Bye Bye Birdie

A failed actor finds success as a radio singer.

"Gus Arnhein and His Coconut Grove Orchestra" is an agreeable short-and one of the earlier Vitaphone released. While the band is just about totally forgotten today, they had a nice sound and are a nice representative of the era. And, like most Vitaphone films of the day, the camera is mostly stationary and there are no fancy effects-just a straight recording of the act-which included several nice songs.

Direct from London's glittering West End, our favorite multi-award winning international cabaret sensation, Meow Meow (Vamp), returns to Sydney Festival with a perfectly wild take on Hans Christian Andersen's bittersweet fable. With Malthouse Theatre director Marion Potts, composer Iain Grandage (Optimism), the Wild Dog Orchestra and the ever-dexterous Mitchell Butel (Woyzeck), Meow and her cohorts ignite a fantastical flight of musical fancy with dark, cut throat comedy and a whiplash score.

A young actor's perfect life takes a madcap turn when she agrees to star in a commercial — and suddenly gets transported to her character's world.

Peter Pan is a 1976 musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, produced for television as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring Mia Farrow as Peter Pan and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook, and with Sir John Gielgud narrating. Julie Andrews sang one of the songs, "Once Upon a Bedtime", off-camera over the opening credits. It aired on NBC at 7:30pm on Sunday, December 12, 1976, capping off the program's 25th year on the air. The program did not use the score written for the highly successful Mary Martin version which had previously been televised many times on NBC. Instead, it featured 14 new and now forgotten songs, written for the production by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.

"On the Flip Side" is an episode of ABC Stage 67 starring James Coco, Tyrone Cooper, and James Dybas. A spirit and her musical combo are assigned to help a washed-up singer make a comeback. The original score for this program was composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, with musical direction by Peter Matz.

In the years before World War I, a love affair takes place between an American pilot named Jack Ames and a French spy named Madeleine Aubert. Madeleine leaves her American fiancé to join her father, another French spy, at an estate in Germany. Her father instructs her to accept the invitation of a Prussian officer, Eric von Coburg, to live at his estate for a month.

One day, Molly Standing is picking apples in her father's apple orchard in California, with her friend Gertie (Marion Byron), when they meet two boys, Tommy Melville and Gus Schultz. Molly falls in love with Tommy while Gertie falls in love with Gus. They plan a double wedding.

When the dead discover a means to contact the living through electronic devices, cellphones and computers become open gateways to monstrosities and destruction.