Tonight 20 years ago exactly, Madonna made one of her very memorable TV appearances.
An AIDS benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl venue in LA was organised to mark the 1000th edition of "The Arsenio Hall Show". It was Thursday May 13th 1993 and Madonna was the headline act!
She performed a completely live and unique version of "Fever" complete with "big band". "Fever" was set to be the fourth single from her "Erotica" album and this appearance was also to be the TV debut of Madonna's latest hairstyle - she was red for the first time!
Later in the concert, Madonna joined Anthony Kedis from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers for another completely one-off performance - a duet of "The Lady Is A Tramp"!
The show aired on TV the following evening, Friday May 14th 1993 - and here's both performances along with a very rare CNN news report on the event and MTV-News announcing Madonna's appearance!
Madonna fans in the UK didn't have much on TV to watch about the premiere of Speed-The-Plow 25 years ago.
One excellent news report did air on network TV - the morning after the premiere, Wednesday May 4th 1988. The BBC's "Breakfast Time" aired a piece by their New York based reporter Tom Brook just hours after the event in NYC had taken place.
Brook interviewed stars arriving for the play and then spoke to Madonna as she went to the after-party and press conference.
Check out some very rare excerpts from this report now - which was introduced at the time by the legendary Jeremy Paxman!
25 years ago today, Madonna's official New York Broadway acting debut took place in "Speed-The-Plow"!
A 3-character play by David Mamet (who at that time was already a highly respected award-winning writer), "Speed-The-Plow" was originally cast in October 1987 with Joe Mantegna, Ron Silver and Elizabeth Perkins playing Bobby, Charlie and Karen respectively.
In early December 1987 Perkins withdrew from the play and the search for her replacement took place quickly.
On Tuesday January 19th 1988 it was officially announced that Madonna would play the role of Karen a temporary secretary to Hollywood Producer Bobby, in what was then planned to be an 8-10 week run of the play at Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, New York.
Only a few months had passed since Madonna's top-grossing "Who's That Girl" world tour had finished and since then there had been much speculation about her next career move. The world's media of course went into complete frenzy then at the news that one of the biggest stars on the planet would be turning her hand to stage acting.
"Speed-The-Plow" would be Madonna's public debut on the stage (in August 1986 she appeared in a workshop production of David Rabe's ''Goose and Tom-Tom'' that was not open to the public).
With worldwide interest in Madonna's theatre debut reaching fever pitch and the Lincoln Center facing overwhelming box office demand for tickets, producers announced on Tuesday 23rd Feburary 1988 that the play would move to Broadway's Theater Royale after running for 3 weeks at its originally planned off-Broadway location.
A further announcement on Tuesday March 8th 1988 however confirmed that the entire run of the play would instead now take place on Broadway at the Royale. Previews which were originally set to begin March 29th were put back to Friday April 9th and the official opening was announced for Tuesday May 3rd 1988.
Opening night saw media from all over the world descend on Broadway to interview stars arriving for the play. Madonna and her co-stars later held a press-conference at the play's after-party that evening.
Overall, reviews of the play were excellent but Madonna's performance received a mixed reaction (to put it politely). Less than a week after its official opening, the Tony Award Nominations were announced and "Speed-The-Plow" gained nods for "Best Play", "Best Actor" (Ron Silver - who went on to win) and "Best Director" (Gregory Mosher).
Three months later on Monday August 8th 1988 it was confirmed that a new cast would take over "Speed-The-Plow" earlier than originally expected, on August 30th (Felicity Huffman would replace Madonna as Karen).
The original cast including Madonna made their final appearance on Sunday August 28th 1988 after almost 5 months of performances
Here's how MTV's "Week In Rock" on May 6th 1988 reported on the opening of the play.
Flashback now to October 2003 - Madonna invited Access Hollywood TV cameras into her Maverick Headquarters in LA for this very special report by Pat O'Brien, who also interviewed her for the show.
Madonna has been doing "press junkets" since 1991 - as in, arranging and taking part in a series of one-on-one TV interviews, timed to take place in succession during the course of (say) an afternoon in one location (usually a hotel room or other, decorated with props related to the reason for the press junket).
Each TV interviewer granted access to the press junket will typically get 15 minutes with Madonna - and then at some point the viewers will see a few clips or "edited highlights" of the conversation that took place.
Here's a treat - something we never get via the broadcasters - the full unedited tape of one such "press junket" encounter. It was October 2005 and this was part of promotion for the "Confessions On A Dance Floor" album.
You see everything from the initial niceties as Madonna meets her interviewer, to the questions and answers that would certainly have been meant for the cutting room floor!
And it's thanks to Madonnalicious forum moderator and good friend of Madonna-TV, Anna-Clare.
