what is the metropolis about???

[musicaltheatreman]

Posted: 7/18/04 at 3:54am

has this show ever been on broadway?? i know it was in london and judy kuhn was in it. has anyone seen it?? thanks :)

[MusicMan]

Posted: 7/18/04 at 10:12am

It has never played New York. It is a musical version of the classic 1926 Fritz Lang silent film about a futuristic, mechanized society.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 7/18/04 at 11:41am

I think it was a bit too ambitious and overproduced for it's own good, but the music is really beautiful. I'm sorry it didn't do better. If you have never seen the film and are interested in film history you should see it. It is a classic of the German silent era. Make sure you get the new restored DVD, however. The film is Public Domaine (I believe) and there are a lot of really bad prints out there.

[sean martin]

Posted: 7/18/04 at 12:12pm

The new DVD is the definitive version of the film: the widely available public domain prints are taken from the hack job done by the film's distributors to keep the running time down. I got a copy of the newly restored one, and it's an entirely different movie in spots.

The London production was downright scary at times because the scenery so overwhelmed the production. They used four gigantic metal towers set on air casters (the only way they could move the weight), and, at one point, an elevator comes from under the stage floor and through a large raked platform -- there was something like 1/16" clearance, and every night the stage manager nearly had a heart attack during that particular scene change.