Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?

Filmic exactly in what way? Many Hal Prince stagings (though not Prince exclusively) are/were "filmic", using "cuts" onstage with precise light changes and entrances. Follies, for example, was staged as a series of disjointed moments. The background music (played by an onstage band and supported, I think, by the orchestra) actually shifted between moments as it might in a realistic film document of a backstage party, switching mid-song as characters appeared here and there on the set.

That kind of visual guidance is similar to one of the most basic concepts in film editing, which is described by Walter Murch as finding the "dot" on-screen that audiences are watching and making sure its path doesn't get muddled from shot to shot.

Visually, as in lighting/equipment, there was a production of three Antonioni films that was staged on a blue-screen with cameras on tracks and big lights, and the audience watched the live performance both on the stage and on big screens above it, which displayed the camera output. I don't know how successful or entertaining it was but you can watch a clip here: https://vimeo.com/80484327

Michael Langham

Yeah Phantom's the same way, some scenes just feel like you're inside a movie. It's magical. Also some scenes and sets in Newsies give off a movie feel. I think so many others are includes but I just can't think of them

Mike Ockrent's 'Me and My Girl' was staged on the basis of a filmic concept including underscoring and full view scene changes.

His aim was that the stage should never go to black until the interval and there should be a continual visual motion that aided the story telling.

The movie within City of Angels is staged to mimic classic film noirs.

Those scenes are cleverly designed to give the appearance that you're watching them in black and white.

Broadway Productions with Cinematic Staging that I can think of:
*Beauty & the Beast
*Jersey Boys
*Kinky Boots
*Memphis
*Newsies
*Wicked

It all began with Brecht.

The "compliment" Billy Wilder offered at the Sunset Boulevard opening was that it was his movie "in permanent long shot."

Which really sounds like, it was the movie without any of the things that made it a great movie.

Definitely Dreamgirls, as was mentioned earlier.

It was discussed in great detail in articles and reviews at the time. Everything from "reverse angles" to onstage costume changes that felt more like cross-cutting.

Michael Bennett, Michael Bennett, Michael Bennett ...

The Dreamgirls staging was based in part on the use of the movable - and automated - light standards (which a large amount of the budget went towards). They would move and create a "swipe" edit. The lights could focus on one section of the stage and flip quickly to other sides - and really direct your attention. The standards cut the stage up into different clusters. Robin Wagner was the designer of the light standards (and also did City of Angels, among many others). Robin Wagner Wagner's scenic design for Dreamgirls lost the Tony to Nicholas Nickelby) but Tharon Musser won for Lighting Design - even though in Dreamsgirls, the lighting design was so dependent on the scenic design!

I don't know that it was "filmic staging" but Bennett restaged the opening of A Chorus Line for the Tony Award broadcast cameras. I guess that was staging for film - and not the audience.

Brief Encounter was the kind of "filmic" staging I was thinking of.

For some reason I thought that Let the Right One In felt cinematic. Obviously the Hoggett gesture-choreography was very theatrical, but other than that it felt cinematic to me. Partly because of the incidental music, and partly because of the general flow and pacing of the script.