Beyond the Fringe torrent

Reseed

Conceived in the late 1950s, "Beyond the Fringe" brought together an Oxford medical student (Jonathan Miller), an Oxford history student (Alan Bennett), a musician (Dudley Moore) and a comedian (Peter Cook) who wrote and performed a satirical revue that, after a shaky tour of the provinces, took London by storm and in 1962 arrived in America for a two-year run on Broadway. All four creator/performers went on to major careers on stage and screen, most notably Moore, whose Hollywood films included "Arthur" and "10." The quartet comedy - though high-brow - is now seens as a link between the zaniness of Britain's Goons and the cheeky, surreal comedy of the Beatles and Monty Python's Flying Circus.

This is the only known video of "Fringe," taped during a gala final performance in London's West End in 1964. Miller had left the show in New York but was coaxed back for a final go. All copies of the tape, which was shown on British television and possibly as a special run in a few American movie theaters, were thought destroyed for many years until one turned up.

Video cameras 50 years ago were primitive and produced a black-and-white,low-resolution image by today's standards. And sadly, this is not the show at its best - I know because I saw "Fringe" in 1962 during a tryout run in DC. After hundreds of performances, the actors seem weary of the material and some either drop lines or ad-lib bits of dialogue. Still, it is the only preservation of an important show - and much of it remains very, very funny.