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[Interview with Michael Greif : raw footage]

Title: [Interview with Michael Greif : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
Publication: New York, 2003.

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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 2166	Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT

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Description

1 videocassette (VHS) (55 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.

Summary

Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Theatrical director and producer Michael Greif discusses the Broadway musical Rent, which he directed. Based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème, Rent is a musical with melodies and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. It opened in New York City in January 1996 at the New York Theatre Workshop, and in April of that year settled into Broadway's Nederlander Theatre for a long run. The story concerns a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Alphabet City in the Bohemian East Village, under the shadow of AIDS. Larson would not live to see Rent's Broadway success; he died from an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm on the morning of January 25, 1996, just before the show's first preview. Greif discusses what he likes about Rent; its characters and subject matter; the musicals he liked best while growing up; the development of the production, whose creators originally intended it for the East Village; Larson's love of traditional musical forms, and his loyalty to La bohème as a structure; his adventurousness as composer; and how the musical broke new ground in its clear depiction of straight, gay and transgender characters who were comfortable in their sexuality, and with each other. Larson, Greif says, was a dedicated musical theater composer who lived a life similar to the characters he wrote about in Rent. During the early 1990s he waited on tables at the Moondance Diner in downtown Manhattan while he focused on composing and hoped for his big break. Greif, who met Larson in 1994, discusses how they collaborated on the project; Larson's musical theater projects previous to Rent; the development process Rent underwent at New York Theatre Workshop; and the background to the creation of the musical, which was based on an original concept by playwright Billy Aronson. Aronson and Larson collaborated for a time on the project, and then parted ways. Larson in the meantime was coping with the loss of several friends due to AIDS, and this infused his project with a new urgency. Greif discusses Rent's popularity and its particular appeal to young audiences; the songs Seasons of love, which he views as emblematic of the play, and Living in America, which he believes conveys a positive message; and producer James C. Nicola's role in the development of Rent. Greif discuses the series of events leading up to Larson's death just before the show's first preview. He speaks about hearing of the news of Larson's death at a morning meeting with dramaturg Lynn Thompson and Nicola, and the principals' decision to go forward with show because they believed Larson would have wanted it. Greif discusses how they continued to work to determine its structure, using the musical itself as their guide. He speculates on what the show would have become had Larson lived. He describes Rent's journey to Broadway, and the choice of the Nederlander Theatre as its venue; and its young, diverse audience. Lastly, Greif discusses the recent Broadway season and current trends; critics and Broadway; how Rent differs from a typical Broadway production; seeing his first Broadway show Man of La Mancha; his admiration for the show A chorus line; the qualities of the musicals which have most affected him; and what he sees as the signficance of the musical. The camera keeps rolling for ca. two minutes following the interview.

Alternative Title

Broadway, the American musical
"Greif" : Broadway: the American musical

Subject

Genre/Form

Documentaries and factual works.
Musicals.
Unedited footage.

Note

This interview is one of a group of interviews with 90 individuals used in making the documentary Broadway, the American musical. The completed production is available on NCOX 2058.
Credits for completed production from pbs.org: A film by Michael Kantor ; produced by Jeff Dupre, Michael Kantor and Sally Rosenthal ; written by Marc Fields, Michael Kantor, Laurence Maslon, and JoAnne Young ; directed by Michael Kantor.
Time code on frame.
Contains various takes, at occasional brief intervals, audio continues without sound.

Credits (note)

Cameraman: Buddy Squires.

Performer (note)

Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Michael Greif.

Event (note)

Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on August 26, 2003.

Biography (note)

Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Call Number

NCOX 2166

OCLC

145745948

Title

[Interview with Michael Greif : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]

Imprint

New York, 2003.

Credits

Cameraman: Buddy Squires.

Performer

Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Michael Greif.

Event

Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on August 26, 2003.

Biography

Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Local Note

Gift of Broadway Film Project, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET, 2005.

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Request Access to Theatre on Film and Tape Archive Special Collections material

Added Author

Greif, Michael, interviewee.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.

Squires, Buddy, cameraman.

Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.

Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research Call Number

NCOX 2166

View in Legacy Catalog