Broadway beams its offerings via movie screens

NEW YORK -- Movie theaters in the next few weeks will be filled with stories about misbehaving pandas, heroic mutants, superheros with magic rings and a comedy of mistaken identity led by a man playing a woman. Typical summer fare, right? Well, not exactly when it comes to that comedy.

It was written by Oscar Wilde -- in the late 1890s.

The current production of the hit "The Importance of Being Earnest" will be available on movie screens across the world earlier this summer. "Earnest" is the latest Broadway show to be captured on high definition cameras and beamed far from Times Square.

The play -- led by Tony Award-nominated Brian Bedford as director and in the role of the fearsome Lady Bracknell -- will be available on hundreds of screens in 35 states, as well as across Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico, competing with "Kung Fu Panda 2," "X-Men: First Class" and "Green Lantern" in the global market.

The effort follows in the pioneering digital footsteps of The Metropolitan Opera and London National Theatre's NT Live series, which concludes its second season June 30 with a live transmission from London of Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" starring Zoe Wanamaker.

This week marked the screen debut of a limited show that ended earlier this spring -- The New York Philharmonic's production of Stephen Sondheim's "Company," which was staged at Lincoln Center in early April for just four sold-out performances. Twelve cameras captured the cast that included Craig Bierko, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Katie Finneran, Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Hendricks, Patti LuPone, Martha Plimpton and Anika Noni Rose. Lony Price was the director.

The edited movie theater version will appear in over 50 markets Canada and the U.S., including Cape Girardeau, for $18 a ticket, a fraction of what the original cost at the Philharmonic.

A combination of the high caliber cast, the original limited run, low ticket prices and a personal love of Sondheim prompted Ellen M. Krass, an executive producer for the broadcast along with Screenvision, to help the project.

"I have devoted much of my producing life to Stephen Sondheim and I love his work," she said. "He is, I think, the greatest living composer and lyricist. Why shouldn't more people be able to afford to see him?"

Krass, an Emmy Award winner who has produced TV adaptations of stage plays including "You Can't Take It With You" starring Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst, thinks such HD captures of live performances are the future. She even anticipates that Broadway shows may one day open this way.

She is also not concerned that a cheaper screen version will cannibalize ticket sales on Broadway, citing the 2002 movie version of "Chicago" starring Catherine Zeta-Jones that was in theaters while the show played at the Ambassador Theater.

"The truth of the matter is they go to see you more. Look what happened with 'Chicago.' The play ran, ran, ran. It was kind of doing OK, the movie came out and the play is still running," she said. "It's something that everyone gets afraid of but it's something not to be afraid of."

The same case could be made for "Mamma Mia!" or "The Phantom of the Opera," which both have had long runs on stage despite popular movie versions.

"Lady Gaga was on HBO. You don't think that interrupts her career, do you?" Krass said.

As technology improves, producers anticipate more such broadcasts, and even a day when high-definition captures offer moviegoers a 3-D version of a stage show, complete with silly glasses.

"We're not there yet, but I think eventually that will be an opportunity," said Julie Borchard-Young, co-president of BY Experience, the company that filmed "Earnest" for the big screen in March.