Hansel and Gretel was a live musical adaptation of the Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

 story telecast as a special in 1958 by NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

. It was one of a long series of fantasies presented on television as musical specials after the enormously successful first two telecasts of the Mary Martin

Mary Martin

Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...

 Peter Pan

Peter Pan (1954 musical)

Peter Pan is a musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan and Barrie's own novelization of it, Peter and Wendy. The music is mostly by Mark "Moose" Charlap, with additional music by Jule Styne, and most of the lyrics were written by Carolyn Leigh, with additional lyrics by Betty...

. But Hansel and Gretel did not repeat the success of Peter Pan or several of the other specials. It was shown only once, then lapsed into obscurity, although a cast album was issued. The album, also long forgotten, has recently been issued on compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QEIHX6

The adaptation, like the telecast 1957 musical adaptation

Pinocchio (1957 TV-musical)

The 1957 television production of Pinocchio was a live musical version starring Mickey Rooney in the title role of the puppet who wishes to become a real boy. Based on the novel by Carlo Collodi which also inspired the classic Walt Disney animated film, this version featured a now-forgotten new...

 of Pinocchio with Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

, featured songs by Alec Wilder

Alec Wilder

Alec Wilder was an American composer.-Biography:...

 and William Engvick

William Engvick

William Engvick is an American lyricist, many of whose compositions appear in films.Engvick graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937. He is best known for his collaborations with composer Alec Wilder; they produced songs for the Broadway musical Once Over Lightly , and for...

. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302625/ It introduced many characters not in the original story including a quartet of characters named, respectively, Eenie, Meanie, Miney and Moe. Moe was portrayed by Sondra Lee, who had played Tiger Lily in Peter Pan. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302625/ Rather incongruously, thirty-nine year old comedian Red Buttons appeared as Hansel, and then-new Broadway star Barbara Cook

Barbara Cook

Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...

 was Gretel. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302625/ Other cast members included Hans Conried

Hans Conried

Hans Georg Conried, Jr. was an American comedian, character actor and voice actor.-Early years:He was born on April 15, 1917 in Baltimore, Maryland to Hans Georg Conried, Sr. and Edith Beyr Gildersleeve. His mother was a descendant of Pilgrims, and his father was a Jewish immigrant from Vienna,...

, Stubby Kaye

Stubby Kaye

Stubby Kaye was an American comic actor. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York City on the last day of the First World War, at West 114th Street in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan to first generation Jewish-Americans originally from Russia and Austria...

, and Rise Stevens

Risë Stevens

Risë Stevens is a retired American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Professional life:Stevens studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until...

. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302625/ The production, sponsored by Rexall

Rexall

Rexall was a chain of North American drugstores, and the name of their store-branded products. The stores, having roots in the federation of United Drug Stores starting in 1902, licensed the Rexall brand name to as many as 12,000 drug stores across the United States from 1920 to 1977...

, was directed by Paul Bogart

Paul Bogart

Paul Bogart is an American television and film director. He directed episodes of the television series "Coronet Blue" in 1967 Get Smart and All In The Family from 1976 to 1979...

.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302625/