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Instead of filming live musicals on a soundstage, producers should be filming live stage musicals, complete with a live audience, as a better way to give a wider audience access to live musical theatre.
NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! was an ambitious attempt to live-record a musical on a soundstage, and broadcast the feed, live, to the televisions of viewers across America. The production was watched by a massive 18.4 million viewers across the United States. Although the production received mixed reviews from critics and viewers alike, its success in introducing a wide audience to musical theatre has been celebrated.
Filming a live musical and broadcasting it is not a new phenomenon. Since the development of film, artists have attempted to capture live musicals for the screen, and The Sound of Music Live! is another installment in that history.
Gotta Sing!
Starting with the commercialization of film, producers turned to live theatre for content. With the development of the talkies in the 1920s, movie studios filmed short clips of vaudeville stars performing their routines to demonstrate the possibilities of the combination of sound and image. Broadway productions became fodder for Hollywood scripts, and, in the early movie musicals, whole scenes from currently running Broadway musicals were filmed and incorporated into the story. As movie musicals gained confidence and success, and blossomed into their own genre, live stage musicals were filmed less and less for the cinema.
Anything Goes on Television
A revival in the recording of live musical theatre occurred with the development, and availability, of television. The 1950s saw a “golden age” for live theatre on television, with theatre able to provide proven ready-made content, though most of these programs were filmed without a live audience.
Musicals were featured in short excerpts of currently playing productions, and programs such asBell Telephone Hour (NBC), The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS), and Tonight on Broadway (CBS) all featured live excerpts from Broadway. Between 1950 and 1955, the Colgate Comedy Hourfeatured popular shortened versions of contemporary musicals such as Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, and Wonderful Town.
In 1955 NBC screened a full-length production of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, which thanks to its popular star, flying actors, and a variety of other effects, proved popular enough to continue to be aired into the 1960s. In 1957, CBS aired a live broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Julie Andrews. The production was viewed by over 100 million people.
As with cinema, television production quickly grew more sophisticated, and developed its own content more suited to its medium. Practitioners at the time believed that theatre had to be filmed in one long continuous shot, with the stage frame always visible, in order to create the illusion of the theatre. They were also limited by heavy and bulky cameras. This way of filming, along with poor quality recordings, due to light and sound designed for the theatre and not for television, created content that became less popular, compared to material specifically created for television.
A Niche Market
In 1972 Harold Prince recorded the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
Prince began to break from traditional filming methods, but without a means of distributing the recorded production, filming live theatre did not pick up again until almost a decade later.
The availability of VHS and new filming technologies in the early 1980s gave the filming of live musicals a new chance. The use of the new technologies allowed for the use of cinematic devices such as close-ups, cuts between scenes, and multiple angles. This paved the way for filming live theatre as dynamic and exciting as watching a film or well-produced television show. Through VHS, producers were able to tap into a niche market, and more and more productions were filmed, and distributed for public consumption. Excellent examples from this period include Sondheim’sSunday in the Park with George (1986) and Into the Woods (1991), both produced by Brandman Productions.
Throughout the 1990s, and continuing to the present day, producers have intermittently recorded live musicals, such as Victor/Victoria, Oklahoma!, Candide in Concert, and Love Never Dies, for commercial release on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. The Great Performances series on PBS has also aired many of these productions.
The Internet is Really, Really, Great... (for musicals!)
The availability of the internet in the early 2000s provided another means for distribution to a niche market.YouTube has made it possible to watch excerpts, and indeed whole recordings, of live musical theatre performances. Bootleg recordings, where audience members covertly film a live production and post the footage online, of live musicals are not entirely uncommon. BlueGobo, a kind of Youtube for musical theatre fans, provides an archive of musical theatre clips, mostly television performances, from the 1940s through to the present day.
The quality of clips on YouTube, and even Blue Gobo, can be shaky at best, and illegal at worst. On the bright side, independent companies have used the internet to provide high quality, legal, recordings of live musical productions to viewers. Broadway Worldwide created Direct from Broadway, a pay-per-view program of Broadway productions, including Jekyll and Hyde, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and Sondheim’s Putting it Together. In 2010, Digital Theatre, a UK-based online company providing pay-per-view live theatre content, recorded Timothy Sheader’s 2010 Regent’s Park open-air production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. According to Suzie Rendle, Digital Theatre’s Operations Manager, the recording has been very successful, selling “hundreds a month...since the launch,” with downloads in over 63 countries, and increasing.
Martin Franklin, Director of the Digital Media program in the UK’s South Hill Park Centre for the Arts, moved into online video streaming following the success of online podcasts. In June 2012, South Hill Park Arts received a grant from the British Arts Council specifically for live streaming. The first production to be streamed was From Up Here, an original musical developed through Perfect Pitch, a UK-based organization that supports the development of new musicals. The production was streamed live for free, with the hope that the stream would generate interest for future productions, and increase attendance at the theatre itself.
Ohmigod You Guys!
As technology has improved, and recordings have become more sophisticated, the past five to ten years has seen the return of live musical theatre to television, and the cinema. In 2007 Legally Blonde: The Musical, was the first live musical production to air on television whilst still playing on Broadway. The producers aimed to use the broadcast to boost ticket sales, both on Broadway and for the national tour, and it worked. Two years after the screening, Variety reported that the telecast, along with the reality television program, Legally Blonde Search for the New Elle Woods, had helped to ensure strong ticket sales, and a continuous running tour since the show’s Broadway close in 2008. Since Legally Blonde, other Broadway musicals such as Fela!, RENT, and Into the Heights have been recorded and screened on television, and at the cinema. The availability of DVD recordings have been limited due to contractual agreements with performers and creatives.
In 2011, producer Ellen M. Krass filmed a special production of Company: Live from Lincoln Centre. The performance was released into cinemas around the world in 2012. Following the musical itself, the screening included an interview with Krass about the making of the production for cinematic release. Krass stated that she had experienced difficulty in obtaining funding for the project as investors had not yet heard of filming a live musical and releasing it as a commercial product!
Next to Normal Viewing
There are industry concerns that the availability of recorded live performance, whether on television, in the cinema, or on DVD, will replace attendance at the actual live performances. After all, the cost of a movie ticket, or watching content at home on television, or online, is vastly cheaper than the average cost of a theatre ticket.
Outside of musical theatre and into the worlds of opera and “straight” theatre, programs such asThe Met: Live and NT: Live have shown that filming live theatre for cinematic release is immensely profitable, attracts audiences who have not previously attended the theatre, and boosted ticket sales at the theatre themselves. The popularity of Legally Blonde the Musical, and The Sound of Music Live show that there is absolutely a market for filmed live musical theatre.
There is plenty of content ready for filming around the world. From the splendor of the Australian production of Love Never Dies, the fun and frivolity of the National Theatre’s London production ofOklahoma!, and the delight of star performances in the Lincoln Centre’s Company there are shows ready for filming and distribution.
So yes, let’s celebrate the success of The Sound of Music Live!. But rather than creating more soundstage musicals for broadcast, let’s get people into the theatre and film live stage musicals. We’ve been doing it for over a hundred years, and if the content from the last five years is anything to go by, it’s only going to keep getting better.
This article is based on my MA thesis, “Filming Performance: The Filming of Live Stage Musicals for Mass Distribution”, completed at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2011.
NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! was an ambitious attempt to live-record a musical on a soundstage, and broadcast the feed, live, to the televisions of viewers across America. The production was watched by a massive 18.4 million viewers across the United States. Although the production received mixed reviews from critics and viewers alike, its success in introducing a wide audience to musical theatre has been celebrated.
Filming a live musical and broadcasting it is not a new phenomenon. Since the development of film, artists have attempted to capture live musicals for the screen, and The Sound of Music Live! is another installment in that history.
Gotta Sing!
Starting with the commercialization of film, producers turned to live theatre for content. With the development of the talkies in the 1920s, movie studios filmed short clips of vaudeville stars performing their routines to demonstrate the possibilities of the combination of sound and image. Broadway productions became fodder for Hollywood scripts, and, in the early movie musicals, whole scenes from currently running Broadway musicals were filmed and incorporated into the story. As movie musicals gained confidence and success, and blossomed into their own genre, live stage musicals were filmed less and less for the cinema.
Anything Goes on Television
A revival in the recording of live musical theatre occurred with the development, and availability, of television. The 1950s saw a “golden age” for live theatre on television, with theatre able to provide proven ready-made content, though most of these programs were filmed without a live audience.
Musicals were featured in short excerpts of currently playing productions, and programs such asBell Telephone Hour (NBC), The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS), and Tonight on Broadway (CBS) all featured live excerpts from Broadway. Between 1950 and 1955, the Colgate Comedy Hourfeatured popular shortened versions of contemporary musicals such as Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, and Wonderful Town.
In 1955 NBC screened a full-length production of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, which thanks to its popular star, flying actors, and a variety of other effects, proved popular enough to continue to be aired into the 1960s. In 1957, CBS aired a live broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Julie Andrews. The production was viewed by over 100 million people.
As with cinema, television production quickly grew more sophisticated, and developed its own content more suited to its medium. Practitioners at the time believed that theatre had to be filmed in one long continuous shot, with the stage frame always visible, in order to create the illusion of the theatre. They were also limited by heavy and bulky cameras. This way of filming, along with poor quality recordings, due to light and sound designed for the theatre and not for television, created content that became less popular, compared to material specifically created for television.
A Niche Market
In 1972 Harold Prince recorded the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
Prince began to break from traditional filming methods, but without a means of distributing the recorded production, filming live theatre did not pick up again until almost a decade later.
The availability of VHS and new filming technologies in the early 1980s gave the filming of live musicals a new chance. The use of the new technologies allowed for the use of cinematic devices such as close-ups, cuts between scenes, and multiple angles. This paved the way for filming live theatre as dynamic and exciting as watching a film or well-produced television show. Through VHS, producers were able to tap into a niche market, and more and more productions were filmed, and distributed for public consumption. Excellent examples from this period include Sondheim’sSunday in the Park with George (1986) and Into the Woods (1991), both produced by Brandman Productions.
Throughout the 1990s, and continuing to the present day, producers have intermittently recorded live musicals, such as Victor/Victoria, Oklahoma!, Candide in Concert, and Love Never Dies, for commercial release on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. The Great Performances series on PBS has also aired many of these productions.
The Internet is Really, Really, Great... (for musicals!)
The availability of the internet in the early 2000s provided another means for distribution to a niche market.YouTube has made it possible to watch excerpts, and indeed whole recordings, of live musical theatre performances. Bootleg recordings, where audience members covertly film a live production and post the footage online, of live musicals are not entirely uncommon. BlueGobo, a kind of Youtube for musical theatre fans, provides an archive of musical theatre clips, mostly television performances, from the 1940s through to the present day.
The quality of clips on YouTube, and even Blue Gobo, can be shaky at best, and illegal at worst. On the bright side, independent companies have used the internet to provide high quality, legal, recordings of live musical productions to viewers. Broadway Worldwide created Direct from Broadway, a pay-per-view program of Broadway productions, including Jekyll and Hyde, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and Sondheim’s Putting it Together. In 2010, Digital Theatre, a UK-based online company providing pay-per-view live theatre content, recorded Timothy Sheader’s 2010 Regent’s Park open-air production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. According to Suzie Rendle, Digital Theatre’s Operations Manager, the recording has been very successful, selling “hundreds a month...since the launch,” with downloads in over 63 countries, and increasing.
Martin Franklin, Director of the Digital Media program in the UK’s South Hill Park Centre for the Arts, moved into online video streaming following the success of online podcasts. In June 2012, South Hill Park Arts received a grant from the British Arts Council specifically for live streaming. The first production to be streamed was From Up Here, an original musical developed through Perfect Pitch, a UK-based organization that supports the development of new musicals. The production was streamed live for free, with the hope that the stream would generate interest for future productions, and increase attendance at the theatre itself.
Ohmigod You Guys!
As technology has improved, and recordings have become more sophisticated, the past five to ten years has seen the return of live musical theatre to television, and the cinema. In 2007 Legally Blonde: The Musical, was the first live musical production to air on television whilst still playing on Broadway. The producers aimed to use the broadcast to boost ticket sales, both on Broadway and for the national tour, and it worked. Two years after the screening, Variety reported that the telecast, along with the reality television program, Legally Blonde Search for the New Elle Woods, had helped to ensure strong ticket sales, and a continuous running tour since the show’s Broadway close in 2008. Since Legally Blonde, other Broadway musicals such as Fela!, RENT, and Into the Heights have been recorded and screened on television, and at the cinema. The availability of DVD recordings have been limited due to contractual agreements with performers and creatives.
In 2011, producer Ellen M. Krass filmed a special production of Company: Live from Lincoln Centre. The performance was released into cinemas around the world in 2012. Following the musical itself, the screening included an interview with Krass about the making of the production for cinematic release. Krass stated that she had experienced difficulty in obtaining funding for the project as investors had not yet heard of filming a live musical and releasing it as a commercial product!
Next to Normal Viewing
There are industry concerns that the availability of recorded live performance, whether on television, in the cinema, or on DVD, will replace attendance at the actual live performances. After all, the cost of a movie ticket, or watching content at home on television, or online, is vastly cheaper than the average cost of a theatre ticket.
Outside of musical theatre and into the worlds of opera and “straight” theatre, programs such asThe Met: Live and NT: Live have shown that filming live theatre for cinematic release is immensely profitable, attracts audiences who have not previously attended the theatre, and boosted ticket sales at the theatre themselves. The popularity of Legally Blonde the Musical, and The Sound of Music Live show that there is absolutely a market for filmed live musical theatre.
There is plenty of content ready for filming around the world. From the splendor of the Australian production of Love Never Dies, the fun and frivolity of the National Theatre’s London production ofOklahoma!, and the delight of star performances in the Lincoln Centre’s Company there are shows ready for filming and distribution.
So yes, let’s celebrate the success of The Sound of Music Live!. But rather than creating more soundstage musicals for broadcast, let’s get people into the theatre and film live stage musicals. We’ve been doing it for over a hundred years, and if the content from the last five years is anything to go by, it’s only going to keep getting better.
This article is based on my MA thesis, “Filming Performance: The Filming of Live Stage Musicals for Mass Distribution”, completed at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2011.