Research Catalog

Broadway, the American musical

Title: Broadway, the American musical [videorecording] / a film by Michael Kantor ; a co-production of Ghost Light Films, Thirteen/WNET New York, NHK and BBC in association with Carlton International ; written by JoAnn Young, Marc Fields, Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon ; directed by Michael Kantor.
Publication: Hollywood, Calif. : Paramount : Distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment, c2004.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	Moving image	Restricted use	NCOX 2058	Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT

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Description

3 videodiscs (DVD) (ca. 360 min.) : sd., col. with b&w sequences; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

Comprehensive documentary series chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the musical. Each episode chronicles a different era in American history, and features the Broadway shows and songs that defined the period. The series draws on a large amount of feature films, television segments, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in creating the American musical.

Series Statement

PBS home video

Subjects

Genre/Form

Documentaries and factual works.
Musicals.

Note

Credits on tape and container.
Special features. Additional performances; more than three hours of additional interviews, and featurette: Wicked: the road to Broadway.
Edited by Kris Liem, Adam Zucker, Nancy Novack ; music director, Teese Gohl ; supervising producer, Bill O'Donnell ; conceived and developed in association with Martin Starger ; executive producers David Horn, Jac Venza ; cinematography, Buddy Squires, Mead Hunt.
The first segment in a six-part series on the history of Broadway American musical theater. New York City's turn of the century musical theater embodied the hope that America offered to millions of immigrants. The story of legendary producer Florence Ziegfeld and his Follies introduces the era's key figures: songwriter Irving Berlin, comedienne-singer Fanny Brice and comic Bert Williams -- America's first "crossover" artists -- and brash song-and-dance man George M. Cohan; Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II unleashed Broadway's potential with the groundbreaking Show boat.
The second segment in a six-part series on the history of Broadway American musical theater. Prohibition and jazz, along with newly-won freedoms for women proved to be fertile ground for the musical comedy. Marilyn Miller, the Marx Brothers, and Al Jolson rocketed to stardom. The musical Shuffle along opened the door to Black talent and inspired a spate of new Black musicals on Broadway. Songwriter teams like George and Ira Gershwin, Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote the music that seduced the nation with New York City's syncopated rhythm. But Broadway's Jazz Age suffered a one-two punch with the "talking picture" and the stock market crash.
The third segment in a six-part series on the history of Broadway American musical theater. In the Depression, a musical theater dichotomy emerged: shows like Cole Porter's Anything Goes, starring singer Ethel Merman, offered glamour as an escape, while others -- like Of thee I sing and The cradle will rock -- dealt with the era's political concerns. The song Brother, can you spare a dime?, written by Yip Harburg for the Broadway musical Americana evoked the painful struggling of the everyman. Rodgers and Hart returned to New York to create new shows like Pal Joey and George Gershwin created his epic folk opera, Porgy and Bess. The advent of World War II prompted Irving Berlin to write one of his biggest hits, This is the Army.
The fourth segment in a six-part series on the history of Broadway Amercian musical theater. Beginning with Oklahoma! in 1943, the partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II set a new standard for storytelling on Broadway. With On the town, Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jerome Robbins musicalized wartime New York and Irving Berlin and Ethel Merman triumphed with Annie get your gun. Shows like Kiss me, Kate, Guys and dolls, and My fair lady offered sophisticated literary adaptations, and the Ed Sullivan show brought a television spot-light to Broadway. With the death of Oscar Hammerstein II in 1960 after The sound of music, the curtain lowered on a golden age.
The fifth segment in a six-part series on the history of Broadway American musical theater. In the late 50s and early 60s, Broadway continued producing enduring hits, including the groundbreaking West side story choreographed by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein. But in the era of rock & roll and tumultuous social change, Broadway reinvented itself and established new traditions. The conceptual theater of John Kander and Fred Ebb's Cabaret, as directed by Harold Prince, was followed by the rock musical Hair and the urban angst of Stephen Sondheim's Company. Bob Fosse showcased "sexy cynicism" in Chicago, and Michael Bennett created the blockbuster hit A chorus line. With Prince and Sondheim's production of Sweeney Todd, the musical reached unexpected heights in style and material.
The final segment in a six-part series on the history of Broadway Amercian musical theater. As producer David Merrick conquered Broadway with 42nd Street, and producer Cameron Mackintosh and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber redefined Broadway, the business of show business took center-stage. Sondheim's Sunday in the park with George moved from a workshop Off-Broadway, while Jerry Herman's La cage aux folles broke new ground in its portrayal of gay romance. Julie Taymor re-imagined Disney's The lion king, composer Jonathan Larson scored a bittersweet posthumous triumph with Rent, and the old-fashioned musical was reborn in Mel Brooks' The producers. The creation of Wicked, the biggest hit of 2004, highlights the challenges of producing a large-scale musical on Broadway in the 21st century.

Audience (note)

MPAA rating: Not rated.

System Details (note)

DVD, region 1, widescreen presentation; Dolby Digital stereo.

Language (note)

Closed-captioned.

Contents

Episode one: Give my regards to Broadway (1893-1927) -- Episode two: Syncopated city (1920-1933) -- Episode three: I got plenty of nuttin' (1929-1942) -- Episode four: Oh, what a beautiful mornin' (1943-1960) -- Episode five: Tradition (1957-1979) -- Episode six: Putting it together (1980-present).

Call Number

NCOX 2058

OCLC

56132934

Title

Broadway, the American musical [videorecording] / a film by Michael Kantor ; a co-production of Ghost Light Films, Thirteen/WNET New York, NHK and BBC in association with Carlton International ; written by JoAnn Young, Marc Fields, Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon ; directed by Michael Kantor.

Imprint

Hollywood, Calif. : Paramount : Distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment, c2004.

Series

PBS home video

System Details

DVD, region 1, widescreen presentation; Dolby Digital stereo.

Performer

Host: Julie Andrews; interviews with: Tommy Tune, Dwight Blocker Bowers, Hal Prince, John Lahr, Philip Furia, Patricia Stephenson, Dana O'Connell, Max Wilk, Joel Grey, Al Hirschfeld, Brendan Gill, Ben Vereen, Mel Watkins, Mary Ellin Barrett, Vincent Sardi, Jr., Doris Eaton Travis, Miles Kreuger, Stephen Sondheim, Jonathan Sheffer, Ann Douglas, Robert Kimball, Steve Nelson, Mel Brooks, Jonathan Schwartz, Stephen Mo Hanan, George C. Wolfe, Andre De Shields, Margo Jefferson, Frances Gershwin Godowsky, Jerome Chodorov, Ernest Harburg, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Todd Duncan, Anne Brown, Tim Robbins, June Havoc, Stanley Donen, Andy Hammerstein, Peter Stone, Michael Kidd, Agnes De Mille, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jerome Robbins, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Mary Rodgers, John Raitt, Patricia Morison, Ted Chapin, James Michener, Abe Burrows, Cy Feuer, Julie Andrews, Frank Rich, Arthur Laurents, Julie Taymor, Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Mitchell, Galt MacDermot, Gerald Schoenfeld, Donna McKechnie, Baayork Lee, Marvin Hamlisch, Graciela Daniele, Chita Rivera, Fred Ebb, Jerry Orbach, John Kander, Susan Stroman, Rocco Landesman, Nathan Lane, Cameron Macintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Trevor Nunn, Tim Rice, James Lapine, James Nederlander Sr., Harvey Fierstein, Michael Eisner, James C. Nicola, MIchael Greif, Marc Platt, David Stone, Jerry Herman, Kristen Chenoweth, Idina Menzel.

Audience

MPAA rating: Not rated.

Language

Closed-captioned.

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Added Author

Kantor, Michael, 1961- producer.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.

Young, JoAnn, writer.

Fields, Marc, writer.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- writer.

Liem, Kris, editor of moving image work.

Zucker, Adam, editor of moving image work.

Novack, Nancy, editor of moving image work.

Gohl, Teese, music director.

O' Donnell, Bill, producer.

Starger, Martin.

Horn, David (Producer)

Venza, Jac, producer.

Squires, Buddy, director of photography.

Hunt, Mead, director of photography.

Andrews, Julie, host.

Anderson, Nancy (Actor), narrator.

Ferry, Chris, narrator.

Herrera, John, narrator.

Krakowski, Jane, narrator.

McMartin, John, narrator.

Wright, Jeffrey (Jeffrey Charles), 1965- narrator.

Zien, Chip, narrator.

Hall, Michael C., 1971- narrator.

Jones, Gene, narrator.

McClarty, Ron, narrator.

McDonald, Audra, narrator.

Sherman, Jonathan Marc, narrator.

Spinella, Stephen, narrator.

Testa, Mary, narrator.

Weems, Andrew, narrator.

Tune, Tommy, interviewee.

Bowers, Dwight Blocker, interviewee.

Prince, Harold, 1928-2019, interviewee.

Lahr, John, 1941- interviewee.

Furia, Philip, 1943- interviewee.

Stephenson, Patricia, interviewee.

O'Connell, Dana, interviewee.

Wilk, Max, interviewee.

Grey, Joel, 1932- interviewee.

Hirschfeld, Al, interviewee.

Gill, Brendan, 1914-1997, interviewee.

Vereen, Ben, interviewee.

Watkins, Mel, 1940- interviewee.

Barrett, Mary Ellin, interviewee.

Sardi, Vincent, 1915-2007, interviewee.

Travis, Doris Eaton, 1904-2010, interviewee.

Kreuger, Miles, interviewee.

Sondheim, Stephen, interviewee.

Sheffer, Jonathan, interviewee.

Douglas, Ann, 1942- interviewee.

Kimball, Robert, interviewee.

Nelson, Stephen, 1952- interviewee.

Brooks, Mel, 1926- interviewee.

Schwartz, Jonathan, 1938- interviewee.

Hanon, Stephen Mo, interviewee.

Wolfe, George C, interviewee.

De Shields, André, 1946- interviewee.

Jefferson, Margo, 1947- interviewee.

Godowsky, Frances Gershwin, interviewee.

Chodorov, Jerome, interviewee.

Harburg, Ernest, interviewee.

Carlisle, Kitty, 1910-2007, interviewee.

Duncan, Todd, interviewee.

Brown, Anne, 1912-2009, interviewee.

Robbins, Tim, 1958- interviewee.

Havoc, June, interviewee.

Donen, Stanley, interviewee.

Hammerstein, Andy, interviewee.

Stone, Peter, 1930-2003, interviewee.

Kidd, Michael, 1915-2007, interviewee.

De Mille, Agnes, interviewee.

Comden, Betty, interviewee.

Green, Adolph, interviewee.

Robbins, Jerome, interviewee.

Tilson Thomas, Michael, 1944- interviewee.

Rodgers, Mary, 1931-2014, interviewee.

Raitt, John, 1917-2005, interviewee.

Morison, Patricia, 1915-2018, interviewee.

Chapin, Theodore S, interviewee.

Michener, James A. (James Albert), 1907-1997, interviewee.

Burrows, Abe, 1910-1985, interviewee.

Feuer, Cy, interviewee.

Andrews, Julie, interviewee.

Rich, Frank, interviewee.

Laurents, Arthur, interviewee.

Taymor, Julie, 1952- interviewee.

Harnick, Sheldon, interviewee.

Mitchell, Jerry, 1960- interviewee.

MacDermot, Galt, interviewee.

Schoenfeld, Gerald, 1924-2008, interviewee.

McKechnie, Donna, interviewee.

Lee, Baayork, interviewee.

Hamlisch, Marvin, interviewee.

Daniele, Graciela, 1939- interviewee.

Rivera, Chita, interviewee.

Ebb, Fred, interviewee.

Orbach, Jerry, interviewee.

Kander, John, interviewee.

Stroman, Susan, interviewee.

Landesman, Rocco, 1947- interviewee.

Lane, Nathan, 1956- interviewee.

Mackintosh, Cameron, interviewee.

Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948- interviewee.

Nunn, Trevor, interviewee.

Rice, Tim, 1944- interviewee.

Lapine, James, interviewee.

Nederlander, James, interviewee.

Fierstein, Harvey, 1952- interviewee.

Eisner, Michael, 1942- interviewee.

Nicola, James C, interviewee.

Greif, Michael, interviewee.

Platt, Marc, 1913-2014, interviewee.

Herman, Jerry, 1931-2019, interviewee.

Stone, David, interviewee.

Chenoweth, Kristin, interviewee.

Menzel, Idina, interviewee.

Ghost Light Films.

Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Paramount Home Entertainment (Firm)

Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.

Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research Call Number

NCOX 2058

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