Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Broadway on TV

OMG, I almost forgot. Tonight on Great Performances (9-11:30pm but check local listings), most PBS stations (except Buffalo of course which feeds the Toronto area too UPDATE. They ARE showing it! They must have changed the schedule in the past 2 weeks sometime) is airing a taped performance of one of my favorite musicals, Company, a revival production that opened on Broadway in 2006 and closed last year. I loved it so much that I ended up seeing it 3 times. It starred Raul Esparza pre-Pushing Daisies and a tremendously talented cast that acts, sings, sort of dances AND plays the instruments to become the orchestra as well. Director John Doyle used the same device with Sweeney Todd but I found thematically, it seems to work better in Company.

If you don't know what Company is about, think a male perspective of Sex and the City that was way before its time. Where a 35 year old man looks at the lives and relationships his friends has, as they look at his. Simple but emotionally draining and hilarious.

And on Monday, Feb. 25th (8-11pm), ABC airs the Broadway play A Raisin in the Sun. It's actually a TV movie adaptation but with the Broadway cast in tact (including Phylicia Rashad, Audra MacDonald, Sanaa Lathan and P. Diddy or whatever he goes by this week) and John Stamos (John Stamos? with Phylicia Rashad and Sean Combs? What an odd cast). (Promo Photo after the jump). Here's a link to see a promo video trailer.

4 comments:

Joe Reid said...

Damn it, Buffalo! Heh. I hated how their PBS schedule never conformed to the national schedule.

Anonymous said...

SOOOOOO glad you posted this. I had been waiting for Company to air on pbs but had not realized they finally put it on the schedule!! Got to set my Tivo.

Anonymous said...

Un.Be.Lievable. They aren't playing it in Dallas. Instead there is a show on trains. Devastated....

Vance said...

And for once Buffalo IS showing it. They must have changed their schedule sometime in the last 2 weeks (cause I had checked earlier and something else had been programmed).

Hopefully it'll show up in Dallas at some point!

I'm actually watching it now! (Though they actually censored the word "Christ" but not "ass" or "bitch".)

I do NOT get all that...