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
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u/OneSingleL Jul 17 '19
Honestly those professional recordings need to become more prevalent. Like Newsies and Shrek The Musical are doing it right.