Hi all!
Over the weekend I watched a few Broadway documentaries (The Road To Broadway, Broadway: The American Musical and Every Little Step) and was wondering, if anyone could recommend any more?
The Pennebaker COMPANY cast album one is sensational, and a good look at people like Sondheim and Prince at the beginning of their revolutionary journey.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
The making of Cats as an extra feature on the Cats dvd
Elaine Stritch at Liberty has a lot of backstage action
Follies in concert has a lot of backstage action
Fosse biography
Les Miserables documentary
Miss Saigon documentary
Moon Over Buffalo documentary entitled "Moon Over Broadway"
Recording the Producers
Recording Guys and Dolls
Jerry Herman biography
Neil Simon biography
Jerome Robbins biography
Carol Channing documentary
The Standbys: http://www.thestandbys.com/
For anyone who wanted to see the Les Miserables one, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4PUksrKqo0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS_s1U36WAE&feature=relmfu
EDIT
I am not sure if there is a longer documentary on Les Miserables.
Updated On: 10/7/12 at 06:13 PM
The Standbys looks really intriguing! Is it making the rounds now? Will it be on Netflix?
Just went to the standbys site. That looks like a must see.
Found this thread because I was searching for something about the second film in the BROADWAY: The Golden Age trilogy. Any news on the 2nd film? Nothing on the website.
Stand-by Joined: 8/10/11
I would also add
O.T.: Our Town
Somewhere Over the Raindbow: The Music of Harold Arlen
Johnny Mercer The Dream's On Me
Jerome Robbins Something to Dance About
Thanks for posting the links to my Yotube 20/20 Les Mis doc, brettarnett. I was just about to.
There is a longer doc on Les Mis, btw. It's called "Les Miserables: Stage By Stage" and follows some of the international productions at the time (late 80s). It doesn't offer much as far as development of the show as it happened like Miss Saigon, but it has a nice look behind the scenes of the recording sessions for the Complete Symphonic Recording. Watching it today makes me depressed to think what the show once sounded like, but I recommend it to anyone who likes the show.
I'm sure it's also up on YouTube. Search for it and have fun.
"Show Business" is about as good as it gets.
Traces the big shows (Wicked, Avenue Q, Taboo, and Caroline, or Change) from development all the way through the Tonys. Awesome moments include a bunch of theatre writers, including Michael Riedel, getting drunk at Joe Allen's and speculating on the certain failure of Avenue Q's Broadway transfer.
The filmmakers got lucky when they picked that season...but then they did a terrific job documenting it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000UAE7NG
I recently stumbled across a series of videos called "An Evening With Stephen Schwartz" which were done by the Education Dept. of the JFK Center for the Performing Arts. I found them really interesting - they start with him talking about his early days and go on to describe the development of his major works. They're available both on iTunes (as podcasts) and YouTube. I came away with a new respect for him.
I'll put a link to the first YouTube video here - I think it's a little easier to see them on iTunes, though, if you have that.
An Evening With Stephen Schwartz
Broadway Star Joined: 6/3/12
Not actually about Broadway--but Al Pacino's LOOKING FOR RICHARD is a great documentary about acting in Shakespeare.
PBS had shown one on Great Performances for In the Heights.
Videos