Odd mini-musical from Broadway giant Stephen Sondheim seems almost like an episode from "Twilight Zone." Story centers on a community of department store dwellers who hide during the day but come out at night and inhabit the store. Anthony Perkins pays a failed poet who stumbles upon this weird cult and falls in love (and finds his poetic voice) with the aged group's maid (Charmian Carr).Several haunting songs highlight this outing with Perkins and Carr in good voice. The plaintive songs accent their new-found love and desire to leave the group and go outside. But no one is allowed to leave for fear of exposing the group and casting them all outside. Anyone suspected of leaving is gathered up by the "darkmen," another group that lives at a funeral home.Perkins is a major surprise, showcasing a wonderful singing voice. Carr is also excellent as the maid held by the group against her will. Her "I Remember Sky" is especially good. Dorothy Stickney plays Mrs. Monday, the leader of the group who's been there for decades. Larry Gates is Roscoe and Margaretta Warwick is Bilby. Other old ladies include Margaret Bannerman, Dorothy Sands, and Margaret Barker.Filmed at the Stern Brothers department store in New York City. This was originally shown on ABC's "Stage 67" series. The ending is quite chilling.

On Mandy Patinkin's 1987 CD Dress Casual, the music from Evening Primrose is sung by the two great interpreters of Sondheim's music: Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. It was a wonderful introduction to the songs. The CD itself suffers from something common in his albums, a too-large modulation in volume, which is forever causing you to turn the volume up, then down, then up again.But the singing itself is gorgeous. These are two magnificent voices singing music representative of Broadway's best composer, and it's a wonder we haven't heard the tunes more often in the many tributes to Sondheim. The plot idea is as old as Greek mythology, and over-used. Anyone interested in Sondheim at all should get a listen to this CD.

I agree that the score to Evening Primrose is excellent. There are only four songs, but every one is perfect. I've also seen the Tony Perkins version and agree that it's imperfect, but the 2001 recording from Nonesuch, with Neil Patrick Harris and Theresa McCarthy, is quite good. I think I prefer "If You Can Find Me I'm Here" to "I Remember Sky," but it's close.And then there's "Take Me to the World" and "When." Gotta love it. Sondheim just got better after this one, of course, but he was already brilliant in 1966.By the way, this wasn't a "special," in the conventional sense of the term. It was an episode of ABC's wonderful 1966-67 anthology series Stage 67. It featured plays by writers like Truman Capote and Murray Schisgal. It even featured a musical episode by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, though Sondheim blew those guys away. (Despite which, I love Burt Bacharach and Hal David.)"A world of skies that's bursting with surprise."

I first heard of this movie in a Steven Sodheim song book that I have which one of the songs was in, an amazing song called "Take Me To the World". I got a vague idea of the plot by listening to the songs and from what I could piece together from the internet and also the very helpful posting on IMDb (thank you whoever wrote that). Anyway it inspired me enough to go and see the film at the Museum of TV and Radio in NYC, an I have to say that it was worth it. While the casting creeped me out a little bit (a combo of leads from the Sound of Music and Psyco falling in love-- a little weird). The acting was good enough to make me forget about that and exceptionally well done for a made-for-TV musical from the 50s. While the quality was crappy even at the museum, I would love to get my hands on any copy of this as well and the plot (even though slightly creepy) and music are something that should be honored and possibly even remade. This was definitely worth the trip to NYC for me and I live in Seattle!!!