Research Catalog
[Interview with Stephen Mo Hanan : raw footage]
- Title
- [Interview with Stephen Mo Hanan : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
- Publication
- New York, 2003.
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2 Items
| Status | Vol/Date | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person. | Videocassette 2 | VHS | Restricted use | NCOX 2147 Videocassette 2 | Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT |
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person. | Videocassette 1 | VHS | Restricted use | NCOX 2147 Videocassette 1 | Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- 2 videocassettes (VHS) (67 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.
- Summary
- Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Actor, singer and author Stephen Mo Hanan, who originated the role of Bustopher Jones in the 1982 production Cats and wrote and starred in the off-Broadway production Jolson & Company, discusses the American musical. Hanan begins with Al Jolson, the most popular star of the musical theater in the early 20th century and the first to develop a "cult of the personality." Jolson appropriated material from African American culture, including tap dance, jazz and ragtime music as his career flourished. He performed in blackface makeup but in Hanan's opinion his performances were not demeaning or degrading. Rather, Hanan believes, they contained soul and depth which revealed his own feelings of being an outsider. Jolson's performances, described as electrifying, included his key elements of exuberant gestures, operatic-style singing, whistling, and direct address to the audience. Jolson's performances made a strong impact on audiences. Hanan goes on to discuss Jolson's career as a recording artist who made the George Gershwin song Swanee a blockbuster hit, and as a film actor who starred in the first successful talking picture The jazz singer in 1927. The movie revolutionized the film industry as it created a market for Broadway musicals nationwide. The last few minutes of the tape feature silent shots of a Broadway street and its theater marquees.
- Interview resumes on tape two with discussion on how the musical has changed since the 1980s when a new generation of British theater artists, particularly Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice, started writing and producing shows such as Evita, Cats and Phantom of the opera on Broadway. These shows became hugely popular during the 1980s and '90s. They combine technology driven spectacle with music that is alternately operatic and rock-influenced, and de-emphasize stars and spoken dialogue. Producer Cameron Mackintosh achieved success marketing his productions, beginning with Cats, as global franchises with a trademark style and logo recognized by audiences worldwide. The large-scale success of these productions, Hanan believes, affects the kinds of shows that can be produced on Broadway. Hanan discusses his experience performing in the original cast of Cats, a show that ran for 18 years. Hanan reminisces about rehearsals with director Trevor Nunn in which he came to figure out how to play a cat. Interview concludes with Hanan's views on a variety of topics related to Broadway, including his desire to see more shows that follow the lyrical tradition of songwriters like Frank Loesser and Cole Porter.
- Alternative Title
- Broadway, the American musical
- Broadway: the American musical
- Subjects
- Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948-
- Actors > Interviews
- Theater > New York (State) > New York
- Documentaries and factual works
- Musical theater > Production and direction
- Theater audiences
- Lloyd Webber, Andrew, 1948- > Cats
- Popular music > Writing and publishing
- Theater > Economic aspects
- Unedited footage
- Rice, Tim, 1944-
- Musicals
- Jolson, Al, 1886-1950
- Blackface entertainers
- Theatrical producers and directors
- Hanan, Stephen Mo > Interviews
- Motion pictures and theater
- Mackintosh, Cameron
- Musical theater > New York (State) > New York
- Broadway (New York, N.Y.)
- 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, audio continues without sound.
- Credits (note)
- Cameraman: Mead Hunt.
- Performer (note)
- Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Stephen Mo Hanan.
- Event (note)
- Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on March 15, 2003.
- 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.
- Linking Entry (note)
- Forms part of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, Billy Rose Theatre Division.
- Call Number
- NCOX 2147
- OCLC
- 145587539
- Title
- [Interview with Stephen Mo Hanan : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
- Imprint
- New York, 2003.
- Credits
- Cameraman: Mead Hunt.
- Performer
- Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Stephen Mo Hanan.
- Event
- Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on March 15, 2003.
- 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.
- Linking Entry
- Forms part of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, Billy Rose Theatre Division.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
- Hanan, Stephen Mo, interviewee.Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.Hunt, Mead, cameraman.Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.Thirteen/WNET, donor.
- Research Call Number
- NCOX 2147