Well, the actual production left something to be desired. The sets seemed cramped, and the whole thing has kind of a thrown-together feeling to it, but that's easy enough to overlook. The musical was obviously a lot of fun to make and all of the actors seem to really be enjoying themselves.Lauren Bacall shows her usual dramatic star-power, but (Tony Award or no Tony Award) the woman really can't sing. Fortunately, for her part at least, it really doesn't matter. She's a strong enough actress that she can put emotion behind the lyrics and it doesn't really matter if it matches the melody or not. Larry Hagman plays Bill - but he seems almost wasted, having very little to do until the end. Penny Fuller was a fairly good Eve, but she was definitely no Anne Baxter. Still, I doubt Anne Baxter could have sung as well as Fuller did. Her last number was very impressive.The real surprise to me was English actress Debbie Bowen completely stopping the show with the title song "Applause." She nailed it. I never even knew she could sing, and she nearly steals the entire show with just that one number. Very impressive talent, too bad she seems to have disappeared from the entertainment world. She was the one to watch in this movie.The rest of the supporting cast is mostly forgettable. The plot line is pretty faithful to "All About Eve" although the script does seem to nicey it up a little too much. Why did they get rid of one of the best characters in the movie - Addison DeWitt? George Sanders won the Oscar for that role, it was probably the most intelligent character in the whole story. For a long time the audience is kept sympathizing with Eve and hating Margo, which is not the way the story is supposed to go at all. The end is rather abrupt and doesn't really come across as satisfying. But the music alone is a great, great asset to this. It's worth watching if you can find it.

Why Broadway, and Hollywood and Tv Fight to keep some of these American Gems off DVD or Tape bewilders me. This is all but forgotten by even the best memoried Baby Boomers. Well, digging through old tapes, I found this "APPLAUSE" STARRING: Lauren Bacall, Larry Hagman, et al. Now WHO would not pay to see "APPLAUSE" with it's ORIGINAL LEADING STAR? "APPLAUSE" is great, even after 30 years tucked away on a shelf. This find made my day. From the brilliant writing adaptation of "All About Eve", to the effervescent score. This Musical retelling of the Bette Davis classic is overpoweringly Superb. Lauren Bacall at her best! The production was done true to the original. That alone is worth seeing it again. Even on tv. But, in a theatre, on a big screen would be even better. "What is it that we're working for?, Applause, Applause..." Love those classic Musicals, or hate them, I think you'd all LOVE APPLAUSE! Now, let's get it released on DVD. I'd sell my soul to see the ORIGINAL "HELLO,DOLLY!" with Carol Channing on DVD. Perhaps if Hollywood stayed true to the original work, Musicals would have lasted as an art medium. If you ever get a chance to see this GEM, DON'T Pass it up!

I always wondered what this show was like.The musical version of "ALL ABOUT EVE" I have heard the Original Broadway cast album and was excited to see on the IMDB that there was a video version taped in 1973. I recently found a copy of it. I can now understand why this is never seen. The quality of the sets is like a cheap soap opera, the actors project as if they are acting to the last row of a huge arena. Lauren Bacall has never seemed so insincere. The "choreography" is sloppy, the Greenwich Village gay bar number is a blast, men throwing Lauren around while she sings, and trying to make it look like she is a dancer. At times I am reminded of Mae West in "SEXTETTE" The lip-syncing is obvious. But I love this show I wish they would put this on DVD with DTS sound and hours of extras. But this will most likely be shown no-where and never released on home video. The production was probably taped in a few days and it shows. I am sure the stage production was a lot better. But this is the only version of this musical around. It is a great record of the show if you can imagine the better production it must have been. The songs are stuck in my head. The dramatic lovers quarrels with Lauren and Larry Hagman are unbelievable. The ending is very strange with Margo (Lauren) giving up her career as an actress so she can be a real woman for her man. But that is all part of the fun. The "APPLAUSE" number is a real hoot with the cutesy "gypsies" doing parodies of "Cabaret," "Fiddler," West Side Story," "Hello Dolly," "Oklahoma-Oh Calcutta." among others. Highly recommended!