Shows on DVD

Does anybody know of any good shows that were professionally recorded and aired on TV, and subsequently released on DVD? I've seen Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged, The Mikado and a couple of others in that format, and I kind of like it. It's not as good as the actual theater, but I still like it. Can anybody think of any others that were also released on DVD?

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Updated On: 3/13/14 at 05:22 PM

I don't think Sunday In the Park With George was aired on TV, but it's on DVD.

You probably are aware, but Sunday in the Park and Passion were done the same way. Umm, you said "good show" but Love Never Dies was released this way, as well as Memphis, Shrek...

Are you interested in non-musicals too, because the list would be much longer.

Yeah, of course. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged isn't a musical. Any shows.

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What production of promises, promises was recorded?

Thanks Eric! Definitely didn't know that!

Jekyll & Hyde with Hasselhoff . In a remainder bin at any store.

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Sound of Music, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Passing Strange, Jesus Christ Superstar (2 versions), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cats

The following aired but not on DVD (legally):
A Little Night Music
The Light in the Piazza
Crazy for You
South Pacific
Sunday in the Park with George (Paris)
Will Rogers Follies

For some reason I didn't think that Cat was on DVD? Is it? I'd pick it up even though it's sluggishly directed, as it's still the most complete version of Cat (it uses the 1970s revised script like most current revivals.)

Tennessee Williams has a number of worthwhile DVDs like that but they aren't filmed stage shows (nor was Cat) but rather TV productions. However often they used the cast and director of a current revival--topping my list would be the awesome Peter Hall production of one of my faves, Orpheus Descending with Vanessa Redgrave which was just released to DVD, and her daughter, Natasha Richardson, Maggie Smith and Rob Lowe recreating, I believe, their London revival roles in Richard Eyre's Suddenly Last Summer which did air on PBS and is on DVD I believe only in a box set of Maggie Smith tv plays.

So again it depends if you mean live shows or not. The ALW shows mentioned were restaged on soundstages, so not filmed live. Trevor Nunn does this with his Porgy and Bess and Oklahoma and even has the cast lipsynching for much to the cast albums which drives me crazy (Oklahoma is even odder as they insert fake audience reaction shots.) But they're still worth watching.

The Paris Sunday, and the French production of FOllies are both meat to come to DVD this year. Digital Theatre of course has a ton of shows--many worthy ones aside from the well known London Merrily and Into the Woods (I'd recommend their All My Sons in particular) but of course that's not technically DVD. Still, if you can use an HDMI cable to hook your computer to your TV they are in gorgeous full HD.

I know that my city's major library has a whole shelf of DVD's of musical productions, so I'm slowly making my way through them...

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I have it on VHS... And probably what I was thinking was that it went out of print very quickly--and so is now ridiculously expensive. Boo. However I didn't realize the Baldwin/Lange Streetcar Named Desire was finally out on DVD (and has been for a few years) so I'll have to pick that up.

Eric, it wasn't that expensive when I got it. Netflix has it available on DVD, but not for streaming at this time.