Product Details

• Released on: 2006-05-30
• Rating: X (Mature Audiences Only)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Import
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

From Amazon.com
This 1970 television production of Oh! Calcutta! preserves a live performance of the notorious Broadway show only a year into its 17-year run. You may know the show only by its reputation for copious full-frontal nudity, and indeed there's nudity in spades here. But as a whole, the show doesn't hold up that well. There's a lot of talent behind it: the numerous sex-themed skits were conceived and written by the likes of Samuel Beckett, John Lennon, Sam Shepard, and Jules Feiffer, and the whole production was created by Kenneth Tynan and directed by Jacques Levy. But the humor plays like an undistinguished 1970s sketch comedy crossed with a Radley Metzger film, and it has only a handful of musical numbers written without much distinction by Robert Dennis, Peter "P.D.Q. Bach" Schickele, and Stanley Walden. Probably the best-known member of the cast is Bill (not William H.) Macy, who played Bea Arthur's husband on Maude and appears with his future wife, Samantha Harper. Oh! Calcutta! is definitely worth a look for the curious who want to experience the opening "Taking Off the Robe" number or the nude ballet, but ultimately it seems like a historical artifact rather than an entertaining time. --David Horiuchi