While it got mixed reviews and lots of snark for Carrie Underwood’s underdeveloped acting abilities, The Sound of Music was a huge hit: 18.5 million viewers and the highest rated NBC primetime show in years. This bodes much better for similar broadcasts than if it had been a critical sensation but only pulled in 4 million viewers, therefore I’m hoping it will be repeated with other titles. (I also hope future shows will have a live audience, which was the greatest thing this one lacked, even moreso than an experienced actress as Maria.)
I would be most in favor of musicals that either haven’t had a movie or had a movie that sucked. My choices:
Man of La Mancha- preferably with Brian Stokes Mitchell resuming the lead.
Ragtime- preferably with Marin Mazzie resuming the role of Mother, BSM resuming the role of Coalhouse and Audra McDonald resuming the role of Sarah. (I wonder how Audra McDonald would work as Aldonza?)
My Fair Lady- I won’t cast it, but I think the right actor could become the new face of Henry Higgins (but please not Kelsey Grammer).
My list is huge, going all the way back to ‘Showboat’ and ‘Annie, Get Your Gun’ through all the Berlin, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Rogers and Hart, Rogers and Hammerstein musicals, coming on through Lerner and Loewe and right on up through Sondheim, Les Mis, Phantom and Rent.
My one caveat - please, dear God, cast them with experienced singer/actors who have done Broadway musicals and who can work with the material as it is. They can even be recent discoveries who are famous for other things - I never got to see Daniel Radcliffe in ‘How to Succeed in Business…’, but I heard that he did very well. I did get to see the Les Mis film, and thought most of the casting was based on fame rather than ability. (Though the casting of the Bishop was inspired!)
18.5 million viewers is an impressive figure, but - how many of those people were disappointed by the casting of certain roles, and are now less likely to tune into a production of, say, ‘Into the Woods’ featuring Miley Cyrus as the Baker’s Wife?
They’re not going to do any edgy musicals – no Avenue Q, Book of Mormon, Hedwig – so though that might be what you’d like to see, it ain’t gonna happen. Of the classical musicals, which one would most benefit from a modern revival?
I’m thinking '50s – Kiss Me Kate or Guys and Dolls, though the latter would be particularly hard to cast, given the whole Marlon Brando/Frank Sinatra issue.
I’m just assuming you folks get Digital Theatre in the USA, as well. So, this is streaming to computers or smart TVs rather than national broadcast, but it’s going to be a total game changer in live theatre over the next few years.
I’m hoping against hope we can get something similar going in Canada - can you imagine being able to stream Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Canadian Opera Company, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (among many world class performing institutions…) no matter your geographical location? Well, okay, it’s not at all unlike what CBC was before it got gutted, but never mind that - it would be such a great boon to the performing arts companies and their audiences.
And a similar pan-Broadway streaming system would not go amiss, either…
True, but I also think that the very classic musicals would be a mistake. People know them and the novelty of seeing them on TV will wear off quickly. But new yet friendly musicals would probably do well and could push the simulcast thing into a real deal scenario. Something like Urinetown, which has a tiny little bit of an edge to it, or A Light in the Piazza. Anything that is sort of hot, but not likely to play at your local community center, would be a good bet. The real problem is that almost all modern serious theater is too risque for TV. Spring Awakening would be an ideal show to simulcast, but you can’t show any of that on Television.
Plan Nine from Outer Space
Return to Forbidden Planet
I haven’t seen either of these. I suspect there are at least two versions of the first out there.
I agree. In the first place, I hated the Peter O’Toole movie version – O’Toole and Loren, great actors though they are, can’t sing. James Coco sang too well. And they seemed to have changed things for no apparent reason.
IOn the second place, the musical actually started out as a non-musical play for television by Dale Wasserman, before Darion and Leigh wrote the songs, and it showed up Off-Broadway (before its Broadway run). It’d be getting back to its roots.
