Theatre
Under pressure to reaffirm their marriage vows, two middle aged people explore their dreams and the present direction of their lives. "Infinitely perceptive and deeply touching," (Newsday), this playfeatures a stellar cast including Emmy-winners Richard Crenna and Susan Clark, Emmy-nominees Irene Tedrow and Harold Gould, and Norma Crane.
Veteran husband-and-wife acting team, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, star as a 38-year-old truck driver and a weary cigarette girl from a nightclub who elope and discover they know very little about each other in Don Appell's bittersweet 1954 Broadway comedy. The mama's boy's domineering mother gives them no peace or privacy on their honeymoon and soon the marriage turns into the eternal triangle - with his mother as the "other woman."
Ingrid Bergman plays a middle-aged woman going through a psychological crisis as a love affair ends. French playwright Jean Cocteau's one-character drama unfolds in the form of an extended monologue - a one-sided telephone conversation in which the woman tries to win back her lover despite her growing suspicion that he is calling from his young fiancee's home.
Originally produced in 1971 by the estimable Negro Ensemble Company, and hailed by Time Magazine as one of the best plays of the year, Dean's powerful drama is about an uprooted black family (mother, daughter, uncle) living in Chicago during the time that civil rights leaders were starting to organize protest marches in the South. The family members essentially accept the old values and cherish what they love, and are uncomfortable by marches and talks of fighting. A blind street singer (Richard Ward, in a bravura performance) intrudes briefly into their lives, with shattering effect. Who shall overcome?
This madcap, yet heartfelt comedy about success and failure is built on wonderfully ridiculous situations and uproarious dialogue.
Arkady Leokum's humorous short play, originally presented on Hollywood Television Theatre in 1971, is based on the author's personal experiences as a waiter at a resort in the Catskill Mountains. Veteran character actor Sam Jaffe portrays a humble and longsuffering New York waiter who finally turns the tables on a regular, but insufferable, customer (Ned Glass) who delights in pestering him about the service. Both men are somewhat deceptive and the relationship between the two turns when it is revealed that the waiter is a skilled investor and a part-owner of the restaurant and building.
A provacative, emotion-packed drama about race relations in an all-white suburban community, this play depicts the confrontaion between an upper-class white couple and a black couple from Harlem who plan to buy their expensive suburban home. In negotiating the sale, all four parties learn a little more about each other ... and a lot about their own latent prejudices.
This post-civil war court martial drama focuses on the trial of a Confederate officer who ran the notorious prisoner of war camp in Andersonville, Georgia, where over 14,000 Union prisoners died from disease, starvation and neglect. The defendant, Captain Henry Wirz, justified his actions with a plea that he was only following orders. He believed he was relieved of any personal responsibility because he was performing his duty. The Army prosecutor contends, however, that moral men must rebel against barbaric or inhumane orders - even if they are within the framework imposed by military discipline. This riveting real-life story has elements of Inherit the Wind, The Caine Mutiny, A Few Good Men, and especially the Nuremberg and Eichmann war crime trials. George C. Scott, who had played a starring role in the original 1959 Broadway production, directs the Hollywood Television Theatre adaptation, and prompts uniformly strong acting from a brilliant cast that includes William Shatner, Martin Sheen, Richard Basehart, Jack Cassidy, Buddy Ebsen and Alan Hale.
In a 17th century Massachusetts town, a scarecrow is magically transformed into a man and charged with the mission of destroying true love. Spectacular performances by two-time Oscar-nominee Gene Wilder and Tony Award-winner Blythe Danner. Also starring Norman Lloyd and Will Geer.
Surprisingly, this powerful drama may also be seen as a brilliant dark comedy. It tells the story of Tomby, a retarded teenage boy who manipulates his family who caters to his every desire. Only his twin brother Greg (Richard Dreyfuss) treats him as a human being capable of development. Their mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald) knows Tomby's deepest secret. Dreyfuss is at his best, Fitzgerald is chilling. Very original in its presentation, Untold Damage offers a great surprising ending. Program originally aired as Me.
Attention must be paid to this abbreviated but superb 1966 television adaptation by Arthur Miller of his Pultizer Prize-winning modern tragedy, starring the incomparable Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock recreating their original Broadway roles as the Lomans. In a career-defining performance, Cobb portrays the suffering Willy Loman - the middle-aged man at the end of his emotional rope - with Dunnock equally impressive as his patient wife, Linda. George Segal and James Farentino play their disillusioned sons, Biff and Happy.
With his trademark unrelenting honesty and conviction, Arthur Miller examines a major Holocaust issue: the failure to assume responsibility and the consequent moral and social guilt of those who refuse to fight evil. Set in a detention room in Vichy, France during the 1942 German occupation, a number of people have been rounded up and are awaiting interrogation before being sent to concentration camps. It is soon obvious that they are Jews with false papers that will not stand up to close scrutiny. While individual stories flow past the juror's eye, events soon focus on Leduc (Harris Yulin), a psychiatrist, and an Austrian prince (Richard Jordan), who recognizes his guilt of silent complicity and his failure to act responsibly while the Germans rose to power. Miller raises theoretical and ideological arguments and brings up the question of where responsibility lies. Notions of the nature of personal sacrifice, issues of personal blame, and a debate on how much each person is obligated to help in a larger crisis are addressed in this truly important and provocative television event.
Is a sensitive and mysterious poet really an IRA gunman in hiding? Set in a Dublin tenement in the 1920's, The Shadow of a Gunman was the first part of O'Casey's celebrated Dublin Trilogy. Equal parts comedy and tragedy, this classic play is brilliantly performed by a stellar cast.
Walter Matthau heads the cast of this television recreation of Clifford Odets' 1935 hit Broadway play, the first full-length work performed on the commercial stage by the legendary Group Theatre. This portrait of a Jewish family in a Bronx tenement perfectly captures the spirit of the Depression years, and is suffused with details of character and place that combine to be affecting even now. The Bergers, burdened by financial difficulties, have taken in a border - Moe Axelrod (Matthau) - who lost a leg in World War I. Cynical and outspoken, Moe adds a spark to the somewhat accepting lives of the Bergers. The family fights to survive on sixteen dollars a week while the intellectual, Marxist-leaning grandfather (brilliantly played by famed Yiddish theatre star, Leo Fuchs) tries futilely to spur his family to action with the injunction, "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust." (Isaiah 26:19)
Jason Robards, Jr. became an overnight star with his indelible performance as the gladhanding, doom-ridden Hickey in the legendary 1956 Circle-in-the-Square revival of Eugene O'Neill's towering masterpiece (first staged in 1939). In his harrowing drama, O'Neill shines a harsh but compassionate spotlight on the failed lives, empty hopes, and perpetual pipe dreams of an assortment of down-and-out denizens of a seedy saloon, set in New York in 1912. Their sad, but complacent existences are rattled when Hickey arrives for his annual bender a changed man - forswearing alcohol and preaching a deliverance from "the lie of the pipe dream."
Theatrical sparks flew when veteran O'Neill interpreters Jason Robards, Jr. and Colleen Dewhurst joined forces in the celebrated 1973 revival of Eugene O’Neill’s tender semiautobiographical drama. Under the inspired direction of Jose Quintero, they helped transform the neglected 1947 work into a now-recognized modern masterpiece. In a towering performance, the late, great Jason Robards portrays a cynical, self-hating alcoholic actor based on O’Neill’s elder brother, Jamie. The majestic Colleen Dewhurst plays the earthy, gruff daughter of his scheming Irish tenant farmer (Ed Flanders) with whom the failed actor spends a soul-baring night of guilt-ridden confessions, tenderness, and absolution. Both Dewhurst and Flanders won Tony Awards for their performances.
Luigi Pirandello's modern classic, starring Andy Griffith in a brilliant departure from his television persona as a country sheriff, along with Academy Award-winner John Houseman (The Paper Chase), is directed by Stacy Keach, who has transposed the play's traditional theatrical setting to a television studio. As a group of actors prepare for a rehearsal of a TV adaptation of another Pirandello play - The Rules of the Game - the television monitors in the control booth give way to an electrical interference which inexplicably replaces the images of the actors with the images of six mysterious strangers. These are the "six characters" of the title who appear in the flesh in the studio to confront the director and actors with the proposition that their story is more interesting
than the play at hand. They gradually take over the stage to act out their story, each character representing a different point of view. A groundbreaking work which has exerted considerable influence on 20th Century drama.
than the play at hand. They gradually take over the stage to act out their story, each character representing a different point of view. A groundbreaking work which has exerted considerable influence on 20th Century drama.
Five-time Tony Award-winner, Julie Harris, recreates her 1972 award-winning Broadway portrayal in this powerful and touching look at the final seventeen years in the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, widow to the martyred President. Based on real events, this production casts a sad and sympathetic light onto this frighteningly complicated woman. Mary Lincoln scavenges desperately for money, loses a cherished son to consumption, is branded a lunatic and committed to a mental institution; culminating with her spending her final days fleeing from the preying eyes of the public and a scandal-hungry press.
This is a play about the fantasies, inhabitions and dreams of two lonely matrons who set up competing lemonade stands along a jammed highway. Lemonade incorporates comedy and tragedy, a touch of the bizarre, and ultimately, a sincere compassion in both women.
Legendary filmmaker Jean Renoir's suspenseful and romantic tale of a beautiful French actress struggling to avoid the deadly politics and forbidden passions of Nazi-occupied France. The drama takes place backstage in a theatre where a play is in progress and the German Gestapo is looking for a French underground leader who they know is hiding there. Mel Ferrer portrays the head of the German occupying forces who renews an unexpected liaison with Leslie Caron, a glamorous star of boulevard farces. Can she - as she insists in the beginning - turn her back on politics, turn her back on the war and devote herself solely to her art? Before the play is over, Carola must make a major decision, which is a matter of life and death - her own.
In My Heart's in the Highlands, an aspiring poet (Matthau) and his young son - financially impoverished, but rich in dreams and generous of spirit - struggle to survive while never ceasing to care for the well being of their fellow man.
In Once Around the Block, a screenwriter with a reputation as a lady's man offers advice to a young writer on how he too can be highly appealing the the opposite sex, yielding some rather suprising results. Starring Oscar-winner Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman and Orson Bean.
Veteran husband-and-wife acting couple, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, long associated with comic playwright Murray Schisgal, reprise the roles they created in the original 1963 hit off-Broadway production. Consigned to spend the rest of their lives in a duplicating shop copying names out of a telephone directory, Wallach plays a married man, a typist new to the office, and Jackson is the spinster supervisor who breaks him in. Through their random conversations, the two strangers learn a lot about each other and a lot more about themselves.
Two of history's most famous lovers are caught between their consummate love for one another and the struggles for power among the rulers of the Roman world. At the time of this play, Mark Antony, Octavius Caesar and M. Aemilius Lepidus are the members of the triumvirate that rule the Roman world. Mark Antony is consumed with his love for Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt and spends much time with her to the exclusion of his duties as a Roman ruler. When rebellions rise against the triumvirate, Anthony returns to Rome to join the defense. In time, Antony returns to Cleopatra in Egypt. In a quest for sole power, Caesar follows and wages a fierce battle against him. Upon hearing a false report of Cleopatra's death, Antony falls on his sword. Cleopatra chooses to die from the bite of an asp rather than befall the fate of returning to Rome as Caesars prize.
Featuring Timothy Dalton, Lynn Redgrave, Nichelle Nichols, John Carradine.
Featuring Timothy Dalton, Lynn Redgrave, Nichelle Nichols, John Carradine.
The renowned story of mistaken love, familial deceit and murder. King Lear , the aging King of Britain, has chosen to lay aside the care of the kingship and divide his kingdom between his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Goneril and Regan speak before the court with expressions of love while Cordelia says she can find nothing to say. For this lack of display, she is disinherited. It later becomes evident that her love is shown in her actions, not mere words. After relinquishing his throne, Lear becomes the object of ridicule, slights and harsh treatment by the two daughters who had professed their great love. Treacher, murder and deceit ensue and Lear and Cordelia are captured and sentenced to death. Cordelia is hanged and Lear, bearing her onstage dead in his arms, collapses and dies of grief.
Featuring Mike Kellen, David Groh, Kitty Winn, Darryl Hickman and Charles Hickman.
Featuring Mike Kellen, David Groh, Kitty Winn, Darryl Hickman and Charles Hickman.
The tragedy of a self-centered weak King whose evil ways cause his own destruction. Richard II , a history based partially on The Chronicles by English historian Raphael Holinshed, is the saga of King Richard and his self-defeat. The King not only has enemies to fend off in Ireland but makes an enemy of Bolingbroke, his own cousin, by seizing his property. Bolingbroke, along with an army of discontented English noblemen, rebel and triumph over Richard. Richard surrenders his crown and is immediately imprisoned. Bolingbroke is crowned Henry IV and through a misunderstanding, Richard is murdered in prison.
Featuring David Birney, Paul Shenar, John Devlin and William H. Bassett.
Featuring David Birney, Paul Shenar, John Devlin and William H. Bassett.
The Tragedy of a King is so blinded by ambition and paranoia that he senselessly murders those in this path eventually leading to his own demise. Macbeth and Banquo, victorious generals in the army of Duncan, King of Scotland, encounter three prophesying witches on their journey home from battle. Macbeth's ambitions are kindled by the witches prediction that he will someday be King. In an effort to hasten the prophecy, he and Lady Macbeth plot the murders of those in the way. Under the strain of the heinous crimes, Lady Macbeth dies and Macbeth edges toward insanity. Macduff organizes a force to overthrow Macbeth. In the tragic climax, the two duel, Macbeth is killed and King Duncans eldest son, Malcolm, becomes King.
Featuring Jeremy Brett, Piper Laurie, Simon MacCorkindale and Barry Primus.
Featuring Jeremy Brett, Piper Laurie, Simon MacCorkindale and Barry Primus.
Shakespeare's timeless comedy of lovers seductions, fanciful deceits and marital fidelity. Sir John Falstaff , a roguish seducer, plots to entice potentially unfaithful wives and then live off them. Falstaff writes identical love letters to both Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. Falstaff's intentions are discovered. The wives plot to teach him a lesson while Mistress Fords husband uses the opportunity to test his wife's fidelity. Featuring Leon Charles, Gloria Grahame and Valerie Seelie-Snyder.
Joseph Papp's 1972 CBS-TV television production of The New York Shakespeare Festival's Broadway staging of Shakespeare's rollicking comedy is brassy, bouncy and all-together entertaining. Featuring Sam Waterston and the Tony nominated performances of Kathleen Widdoes and Barnard Hughes, Papp's turn-of-the-century version has Teddy Roosevelt roughriders and bicycle-riding women suffragettes, but remains faithful to the classic tale: Beatrice and Benedick are still sparring partners fighting their merry war of words; the evil Don Jon continues conspiring to break up the wedding of Hero and Claudio; and it's once again up to Dogbery to save the day. Critically acclaimed and enormously popular with audiences, Much Ado About Nothing, originated at the open-air Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, was transferred to Broadway and was perceived as the first successful Shakespeare to play without a major star in Broadway history.
Shakespeare's tragic story of young love thwarted by a family feud. Two rival Veronese families, the Montagues and the Capulets, are warned that their constant brawls must end and that death threatens anyone who disturbs the peace. Romeo the Montague heir attends a masquerade dance at the home of the Capulets, Romeo and Juliet, the Capulets daughter meet and fall immediately in love. They arrange to be married in secret by Friar Laurence the next day. Romeo becomes embroiled in a fierce duel with Tybalt, a Capulet and now a cousin by marriage. He kills Tybalt and is banished from Verona. Juliets father insists she marry. To help her avoid the impending marriage, Friar Laurence gives Juliet a potion that makes her appear dead. Romeo, believing that Juliet is dead, drinks a poison and dies by her side. When she revives and sees Romeo dead, she stabs herself. Only after the double tragedy are the families reconciled.
Featuring Alex Hyde-White, Blanche Baker and Esther Rolle.
Featuring Alex Hyde-White, Blanche Baker and Esther Rolle.
One of Shakespeare's most popular plays, The Taming of the Shrew examines the comedy of courtship of a beautiful but sharp-tempered women and her persistent suitor. The story centers on two sisters and their suitors. Katherina, the eldest daughter is very beautiful but sharp-tongued that no man showed interest. Bianca is sought by many men but cannot marry until the elder Katherina is wed. A swaggering young adventurer, Petruchio appears seeking a wife and is smitten with Katherina. The stormy courtship of Katherina and Petruchio unfolds as a battle of wits, wills and words. She obeys her fathers wish and marries Petruchio and he begins the task of taming his shrew.
Featuring Franklyn Seales, Karen Austin and Larry Drake.
Featuring Franklyn Seales, Karen Austin and Larry Drake.
Shakespeare's classic tale of the fantasy world of spirits, sorcery, monsters, maidens and shipwrecked scheming noblemen is brought to life. Feuding noblemen, embroiled in a world of spirits and sorcery, are forced to come to terms with their past when their children meet by chance and fall in love. A tempest of wind and rain, raised by the magician Prospero, shipwrecks Alonso, King of Naples and his shipboard companions including Duke Antonio of Milan. They are marooned on an enchanted and spirit filled island where each party believes that they are the only survivors. Prospero brings King Alonso, Duke Antonio and court attendants safely ashore. Unbeknown to the rest of the castaways, Ferdinand, the Kings son, arrives separately and meets Miranda, Prosperos daughter. The two fall in love. The missing Ferdinand is assumed drowned. Alonso repents of his past deeds, believing Ferdinand's death was punishment for his own wrong-doing. Prospero, convinced that his false brother and the King have reformed, reveals himself as the wronged, but genuine Duke of Milan. The rejoicing group celebrates with the wedding of Ferdinand and Miranda.
Featuring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., William H Bassett and Ted Sorel.
Featuring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., William H Bassett and Ted Sorel.
Shakespeare's keen understanding of jealousy in love results in perhaps his greatest triumph as a stage play, and his prime example of the tragic hero Othello .
Othello , a noble Moor has in his command lago, a lieutenant who is insanely jealous of Othellos success and higher rank. Othello elopes with his lover, Desdemona. At every turn Lago plots to exploit Othello, undermine his trust in Desdemona and deceive Othello into an all-consuming jealousy. Lagos successful conniving results in Othello smothering Desdemona in her bed-chamber. The story of Lagos diabolical treachery is revealed to Othello only after the murder. Othello wounds Lago in a vengeful fight, then kills himself. Featuring William Marshal, Ron Moody and Jenny Agutter.
Othello , a noble Moor has in his command lago, a lieutenant who is insanely jealous of Othellos success and higher rank. Othello elopes with his lover, Desdemona. At every turn Lago plots to exploit Othello, undermine his trust in Desdemona and deceive Othello into an all-consuming jealousy. Lagos successful conniving results in Othello smothering Desdemona in her bed-chamber. The story of Lagos diabolical treachery is revealed to Othello only after the murder. Othello wounds Lago in a vengeful fight, then kills himself. Featuring William Marshal, Ron Moody and Jenny Agutter.
Since its 1995 premier, Songs of the Wanderers , has gripped the imaginations of audience world-wide. It is the signature of the Lin Hwai-min's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Asia's leading contemporary dance company, and is possessed of a powerful meditative beauty.
Performed to Georgian folk songs, the choreography blends East and West dance styles and demands absolute focus and control from the dancers who, at times, appear to be have been transformed from human beings into body sculptures. The evocation of a quest for spiritual enlightenment through the experience and suffering is finely-wrought in imagery both abstract and literal. The passing of time sees to transcend normal boundaries. A monk-like figure stands motionless throughout, a steady stream of rice grains falling on his shaven head: an immovable living hour-glass. It is just one of the many ways in which Lin Hwai-min uses three tons of golden rice to striking effect. At first it is a river snaking in a neat heal across the stage, then it is a desert through which the pilgrims toil, later it falls as a dazzling rain as the dancers whirl in exultation. Finally, it is the task of one man to painstakingly rake the rice into a perpetual spiral.
Performed to Georgian folk songs, the choreography blends East and West dance styles and demands absolute focus and control from the dancers who, at times, appear to be have been transformed from human beings into body sculptures. The evocation of a quest for spiritual enlightenment through the experience and suffering is finely-wrought in imagery both abstract and literal. The passing of time sees to transcend normal boundaries. A monk-like figure stands motionless throughout, a steady stream of rice grains falling on his shaven head: an immovable living hour-glass. It is just one of the many ways in which Lin Hwai-min uses three tons of golden rice to striking effect. At first it is a river snaking in a neat heal across the stage, then it is a desert through which the pilgrims toil, later it falls as a dazzling rain as the dancers whirl in exultation. Finally, it is the task of one man to painstakingly rake the rice into a perpetual spiral.
Joe Saul, a veteran circus performer is slowly being destroyed by the realization that he will die without having fathered a child. In an act of extraordinary sacrifice and compassion, his wife, Mordeen, takes desperate measures to save him. Steinbeck's classic play is brilliantly acted by a fantastic cast, led by four-time Emmy-winner Colleen Dewhurst (Murphy Brown) and Tony-winner Myron McCormick (South Pacific).
Oscar winner Meryl Streep stars in this delightful "music hall" version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Also starring Emmy winner Debbie Allen, Mark Linn-Baker and Betty Aberlin, Alice at the Palace is an entertaining and shrewdly conceived retelling of the Lewis Carroll classics with all of the beloved characters - from the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat to the Queen of Hearts - given a unique twist by the witty and charming performances of an accomplished theatrical ensemble. The play was adapted for television from Elizabeth Swados' New York Shakespeare Festival production entitled Alice in Concert, for which Obie Award-winner Swados also composed the score, adapted the book and directed for the stage. Originally broadcast as part of NBCTV's "Project Peacock" series in 1982.
Director Michal Zadara and actor Barbara Wysocka of CENTRALA (Warsaw, Poland) replace the piano parts of Frederic Chopin's Piano Concertos in E Minor and F Minor with a riveting dramatic monologue. Climbing on top of the piano, Wysocka explores cultural, political, and philosophical tensions of the composer's time that feel strikingly contemporary. Her highly physical virtuoso performance is accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and led by Warsaw National Opera's rising young talent, conductor Bassem Akiki.
Artfully weaving together fragments of Chopin's letters and music criticism from some of the finest writers and thinkers of our age, Chopin Without Piano captures the composer as a dynamic living presence within the full force of his music. It challenges us to think more deeply about the sustaining value of Chopin's music, the tradition of live classical performance, and culture in the broadest sense.
Artfully weaving together fragments of Chopin's letters and music criticism from some of the finest writers and thinkers of our age, Chopin Without Piano captures the composer as a dynamic living presence within the full force of his music. It challenges us to think more deeply about the sustaining value of Chopin's music, the tradition of live classical performance, and culture in the broadest sense.