Filed under: News, A Closer Look
While there have been numerous films based on Broadway musicals, with 'Nine' being the last in 2009, there's a new trend growing in the theater and movies where some of today's leading and well-acclaimed Broadway shows are being shot in high definition for the big screen.
Following in the footsteps of 2008 Tony Award winner 'Passing Strange' and the acclaimed musical 'Fela!,' the racially-charged Broadway musical 'Memphis' will be captured live-in-performance by Broadway Worldwide for high definition exhibition in digital cinemas nationwide this spring.
For the first time ever, audiences around the country will be able to experience The Great White Way's current Tony Award winning Best Musical in their own home town movie theater during its Tony Award winning year. The hit musical will be captured live during regularly scheduled performances this week at New York City's Shubert Theatre, utilizing multiple high definition cameras and 96 tracks of sound recording.
'Memphis' takes place in the smoky halls and underground clubs of the segregated 50's, where a young white DJ named Huey Calhoun (played by Chad Kimball) fell in love with everything he shouldn't: rock and roll and an electrifying black singer (played by the beautiful powerhouse Montego Glover). It's an original story about the cultural revolution that erupted when his vision met her voice, and the music changed forever.
Last November, as part of the London's world-renown National Theatre's Live series, producers of the critically acclaimed Broadway musical, 'Fela!' decided to film live performances of the play in high definition and broadcast via satellite to 300 cinemas and performing arts centers in 22 countries.
The play, which chronicles the life of Afrobeat music pioneer and activist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, is supposed to experience Bill T. Jones' vision on the silver screen sometime in 2011.
Producers have enlisted Columbia Artist Management (CAMI) booker Margaret Selby to lend a helping hand.
She noted that she is "looking forward to working with local theater presenters both in the United States and abroad to use this broadcast as an innovative tool to excite their theatergoers to come and experience what Broadway audiences and critics have been raving about."
In July 2008, director Spike Lee and his crew filmed 'Passing Strange' live at the Belasco Theatre during its Broadway run, a day before the musical's final performance. He took the finished product to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival before releasing it in theaters later in the year.
Lee's multicamera coverage of the event (including backstage scenes) involved the audience in not only the text but the electricity of the ensemble's on-stage adventure.