Profile for cmorrow

I once went to BAM to see an experimental piece by Robert Wilson, The Forest. It was typical Wilson: slow, dense, heavy-going. Not exactly a crowd-pleaser. During Act One, about 15 minutes in, I could hear a buzz of conversation a couple of rows away. It was an elderly couple. It became clear the wife had suggested seeing the play, and persuaded the husband to go along. He hated it. He was saying things like "We coulda seen Big River, but no, you hadda see THIS!" She tried to defend Wilson, b...

For those who can visit the TOFT screening room at the Performing Arts Library, I can report that the library’s archival video was recorded with several cameras. It was taped on March 29, 2024. There are wide, medium, and (fairly) close shots of the performers, and no jumpy camera work. The curtain call is included. And after the curtain call, Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groffe, and Lindsay Mendez conduct an auction for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. That lasts for about eight minutes, and...

I saw Frank Langella as Dracula, at the Martin Beck Theatre (as it was then called), in October 1977. Loved those Edward Gorey sets, but every actor in the cast was great. I was fortunate enough to see the show at the end of preview week, a night or two before it opened, and it was an amazing experience!

inception said: "Did Redwood get filmed for the TOFT archive? It wasn't great, but certainly seemed more worthy of recording just for Menzel's performance."Unfortunately, no, Redwood was not recorded for the TOFT archive.

I saw this film on its original release, at a huge cinema in downtown Chicago. The soundtrack was already getting radio airplay, and some people in the audience were singing along. In fact, I'll never forget: during "Ease on Down the Road," a few people were literally dancing in the aisles! I've never seen that at theater (with a semi-exception of Rocky Horror) before or since.

Marway44 said: "Does anyone have the list of understudies? I was curious who was out and who played the roles."I've read that the producers have deliberately been vague about who played last night and who didn't, for obvious reasons.

Fascinating flop from 1966, UTBU (which stands for “Unhealthy to Be Unpleasant”). It was a black comic farce, directed by Nancy Walker, which starred Tony Randall as an aging ham actor who plots to murder his 94 year-old mother, played by Thelma Ritter. Also in the cast, Tom Aldredge and Margaret Hamilton. Sounds intriguing to say the least, but it got scathing reviews, and played only 7 performances.

SeanD2 said: "MasterThespian 2 said: "Agree. He only wants to break it down and sell it for parts…just like he’s doing to the country. He’s never attended a cultural event in his life. He’s strictly MMA and pro wrestling. He’s as tacky and uncultured as a person can be—perfect for America in 2025."I hate Trump as much as anybody, but the assertion that "he's never attended a cultural event in his life" is patently false. He regularly attended cultural events throughout the 80s (and talks abou...

This film was shown last night at the Jacob Burns Film Center, in Pleasantville NY. (The director spoke afterwards.) Very well done, poignant and funny at times. If it comes out on DVD, I hope they can include more of the rare performance footage as an extra -- Mr. Klein said they have "thousands" of hours of material, but could only use a fraction of it in the movie.

TOFT has a DVD transfer of home movie footage, filmed in 16mm, silent but in color, of the 1944 Broadway musical Follow the Girls. The filmmaker, who sat in an orchestra seat, was named Oscar Horovitz. As I recall, the producers permitted him to do this with the understanding the resulting footage would be for his private use only. The footage runs about 25 minutes, and captures various dances and musical numbers throughout the show. In later years, someone dubbed songs from the show to accom...

Mellony said: "Curious when the practice of taking b-roll footage of Broadway shows started or became commonplace. Like, what is the oldest b-roll in the TOFT collection?"I don't know for certain when the practice of creating B-roll footage began, but I would guess it was in the 1970s, when producers started airing TV commercials for their shows. TOFT holds a TV commercial for the original production of A Little Night Music, first broadcast in 1974, but there is no video footage in it, just s...

kdogg36 said: "I've often wondered about something related to this: what do productions do with unused b-roll and other footage? I realize this likely can't be released while copyrights are in play, but I'd hope it would be available to students and scholars in the (distant) future. Does anyone know if this material is generally preserved after a production closes, or is it usually just lost to time?"B-rolls are often donated to the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), usually in large ba...

TweetyPie2 said: "At the time, the D.C. downtown library had videotapes of the shows, and I went there and watched some of them. They are probably long gone now. I also saw four of the shows in person—Company, Passion, Night Music and Merrily. That was a great summer to live in D.C."Copies of those videos are held by the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), and can be viewed in their screening room at the Performing Arts Library, at Lincoln Center.

I can add, for those who might be interested, that the memorial gathering for Stephen Sondheim, taped at the Sondheim Theatre in November 2022, is now available to view in the TOFT screening room. This is an officially sanctioned video, created in cooperation with the coordinators of the event. For rather complicated reasons, it was not available to the public until just a couple of weeks ago.

Credit where credit is due: they kept the In Memoriam sequence simple and straightforward, and moving. Surprisingly, no swooping camera work.

In 1987, I saw a play by John Pielmeier called Sleight of Hand, about a depressive loser who is an aspiring magician. The playwright was hot at the time because he'd written Agnes of God, which ran for over a year, but this play was the pits. We considered leaving at intermission, but hoped Act Two might be better. It was worse. Really inept, like a sloppy rehearsal.One of the friends with me knew the lead actor, Harry Groener. We went backstage afterwards, and he said: "You should've called ...

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "As implied here and based on conversations with those who work on the Lincoln Center campus:I gather there's a great deal of tiptoeing between Lincoln Center the landlord and its constituent organizations, as well as a general public misunderstanding of how each individual nonprofit operates as part of the larger Lincoln Center campus. (Don't ever let Andre B hear you say "Lincoln Center's production of Camelot" when you actually mean "Lincoln Center Theater's p...

BETTY22 said: "Do producers cover costs or Lincoln Center?"Producers occasionally pay for tapings, but most often they don't.To follow up on what I said earlier about the archive's name: TOFT is part of the New York Public Library system. Technically, our library is called The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. But that's a mouthful, so those of us who work there usually call it the LPA, or the Performing Arts Library. We are located at Lincoln Center, but not otherwise affiliat...

I work at the Performing Arts Library, with the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT). It’s not correct to say the archive “passes” on jukebox musicals, or any other kind of stage show. All sorts of shows are considered for archival tapings (musicals, dramas, avant-garde pieces, puppet shows, etc.) However, as others have suggested, other factors are involved in what does and does not get recorded. First, there are specific criteria: if a stage work was created by a notable playwright, comp...

Kubricube said: "Quick question,Can anyone who saw it confirm if Fritz actually leaves the house at the end, or does she stop at the door and turn back?"At the end, after her speech about straightening out her life, Fritz briefly leaves the stage. But then she reconsiders and jumps back on stage with the others. She takes part in the final choreographed bit, when the main characters split into pairs, rejoin, then rush at the audience.