Research Catalog

[Interview with Arthur Laurents : raw footage]

Title: [Interview with Arthur Laurents : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
Publication: New York, 1999.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	Moving image	Restricted use	NCOX 2115	Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT

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Additional Authors

Description

1 videocassette (VHS) (88 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.

Summary

Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Playwright, screenwriter, librettist and director Arthur Laurents discusses his contributions to the American musical, via West Side story, Gypsy and La cage aux folles. Discussion begins with the genesis of West Side story, created by choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and Laurents, who wrote the book; how the creators worked with each other and assigned credits; Bernstein and Robbins' characteristics and working relationship; Bernstein's music, and his contribution to the musical theater; Robbins' work with performers; Laurents' creation of the book; the show's groundbreaking aspects; finding a producer and a theater; the show's theme of immigrants; his favorite scene, and the significance of the number "Cool," the film version of West Side story in comparison with the stage version; how they arrived at the title. Laurents also speaks about the creation of his favorite work, Gypsy, including the hiring of Stephen Sondheim to write the lyrics and Jule Styne to write the score, Ethel Merman's role as Rose, director Jerome Robbins, and Laurents' writing of the book, including his contacts with Gypsy Rose Lee on whom the show is based; the show's theme of the need for recognition; Styne as a composer and as a person; others, including Tyne Daly, Angela Lansbury, and Bette Midler, who have played Rose in later versions of Gypsy. Following two minutes of audio-only discussion (at ca. 47 min.), the conversation turns back to West Side story, and how its music became a hit following the release of the motion picture version of the show. Other topics include Laurents' casting of a 19-year-old Barbra Streisand in the 1962 musical, I can get it for you wholesale; his experience working on the 1983 musical La cage aux folles, including its groundbreaking presentation of homosexuality, and the audience reaction to it; what he views as the "essence" of the theater; the origins of the musical and what it expresses about America; the predominance of tourists in Broadway theater audiences and their impact on the kinds of shows currently being produced; changes to the American musical since Fiddler on the roof; the opening night of his play Home of brave; the purpose of the book in a musical; the director-driven "concept" musical in comparison with the book-driven musical; the impact of the House Un-American Activities hearings on Broadway, and the effect of blacklisting on working relationships in the theater; the work of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim; the current state of the theater, including production of revivals and works by the Disney company; the changes on Broadway, including the replacement of producers with investors; the impact of Bernstein's music on the theater audience. Interview concludes with audio-only commentary.

Alternative Title

Broadway, the American musical
Broadway, the American musical : Arthur Laurents interview

Subjects

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, the audio continues without image.

Credits (note)

Cameraman: Buddy Squires.

Performer (note)

Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Arthur Laurents.

Event (note)

Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on March 29, 1999.

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 2115

OCLC

122941990

Title

[Interview with Arthur Laurents : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]

Imprint

New York, 1999.

Credits

Cameraman: Buddy Squires.

Performer

Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Arthur Laurents.

Event

Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on March 29, 1999.

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

Laurents, Arthur, interviewee.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.

Squires, Buddy, cameraman.

Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.

Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research Call Number

NCOX 2115

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