Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#1Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:18pm
"A concert performance of the musical A Tale of Two Cities, which played a brief Broadway run this past season, will be filmed this summer at Theater Royal Brighton, England, for future broadcast on PBS.
WGBH-Boston will be the presenting station for the event, which is currently scheduled for broadcast in December 2009.
The cast will feature members of the original Broadway company as well as U.K. actors; casting will be announced shortly. The televised event will also include narrated segments filmed on location in London and Paris."
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/129580-A_Tale_of_Two_Cities_In_Concert_to_Be_Filmed_for_Public_Television
#2re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:20pm
AH! So excited :) I wanted to see this but it closed before I could 
#3re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:20pmAmazing news!! I loved this show so much.
#4re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:21pmI'm so excited!!! Brandi and James better get to reprise their roles. Maybe I can still keep my hopes alive for some type of recording to come out of this...
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
#5re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:24pmUm Hello! How about Natalie better keep her role too!
#6re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:26pm"A DVD and studio cast recording of the concert production will be available in late 2009, and the program will be distributed internationally in 2010.
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Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#7re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:26pmGood news indeed
Poster Emeritus
bwayguy22089
Broadway Star Joined: 12/16/06
sanda
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/10/04
#9re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:54pmwow, I cannot believe this.
#10re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 4:58pmI don't understand. PBS will film crap like this but they wouldn't film Gypsy with Patti LuPone?
#11re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:02pm
"A DVD and studio cast recording of the concert production will be available in late 2009, and the program will be distributed internationally in 2010.
Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it...
#12re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:04pm
It took CHESS 25 years to get this treatment.
"A TALE OF TWO CITIES: THE MUSICAL" alone says everything that needs to be said. This score was out of date in 1989.
Hey producers of TOTC, I got a bridge to sell you...
A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P genre
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#13re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:07pm
how long until we get the reminder how unfair that CryBaby doesn't have a recording?
In five, four, three, two.....
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#14re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:13pm
Crybaby doesnot have a recording
I saved you the trouble Bryan
Poster Emeritus
#15re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:16pmOkay, I'm actually really, really excited. I liked several of the songs quite a lot, believe it or not. I hope they can get James Barbour to play Carton, though, because I thought the concept recording didn't measure up.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#16re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:28pm
Schmergie, there's no problem in liking the show. I thought it was vastly underrated and had several showstoppers that I'll find humming to myself from time to time. Sadly, the fact that it was too epic for its own good, in an unforgivingly large theater off the beaten Broadway path and was mercilessly attacked for being a "Les Mis" ripoff...well, the writing was on the wall.
I'm extremely excited about this and hope they keep as much of the OBC intact as possible. I can't wait to hear "I Can't Recall" or "Out of Sight" or "Let Her Be A Child" again.
#17re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:29pm
Well, the upside is its being filmed in the UK so maybe Ruthie Henshall will pop up in the Toro role (or Krysten Cummings).
Plus, for exta enticement, the age of consent is only 17 there.
A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
P genre
#18re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:30pmI would love Toro to keep her role.
#19re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:33pm
eeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I don't care how many people hated it or how badly it flopped, this was my favorite musical last season and my second favorite production behind the Norman Conquests. I am SO excited!
I really hope Brandi can get some time off from Mamma Mia to do this.
Mattbrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/23/05
#20re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:35pm
Pgenre, I must say that I absolutely love your signature and your avatar. Dance of the Vampires is probably my favorite Broadway flop.
And now to get back on topic, this show musta done something right, I guess.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
#21re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 5:50pmthis is very exciting
A little swash, a bit of buckle - you'll love it more than bread.
#22re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 6:04pm
Mattbrain, this is just for you, the quote to accompany my avatar, my favorite moment in a truly thrilling score:
"My blood is ready,
Racing wild and free,
Liquid lightning!
Let it run!
It's like a choir that's on fire...
In her body,
Exultate, exultate,
It's come.
The time has come."
"A choir on fire" is an image from the Jim Steinman-directed video of Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (which, he of course also wrote and produced) with the chorus of chilling (to the bone) "bright-eyed" castrato chorus boys in the crazy sado-masochistic sexual fever dream in a burning boy's school, envisioned by the headmistress portrayed by Miss Tyler (and Rory Dodd himself as the target of her affections on the steps "in reality" at the end!). I never turn down the chance to spread some DOTV-love, and also notice that picture is from previews when Crawford still wore the translucent sparkly cape (with matching top-hat, earlier on).
BTW, "Total Eclipse" was always "Vampires In Love" to Jim who wrote it as a rumination on NOSFERATU, the greatest vampire film (Lang's, though Herzog's in the 70s was a nice homage) so all the complaints of it being shoe-horned in always rang false to me... it was Crawford who was at fault, not the material because it is emotional and chilling in Steve Barton's (RIP) delivery under the direction of Polanski in TANZ.
The book and "direction" of DOTV is, of course, a completely contradictory story to the strengths of the score... as guiltily and campily (and momentarily brlliant, as even Ethan Mordden admits in THE HAPPIEST CORPSE...) delicious as it may have been.
Frankly, I have been DESPERATELY trying to find my absolute favorite image from the show but it is hard to come by as it was cut in previews: The drawbridge falling during the final a capella lines of "Braver Than We Are" as the snow falls and the chorus stood on the apron of the stage with candles burning in the vast darkness. It was such a cop-out to move the bridge opening until AFTER the applause break following the song merely to elicit applause for the set (again). Rando is such a hack.
But, I digress as this is a TOTC topic... though, it saddens me that this will get filmed by PBS while the most successful musical in Germany and many other countries, DOTV, remains a punch-line thanks to Polanski's inability to travel here to direct it. Not that I prefer TANZ to DOTV, but something in between would be ideal, preferably on a West End stage where Steinman is planning on opening BAT OUT OF HELL: THE ROCK MUSICAL SPECTACULAR next year.
In DOTV, camp-wise, NOTHING will ever top Crawford's unbelievably elaborate Vegas act with back-up vamp(iresses) which is where my sign-off derives from. This portion of the show was a medley of 4 or 5 songs which was widdled down to only 1 by opening night, but which originally contained songs with delicious titles like "The Devil May Care (But I Don't)", "Everything Goes Well With Black" and "Read My Apocalypse" in addition to...
A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely,
I'll Show You Yours,
If You Show Me Mine,
Buena Sera,
P genre
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#23re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 8:23pmThis was a good show on Broadway with good music and should have had a longer run. It did, however, have a major plot mistake near the end which caused it to lose its dramatic tension. It would be easy to correct and improve the show a lot.
#24re: Tale of Two Cities: In Concert to be filmed for PBS
Posted: 5/26/09 at 8:24pmUgh.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
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