‘Vice’ Musical Number Revealed: Watch the Scene Adam McKay Cut From Theaters

At long last, the “Vice” musical number has been revealed. The sequence did not make it into the film’s theatrical release last December, but “Vice” cast and crew have long discussed the musical number as being one of the best moments that got cut from the final version. Rolling Stone has debuted the full musical scene below, which features Steve Carell’s Rumsfeld and Christian Bale’s Dick Cheney having a lunch meeting while a song-and-dance number breaks out around them. The scene runs two minutes and 20 seconds.

“It’s breathtaking. It’s incredible. And it just didn’t work,” McKay told Variety about the scene last year. “You didn’t need it. It was too long in that area of the movie. We tried 15 versions of it. We moved it here, we moved it there. We played it really short. We played it way longer and put scenes in the middle of it. We tried every single thing you could do. The only reason it doesn’t pain me at this moment is because I know we tried everything we could do. You’re in the editing room and you’re like, ‘This is amazing. This is going to work.’ And you just forget the movie tells you what it wants.”

“Vice” was nominated for eight Academy Awards earlier this year, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Bale, Best Supporting Actress for Amy Adams, and Best Supporting Actor for Sam Rockwell. The movie took home the Oscar for Best Makeup. In the cut musical number, “Alabama Shakes” front-woman Brittany Howard sings about how to make it to the top of the Washington D.C. political food chain. “So you want to climb that ladder, where power’s served upon a platter?” Howard sings. “Hear only yes and never no and I always have the final say-so.”

“Vice” is available on digital starting March 12. The film’s DVD and Blu-ray release is set for April 2. Watch the cut musical scene in the video below.