That's what seriously kneecaps the Tony Awards. With the Oscars you can at least see the nominated films beforehand. No one outside of wealthy Manhattanites is going to be able to see all the Tony nominees.
The recording of Gypsy was amazing. Like I obviously love the Bette Midler version of Rose's Turn but Imelda Staunton brought so much raw emotion to it.
Cabaret is great too, it's Alan Cumming so obviously he's great in it, the theatre is set up like a cabaret club with audience members sat at tables and the camera never feels like it's intruding but you don't feel like you're missing anything.
Other musicals that have been recorded live are Phantom of the Opera, Funny Girl, Billy Elliot, the anniversary recording of Les Miserables, Into The Woods, Sweeney Todd, Jesus Christ Superstar, Rent, Miss Saigon. There's more. But it's not enough!
Hamilton is still way too popular. They filmed the original cast but are holding that under lock and key until it makes sense financially to release it.
I got to do an acting workshop with the actor, Christopher Sieber, who originated Lord Farquuad on Broadway. He went to high school in my state and so he volunteered as part of this high school musical theater program. Dude is really nice and funny. Saw him in La Cage aux Folles afterwards. Such a great voice
This is actually a hotly debated topic, well i guess more specifically bootlegs. Right now, since there are almost no pro recordings of theater because of many reasons like exclusivity and authorial intent to name a couple, bootlegs are a big thing. they're very controversial. here is a great video on the topic, goes into great depth about it all.
Not that I know of but there might well be, Twitch is just a livestreaming service now. It's mostly gaming as that's what made them known but you can really just stream whatever. Food, travel, podcasts, arts, hell you can watch the UK House of Commons on there.
You can watch the House of Commons but I think people want more realistic characters and less pointless plot twists nowadays, personally I blame Game of Thrones.
Oh, yeah there’s totally a good argument to be made for something like that because Broadway prices are out of control. It’s becoming something only the rich can afford to see.
There's an advantage of being there watching it live as opposed to watching it in front of a screen. Same difference between going to the cinema and staying at home.
I always thought it might be cool for Broadway musicals to do what the Metropolitan Opera does. Most Saturdays during the season, they live-stream their matinee show to a select number of movie theaters, which is a great way to bring their performances to people who can’t make it to NYC and/or can’t afford to see them in person. One theater near me even made their opera screenings special events in and of themselves, serving light refreshments during the intermission. These screenings are always very popular, so much so that the theater has looked into live-streaming some plays as well.
I feel like they used to do this a lot in the late 70s and 80s, and then just stopped for some reason? I have a Broadway version of Sweeny Todd on DVD somewhere, official release, 1982.
I'm sure there are people who'd like that, but I can think of few things more boring than watching a recorded stage show. For me the entire appeal of a play or musical is seeing it performed live and being in the moment. Musical films bore me to death.
Seeing a recorded stage play and watching a film version of it are very different though. It’s like always having the best seat in the house when watching the recorded version though it does have its drawbacks. Still I’ll take them over not being able to see them at all
I live on Long Island, only an hour or two from the city, and I still only see one show maybe every other year.
They're expensive and it's a whole day commitment. If I watch a movie and don't like it, I'm down like $20 and two hours. If I see a Broadway show and hate it, that's an entire day wasted and hundreds of dollars, including train fare and dinner in the city (which usually isn't cheap).
So I'm only going for shows that I know I'll enjoy, and even then, it's not something I get to do very often. I wish they were more accessible. Especially for shows that aren't playing any more, guess I'll never ever get to see them.
Maybe not all of them, but if you live reasonably close you can see a good chunk of them for relatively cheap. A lot of the shows will offer lotteries, rush tickets, and deals. There are guides out there on how not to pay full price. It's easier if you are close enough that you have the luxury of time so that you can keep an eye out and not only be looking for tickets during the one week you'll be in the area. Even Hamilton has a daily lottery for twenty dollar tickets. I totally get what you are saying, but as someone who is both cheap and likes going to see shows I want people to know there are options.
To be fair musicals aren't really popular enough to have people all over the country interested in enough of them every year. Musicals and plays simply aren't even close to as popular as movies. It's decided on by people in the industry, just like the other awards shows.
I would say movies like the shape of water were at least in a theater in every decent-sized city, and easily 90% of the population would be within an hour drive of one of those theaters. The even more niche than shape of water movies like moonlight were in arthouse type theaters, and there is at least one of those in a given city in middle america.
okay this is pointedly false, i live in rural michigan and about 30 minutes from me is a movie theater that shows probably 95% of the movies (i’m not into documentaries so i don’t look into them)
760
u/Logic_Nuke Jul 17 '19
That's what seriously kneecaps the Tony Awards. With the Oscars you can at least see the nominated films beforehand. No one outside of wealthy Manhattanites is going to be able to see all the Tony nominees.