A group of dancers congregate on the stage of a Broadway theatre to audition for a new musical production directed by Zach. After the initial eliminations, seventeen hopefuls remain, among them Cassie, who once had a tempestuous romantic relationship with Zach. She is desperate enough for work to humble herself and audition for him; whether he's willing to let professionalism overcome his personal feelings about their past remains to be seen.
In 1945, as America's soldiers come home to ticker-tape parades and overjoyed families, Private First Class Donny Novitski, singer and songwriter, returns to rebuild his life with only the shirt on his back and a dream in his heart. When NBC announces a national competition to find the nation's next great musical superstars, inspiration strikes! Donny joins forces with a motley group of fellow veterans, forming a band unlike any the nation has ever seen. Along the way, they discover the power of music to face the impossible, find their voice and finally feel like they have a place to call home.
A farmer from Vermont travels to New York and becomes a successful singer in a nightclub.
Stuffy amateur director Eddie Dolan decides to mount a show for the well-connected patrons of a posh country club. Eddie and his girlfriend, actress Ann Stallings, hope the production will launch their legitimate Broadway careers. But complications arise when Maxine Whitaker, daughter of a wealthy rival club owner, becomes romantically interested in charming Eddie.
As PlayhouseSquare celebrates its first 90 years, “Staging Success: The PlayhouseSquare Story” pays tribute to the people who were instrumental in saving the theaters and shows how the community worked together to create a cultural showplace in the heart of downtown Cleveland. This new documentary, a production of WVIZ/PBS, in collaboration with Think Media Studios, reveals a Cleveland rags-to-riches tale as dramatic as any on Broadway.
In his last film assignment, portly Walter Connolly fills the title role (in more ways than one) in The Great Victor Herbert. Very little of Herbert's life story is incorporated in the screenplay (a closing title actually apologizes for the film's paucity of cold hard facts); instead, the writers allow the famed composer's works to speak for themselves. In the tradition of one of his own operettas, Herbert spends most of his time patching up the shaky marriage between tenor John Ramsey (Allan Jones) and Louise Hall (Mary Martin). Many of Herbert's most famous compositions are well in evidence, including "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life", "March of the Toys" and "Kiss Me Again", the latter performed con brio by teenaged coloratura Susanna Foster. Evidently, the producers were able to secure the film rights for the Herbert songs, but not for the stage productions in which they appeared, which may explain such bizarre interpolations as having a song from Naughty Marietta.
A Broadway director rescues a starlet from mobsters who blame her for a shooting.
To celebrate the 90th birthday of Broadway songwriting great Stephen Sondheim, an A-list group of performers sing songs of inspiration from his songbook in a concert event filmed in their homes. Hosted and co-produced by Raúl Esparza, the acclaimed one-night-only event was created as a benefit for ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty).
This intimate documentary explores the life and career of the stage legend Stephen Sondheim through six of his best-known songs.
Hammerstein and Kern’s Show Boat is a true classic of American musical theater - a tale of life on the Mississippi from the 1880s to the 1920s is both a poignant love story and a powerful reminder of the bitter legacy of racism. The exuberant production from the San Francisco Opera features songbook classics such as “Ol’ Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”.
A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, who were strongly influenced by the naturalistic acting of Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre.
In this Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim, several fairy tale characters learn the hard way that the 'Happily Ever After' they sought isn't necessarily so happy after all.
A Broadway star devises a scheme to win back her husband when she suspects he's being unfaithful.
Socialite Cathy Abbott is working in the chorus of a Broadway show instead of being enrolled at an exclusive girl's school as her parents think. When the show closes, she brings two of her chorus friends home with her. In addition to trying to make her friends acceptable to the snooty society of which her family is part, she is also being blackmailed by a rival.
An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.
"On Broadway" featured Carol Channing and Pearl Bailey, both red hot after their respective runs in the smash hit "Hello, Dolly!" on Broadway. The special was filmed on the stage of the Wintergarden Theater in New York and originally aired on ABC in 1969. Together the theatrical legends playfully perform some of their most popular hits, including 'A Little Girl from Little Rock,' 'Little Green Apples,' 'If My Friends Could See Me Now,' and 'Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey.' Next, they perform an assortment of familiar showtunes including hits from "Guys and Dolls," "The Music Man," "Hello, Dolly!," and "Fiddler on the Roof." "On Broadway" is an entertaining step back in time.
A Broadway choreographer gets drafted and coincidentally ends up in the same army base as his object of affection’s boyfriend.
A Broadway artiste turns a faded film star's comeback vehicle into an artsy flop.
The second television adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress was broadcast on December 12, 1972, on CBS. This production, videotaped in color, included original Broadway cast members Burnett, Gilford and White, and also featured Bernadette Peters as Lady Larken, Ken Berry as Prince Dauntless, Ron Husmann as Harry, and Wally Cox as The Jester. It was directed by Ron Field and Dave Powers. Again, several songs were eliminated and characters were combined or altered. Since the parts of the Minstrel and the Wizard were cut from this adaptation, a new prologue was written with Burnett singing "Many Moons Ago" as a bedtime story.
Taped in January 1997 at the McCallum Theatre in the Palm Desert Resort hotel in Palm Springs, CA., includes sensational renditions of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," "Anything Goes," "I Get A Kick Out Of You," "As If We Never Said Goodbye," "Sleepy Man," "I Dreamed A Dream," "Heat Wave," and more.