Research Catalog

Title

[Interview with Trevor Nunn : raw footage] [videorecording] / [documentary directed by Michael Kantor ; interview directed by Jeff Dupre]

Publication

New York, 2003.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Nunn, Trevor
• Dupre, Jeff
• Kantor, Michael, 1961-
• Hopkins, Terry
• Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.
• Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Description

2 videocassettes (VHS) (81 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.

Summary

• Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Theatre and film director Trevor Nunn discusses how he worked with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber to develop the stage show Cats. Starting with ten poems by T. S. Eliot, which Lloyd Webber had set to music, Nunn and Lloyd Webber envisioned the cat characters and how they functioned within their tribe, then called in set designer John Napier who created an environment for them set in a trash dump. Nunn speaks about how the story took on an added dimension when Valerie Eliot, T. S. Eliot's widow, presented Lloyd Webber with the poem Grizabella the glamour cat, which introduced the idea of mortality, grief and desperation to the lighthearted, optimistic piece. Nunn speaks about the collaboration between Lloyd Webber and Cats' producer Cameron Mackintosh; Mackintosh's skills at marketing his shows; the presence of spectacle in the theater, and in this show in particular; psychological complexity in the work of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Cole Porter and in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess; Cats' Broadway success, which he attributes to its ability to reach "across barriers of every kind," including racial and ethnic ones; what taking a show to Broadway means to him; theater architecture and its impact on creative innovation in the theater; the musical theater collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, who created a "paradigm" for the American musical; how Cats, which conveys its story via dance, compares with "book" musicals produced by Rodgers & Hammerstein; the "visceral" experience of Cats, in which the action of the show is transferred into the auditorium, a theatrical strategy which Lloyd Webber and his collaborators developed further in their musical Starlight Express; the musical Les miserables, which connects back to the mainstream book musical. Interview ends on videocassette one and resumes on tape two.
• Discussion continues with the issue of justice addressed in the show Les miserables; the musical as an American art form; the difficulty of characterizing the musical, and the wit and contemporaneity of the musicals of the 1920s and '30s, emblematic in the work of Cole Porter; Nunn's view that composer Stephen Sondheim is a musical heir of Porter; the revolutionary aspect of storytelling introduced in the musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein; the impact of live musical theater on the audience, and its tendency to "unify" the audience via a shared reaction, as exemplified in the musical Oklahoma!; Lloyd Webber as the most "prolific and rich melodist" of his age, and his creative output in such shows as Starlight Express, Phantom of the opera, Aspects of love and Sunset Boulevard; more on Lloyd Webber's theatrical success; Cole Porters' musical Anything goes, a satirical comedy that reflected society during the Great Depression; the current state of the musical theater, and how he sees its future; Broadway's conformity to established notions of the musical; and his view that Broadway must encourage creative diversity, as seen in shows such as Rent and Hair.

Alternative Title

• Broadway, the American musical
• Broadway: the American musical : Trevor Nunn

Subject

• Nunn, Trevor > Interviews
• Nunn, Trevor > Friends and associates
• Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948-
• Eliot, T. S. 1888-1965
• Mackintosh, Cameron
• Rodgers, Richard, 1902-1979
• Hammerstein, Oscar, II, 1895-1960
• Schönberg, Claude-Michel
• Porter, Cole, 1891-1964
• Theater > New York (State) > New York
• Musical theater > New York (State) > New York
• Musical theater > Production and direction
• Theatrical producers and directors > Interviews
• Theatrical producers and directors > England > Interviews
• Broadway (New York, N.Y.)

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: Terry Hopkins.

Performer (note)

• Interviewer: Jeff Dupre. Interviewee: Trevor Nunn.

Event (note)

• Videotaped in London, England on September 24, 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 2176

OCLC

155258341

Title

[Interview with Trevor Nunn : raw footage] [videorecording] / [documentary directed by Michael Kantor ; interview directed by Jeff Dupre]

Imprint

New York, 2003.

Credits

Cameraman: Terry Hopkins.

Performer

Interviewer: Jeff Dupre. Interviewee: Trevor Nunn.

Event

Videotaped in London, England on September 24, 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.

Connect to:

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

Added Author

Nunn, Trevor, interviewee.

Dupre, Jeff, interviewer.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.

Hopkins, Terry, cameraman.

Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.

Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research Call Number

NCOX 2176