Beginning with its upcoming season, the Stratford Festival will be filming some of its Shakespeare productions for screening in movie theatres around the world, once again putting itself ahead of the curve in Canadian theatre.
While Stratford will be the first North American theatre company to regularly film their productions for cinema release, the practice is already being done in the United Kingdom. The Menier Chocolate Factory, National Theatre, and Stratford’s British counterpart, the Royal Shakespeare Company are some of the theatre companies that have partnered with Digital Theatre, a production house specializing in the filming of theatrical works and distributing them in cinemas and online, to bring their shows to a much wider audience.
The filming theatrical productions in their original on-stage form goes back at least to the 1980’s, most notably with the original Broadway mounting of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods, and is becoming more common today with cinema and dvd/blu ray releases of Putting It Together (a Stephen Sondheim revue starring Carol Burnett), Jekyll & Hyde (starring David Hasslehoff… which gives you an idea of how good it is) and the Australian production of Love Never Dies not to mention the immensely successful releases of 25th Anniversary concerts of both Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera.
Another project in the works at PBS is Onstage In America, a new program that would not only document the creative journey of many productions being presented on stages across the U.S. and interview the actors and creatives but also preserve up to four productions, in full, each season and broadcast them in prime time. We’re also starting to seeing staged musicals on television beyond PBS. A few years ago, MTV filmed and aired the Broadway production of Legally Blonde, tying it in with a reality show talent search to find original lead Laura Bell Bundy’s replacement (similar to CBC’s Over the Rainbow). NBC just created a new production of the original stage version of The Sound of Music (filmed in a studio, not in a theatre in front of an audience) which was broadcast live and was a ratings bonanza for the network, opening the door to bring other musical theatre classics to television screens in the years ahead.
Great news all around, not just for the television networks. It is a breakthrough for the theatre industry as well.
One of theatre’s major limitations is its accessibility to its audience. Not everyone can travel to Broadway, the West End or their nearest city to see a show. Not everyone can afford a ticket. Not everyone is interested in going to the theatre at all. Filming plays and musicals for broadcast in movie theatres and on televisions not only helps the theatre industry overcome these limitations, but offers a new revenue source for production companies, non profit theatres and actors, directors and other artists involved in the productions. Most importantly, it gives the art form more exposure and hopefully will encourage more people into our theatres. It would be nice to see some Toronto theatre companies get on board.
The Red Curtain 