Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
aces25
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/13/04
#1Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/30/15 at 11:58pm
I'm doing some research and was wondering if anyone has seen any theatre productions staged intentionally very filmic? Please let me know.
#2Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 12:52am
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
#3Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 1:10am
The original production of DREAMGIRLS has often been described as very cinematic, with the rotating mirrored columns and exquisite lighting (someone else perhaps who saw it could give a better explanation!)
#5Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 1:36am
Watching the DVD of Love Never Dies often made me feel like I was watching an actual film instead of a filmed stage production. While a lot of that had to do with camera angles and close-ups, one could argue that the overall design of the show (lighting and scenery in particular) lent itself to a more cinematic approach.
#6Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 3:25am
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
#7Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 3:26am
Emma Rice's production of "Brief Encounter" was very filmic.
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/theater/reviews/09encounter.html?emc=eta1
Spotlight61
Broadway Star Joined: 8/28/06
#8Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 6:40am
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 Other One
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/1/08
#9Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 7:58am
Josh Logan's staging of SOUTH PACIFIC was considered to be cinematic, at least for its time. Oddly, when he directed the film version nine years later his direction was quite stagy.
#10Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 9:15am
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.
Thparkaly
Stand-by Joined: 9/11/12
#11Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 9:39am
I feel like the Montage and At the Ballet in A Chorus Line fit the bill.
#12Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 9:53am
Broadway Productions with Cinematic Staging that I can think of:
*Beauty & the Beast
*Jersey Boys
*Kinky Boots
*Memphis
*Newsies
*Wicked
BroadwayConcierge
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/24/15
#13Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 10:19am
I'm not 100% sure what this question is asking for, but to me, there are some sequences in the current Broadway production of Les Mis that definitely feels "filmic" to me (most prominent in my mind is the scene in the sewers).
Updated On: 7/31/15 at 10:19 AM
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#14Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 11:04am
It all began with Brecht.
#15Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 11:22am
Sunset Boulevard the original Broawday production immediately came to mind.
#16Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 11:56am
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.
#17Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 12:24pm
Well, yeah, I never said it was GOOD!
#18Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 1:50pm
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 ...
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#19Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 1:52pm
The first show I thought about was "Dreamgirls" too. The staging was pure genius.
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#20Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 2:33pm
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.
#21Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 3:20pm
Jerome Robbins's transitions in the original West Side Story (from the dress shop to the dance at the gym, into and out of the dream ballet) were "filmic."
aces25
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/13/04
#22Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 6:56pm
Brief Encounter was the kind of "filmic" staging I was thinking of.
theatregoer3
Broadway Star Joined: 3/8/13
#23Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 7/31/15 at 7:00pm
Bad Luhrmann's La Boheme was extremely filmic and simultaneously very theatrical. In fact, I think they used many film techniques/instruments when it came to the lighting.
#24Theatre staged like a film? Filmic staging?
Posted: 8/2/15 at 1:48am
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.
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