An auspicious occasion indeed: Stephen Sondheim’s only musical written for television. And typical Sondheim, it could hardly be more unusual or compelling.

We’ll let him explain the premise. “It’s a story about people who only ‘live’ at night,” he said, “which is why it’s called Evening Primrose. They hide in a department store. They’ve retreated from the world. They have a whole closed society.

“And Charles, the leading man, is a poet who is disillusioned with the outside world and decides to live in the store because he thinks no one has ever thought of this before. Then he finds out that he’s not the only one with the idea. The secret community includes Ella, a young woman with whom he falls in love.

“Jim Goldman and I both admired John Collier’s story; Collier was an elegant, upsetting and funny—but black humor—writer.”

Anthony Perkins, as the poet Charles, was a fine actor on both stage and screen; he is perhaps best known for his role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Ella is played by Charmian Carr, who played the eldest daughter Liesl in the film of The Sound of Music.

This 53-minute program include two songs by Sondheim that have become cabaret classics: “Take Me to the World” and “I Remember.”