What film/TV about theater has worked?

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 9:22am

I can think of two -- Slings and Arrows, a TV series from Canada that's a thinly veiled poke at the Stratford Festival, and Topsy Turvy, the movie about the collaboration of Gilbert and Sullivan.

I'm creating this thread in response to the comments about "Rise." My view of that now-canceled TV series is that it wasn't really about theater, just like the show it resembled, Friday Night Lights, wasn't really about football. It was about the emotional/economic struggles of the characters.

Anyway, what other successful shows about theater have there been?

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 9:29am

As someone who frequents the Stratford Festival (actually going tonight!) "Slings and Arrows" is incredible! 

[bowtie7]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 9:42am

I have always enjoyed Those Lips, Those Eyes--a 1980 Frank Langella movie about 1950's outdoor summer stock. 

[Broadwaywest]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 9:46am

Waiting for Guffman -despite being satire of community theater. It is about the struggle about putting on a play

The most famous is All About Eve, although not really about mounting a production, and more so about theater types and back stage shenanigans.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 9:49am

Fame.   

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 10:06am

1981’s THE FAN (with Lauren Bacall)

1999’s TRICK

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 10:10am

The feature film "The Dresser" nailed backstage life in a serious vein (no great challenge since it is basically word-for-word the play of the same name).

But my favorite backstager is "The Boyfriend"-- a crazy hallucination of a film from Ken Russell with brilliant sets by Tony Walton. I never laughed so loud in a movie theater as I did for the scene where Twiggy's script pages get snagged on the moving groundrows in a garden-strolling scene midway through, and she has to race around the groundrows like a crazy lady to deliver her lines.

 

[thirtythirtyninety]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 10:30am

Mike Leigh's TOPSY TURVY.  Just brilliant

[ActorGuyIL]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 12:03pm

thirtythirtyninety said: "Mike Leigh's TOPSY TURVY. Just brilliant"

Ditto to this. I'm really excited about seeing Allan Corduner in MFL next week and the possibility of meeting him afterwards.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 12:28pm

My favorite movie of all time: ALL THAT JAZZ

 

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 12:36pm

Children of Paradise

All About Eve

42nd Street

Opening Night

The Red Shoes

The Golden Coach

Stage Door

Morning Glory

Topsy Turvy

Fanny and Alexander

The Magician

The Seventh Seal

Smiles of a Summer Night

Twentieth Century

To Be or Not to Be

Show Boat

A Double Life (if just for Ronald Colman who deserved his Oscar)

The Great Ziegfeld (if just for Luise Rainer who deserved her Oscar)

La Cage aux Folles

The Actress

Waiting for Guffman

Funny Girl

The Producers

All About My Mother

Law of Desire

The Dresser

Limelight

Moulin Rouge

The Entertainer

The Bandwagon

Updated On: 5/18/18 at 12:36 PM

[vfd88]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 12:58pm

WAITING FOR GUFFMAN is the most accurate movie about theatre ever made.

[artscallion]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 1:23pm

A Man of No Importance

[StephieElise]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 8:02pm

Birdman - it won the Best Picture Oscar after all!

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 8:20pm

You have great taste, Henrik.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 8:26pm

Thanks, Totally Effed... I need that tonight.  Let's get a drink.

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 8:42pm

Fame
All That Jazz
All About Eve

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 10:46pm

“Waiting for Guffman” and “All About Eve”...what a great, but long, double feature!

[South Florida]

Posted: 5/17/18 at 11:22pm

Henri with the definitive answers again.

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 5/18/18 at 12:47pm

I too am impressed with your list, Henrik, but...Show Boat? La Cage Aux Folles? Seventh Seal? I'm not sure these are films about theater at all, much less quintessential films about this art form.

Updated On: 5/18/18 at 12:47 PM

[JudyDenmark]

Posted: 5/18/18 at 1:05pm

Camp is awful... and simultaneously fabulous.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/18/18 at 1:16pm

NewYorkTheater said: "I too am impressed with your list, Hendrik, but...Show Boat? La Cage Aux Folles? Seventh Seal? I'm not sure these are films abouttheater at all, much less quintessential films about this art form."

A few on my list are certainly much less centrally- thematically about the theater than others. But I disagree with you when it comes to Show Boat, which is very much about, among other things, "life upon the wicked stage."  

Updated On: 5/18/18 at 01:16 PM

[jbird5]

Posted: 5/18/18 at 2:00pm

The Tall Guy