Great Performances Fall 2018 Includes An American In Paris London Version (1 Viewer)

[Garysb]

PBS Will Broadcast U.K. An American in Paris and The Sound of Music in November
http://www.playbill.com/article/pbs...n-in-paris-and-the-sound-of-music-in-november

An American in Paris and the 2015 live U.K. broadcast of The Sound of Music, plus documentaries about the making of John Leguizamo's Tony-nominated play Latin History for Morons and 21-time Tony winner Harold Prince. All programs will be available to stream the following day via PBS.org and PBS apps.

Details about the four programs follow:

An American in Paris
The 1951 MGM film starring Gene Kelly was inspired by George Gershwin’s score and became one of the most famous movie musicals, winning six Academy Awards. In 2015 a new stage adaptation of the film, directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, opened on Broadway and earned four Tony Awards. During its May 2017 run in London’s West End, the Broadway production was recorded with its original stars, Tony nominees Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music
Great Performances presents the 2015 live U.K. broadcast of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic starring Kara Tointon as Maria, Julian Ovenden as Captain von Trapp, Katherine Kelley as Baroness Schraeder, Alexander Armstrong as Max, and Maria Friedman as the Mother Abbess.

John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway
A behind-the-scenes documentary, directed by Ben DeJesus, that chronicles Leguizamo’s Tony-nominated Latin History for Morons, which debuted on Broadway last season and offered a comedic, yet pointed look at the systematic repression of Hispanic culture throughout American history. Leguizamo was also a recipient of a 2018 Special Tony Award.

Harold Prince: A Director’s Journey
Directed by Lonny Price, the Great Performances retrospective celebrates the extraordinary career of producer and director Harold Prince. Featuring archival clips from his many groundbreaking productions, the performance-documentary features interviews with many of Prince’s collaborators, including Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mandy Patinkin, John Kander, Susan Stroman, and Angela Lansbury, all sharing their firsthand insights into his pioneering achievements in the theatre.

 

[Matt Hough]

I watched The Sound of Music Live! this evening, recorded from PBS on Friday night. (I recorded An American in Paris last week, but haven't gotten to it yet).

Leads Kara Tointon and Julian Ovenden were miles ahead of Carrie Underwood and Steven Moyer in the US live production from a few years ago. I think I preferred Christian Borle and Laura Benanti from the US production as Max and Elsa. The children in the British version seemed quiet and bland and some of their lines got lost due to mumbling. Loved the great Maria Friedman as the Mother Abbess, and the production itself was surprisingly lavish. Apart from the substitution of "Something Good" for "An Ordinary Couple" (very wise as "Couple" is the dullest song Rodgers and Hammerstein ever wrote), this hued pretty closely to the stage production.

 

[Jim*Tod]

I watched about 15 minutes of this SOM and thought it was awful, maybe worse than the NBC live version. The choreography appeared to be a matter of people circling each other. I will give it another chance when I have more time, but I don't think my opinion will change.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The posts here have focused more on The Sound of Music than anything else. But I'm bumping this thread from a while ago because the London production of An American in Paris mentioned in the first post is finally about to receive a Blu-ray release.


Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope, who were both Tony nominees for the Broadway production, reprised their roles in the London production.

Amazon has pre-orders up for a release date of July 20.

I got to see this taping in a movie theater a few years ago (back when it was still safe to do that) and then of course it aired on PBS. I think it is a beautiful production and would recommend it without hesitation to anyone interested.

 

[Garysb]

The posts here have focused more on The Sound of Music than anything else. But I'm bumping this thread from a while ago because the London production of An American in Paris mentioned in the first post is finally about to receive a Blu-ray release.

View attachment 93423
Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope, who were both Tony nominees for the Broadway production, reprised their roles in the London production.

Amazon has pre-orders up for a release date of July 20.

I got to see this taping in a movie theater a few years ago (back when it was still safe to do that) and then of course it aired on PBS. I think it is a beautiful production and would recommend it without hesitation to anyone interested.

Thanks for the heads up about the blu ray.

 

[Garysb]

I looked up the company that is releasing an "An American In Paris", Liberator Films and they are also releasing other musicals that aired on PBS including the London production of "42nd St" and "Kinky Boots"

Films :: Liberator Film Services

www.liberatorfilmservices.com

See on Amazon
See on Amazon
See on Amazon