Oh! Calcutta!

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

Customer Reviews:

It was fun to see evidence of the early 1970s.......2007-03-14

I was a child when this play came out, but always heard of Oh! Calcutta! Very surprised when I stumbled upon this DVD ( which according to another reviewer here who said he was in the show: the actors were not paid? Sorry Amazon, if that is true I can not buy this DVD)
Even by today's standards, and I am not a prude or anything, there were elements of this play that were raunchy and surprising but overall I really enjoyed it. ( rape scene-awful!!! scientists studying 2 people having sex-funny!) I can see where Saturday Night Live may have been influenced by this play. Several of the skits were really clever, such as the 5 singers sitting on stools, wearing formal wear singing about fantasies. I had to play that scene again, the music/singing was fantastic!
Now another reason I liked it and maybe others would not, is because I have a thing for early 70s music, style, history,aura...and if you want to go back in time and get a big sense of the era, this DVD will take you there, from the opening shot of the audience ( styles of clothes, their makeup , etc) to the semi psychedelic hippyish music and the scene of naked frolicing outdoors...it was a time warp!
Definatly worth renting but again, if what that other reviewer says is true, i can not endorse buying it. It was wrong not to pay the actors fairly.

WOW. WOW !.......2007-03-09

How does one rate this flick for a review ? VERY CAREFULLY, I think ! Make sure all the Kiddies are tucked in nicely before rolling this one ! What does this movie leave to the imagination ? = NOTHING ! Is this movie naughty ? = DEFINITELY ! Is this movie Raunchy ? = PROBABLY ? Movie theme =exposure ! Movie plot = exposure. If your pleasure is exposure wrapped in nudity,? this is your flick ?

Not as bad as they say.......2007-01-12

While, sure, it could have been better written, better filmed, better preserved for transfer... it's worth seeing. Everything is clean enough to see. Words are intelligible, and the dancing is beautiful.

I'd suggest borrowing it from Netflix or some other rental place before investing in the DVD yourself.

But from someone who is denied, by virtue of not having been born in 1974, of having seen the show onstage, I was delighted to find it.

They simply don't do naked theater anymore, and I think nudity can convey elements of the human condition that costume cannot.

It reminded me quite a bit of "Free to Be You and Me"

Mostly disappointing.......2007-01-05

Considering the team of very talented writers that they had developing this show, you would expect that it would be a literate and witty satire on sex. I don't know what went wrong in the writing, but unfortunately the sketches turned out to be neither literate nor witty. I can only speculate about what went wrong; perhaps they just had too many writers on the project and they ended up working at cross purposes and canceled out each other's talents? All I know for sure is that the sketches are terribly sophomoric and stupid. The producers of this show could have achieved the same level of writing sophistication if they had simply hired 3 or 4 undergraduates, given them two pitchers of beer and told them to write about sex. The music is similarly insipid, especially disappointing since I've always been a fan of Peter Schickele.

The strengths of Oh! Calcutta! are in the dance parts, which unfortunately are too small of a proportion of the film to make up for the weaknesses of the rest of it. The DVD is worth renting just to see the dance piece "One on One," which features some great choreography and is performed with great skill, gracefulness, and erotic vitality.

Lackluster & unfunny.......2006-12-07

There was a lot of new ground broken when "Oh! Calcutta!" opened off Broadway as the turbulent '60s rolled to a close. Half play, half musical, the production was notable for its brazen use of full nudity (male and female) on stage. Even today, three decades later (and more than 10 years since the long-running show closed its curtain for the last time in Manhattan), I still hear about the bold, innovative landmark in theater. Given the involvement of luminaries such as John Lennon, Sam Shepard, Jules Feiffer and Peter Schickele (a.k.a. PDQ Bach) in its composition, I was intrigued to see how the video of the original "Oh! Calcutta!" stood the test of time.

It doesn't.

I've seen a lot of creative things done combining nudity and dance, and much of it has been done quite well. And it's in that area that "Oh! Calcutta!" still shines. The choreography, credited to Margo Sappington, is excellent in many places.

But the comic skits which make up the bulk of the show are for the most part sophomoric. The writers and performers seem almost like pre-teens, giggling at the blatant sexuality and striving primarily to shock the audience. This isn't just stage nudity, you see -- the video is laced heavily with simulated sex, oral sex and gratuitous groping.

I could probably have been a lot more forgiving if the production had gotten off to a better start. However, after a successful opening scene, the second bit left a bitter taste in my mouth for the rest of the show.

The scene in question features nursery rhyme characters Jack and Jill in bright yellow schoolchild garb; it starts off as a mildly amusing farce about innocence in the face of "cocktail parties and orgy parties" and ends with a brutal rape. There's nothing to laugh about, nor is there any deep or meaningful point to be made. The scene attempts to shock, which it does successfully. But, given that most of the play is "funny stuff," rape is a tasteless, pointless plot device.

Nothing in the remaining span of the video redeems that fatal flaw. Sure, some of the skits are funny, and some are clever, but there isn't anything funny or clever enough. And some scenes -- for instance, a nervous husband and wife on their first night of spouse swapping, and a group of men who project sexual fantasies on a big screen and masturbate to the images -- are just plain crude.

Fortunately, "Oh! Calcutta!" still has some excellent dance numbers going for it. Unfortunately, the music itself is fairly lackluster throughout. All in all, there are better ways to spend two hours of your time, unless you're really desperate to see nude bodies on stage.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles editor

Average customer rating:

Oh! Calcutta!
Starring: John Lennon
Manufacturer: Jef Films/Mvd
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

( O ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00062J07G
Release Date: 2004-11-30

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