Research Catalog
[Interview with Marc E. Platt : raw footage]
- Title
- [Interview with Marc E. Platt : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
- Publication
- New York, 2003.
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| Status | 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. | Moving image | Restricted use | NCOX 2170 | Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- 1 videocassette (VHS) (32 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.
- Summary
- Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Film, television and theatrical producer Marc E. Platt discusses his imminent production of the show Wicked at Broadway's George Gershwin Theatre. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and book by Winnie Holzman, Wicked is loosely based on Gregory Maguire's best selling novel Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West. Platt observes that, like the classic musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein, several of which are based on works of literature, Wicked is in a sense a "throwback." He speaks of his almost seven-year involvement with the Wicked project, which began as a screenplay. Three years into the project composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz started work on the musical version, and now six weeks prior to the show's opening, Platt continues to improve and sharpen the production. "The next six weeks are as important as the last three years," he observes. Platt speaks of the challenges and satisfactions of putting a show together for Broadway, a painstaking process which he sees as analagous to raising a child, with opening night akin to graduation. Platt speaks about how he believes the show will "sell" itself; its central concept in the journey of two girls who struggle to be friends despite their differences; and the origin of Wicked's two main characters in the Oz series of L. Frank Baum and in Maguire's novel. Platt discusses the show's recent previews in San Francisco where it underwent substantial revision in plot, music and choreography and casting, based on audience reaction and, to a lesser extent, on the surveys which were conducted. Platt speaks about the challenges of revising a musical in comparison with the revision process a movie undergoes as it is being filmed and then edited; the purpose of the San Francisco tryouts; his role as a producer, and how he feels as a producer of a show about to open on Broadway; the need to make cast changes as part of the process of readying a show for Broadway; the use of flying monkeys in the New York production; the advertising of Wicked; the impact and importance of critics; and what he views as the scariest aspect of opening a theatrical production.
- Alternative Title
- Broadway, the American musical
- Marc Platt
- Subjects
- Documentaries and factual works
- Musical theater > New York (State) > New York
- Musical theater > Production and direction
- Broadway (New York, N.Y.)
- Motion pictures and theater
- Schwartz, Stephen > Wicked
- Theatrical producers and directors > Interviews
- Unedited footage
- Musicals
- Maguire, Gregory > Wicked
- Platt, Marc, 1957- > Interviews
- Theater > New York (State) > New York
- 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.
- Performer (note)
- Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Marc E. Platt.
- Event (note)
- Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on Sept. 12, 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.
- Call Number
- NCOX 2170
- OCLC
- 154207634
- Title
- [Interview with Marc E. Platt : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
- Imprint
- New York, 2003.
- Performer
- Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Marc E. Platt.
- Event
- Videotaped in New York, N.Y. on Sept. 12, 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.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
- Platt, Marc, 1957- interviewee.Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.Thirteen/WNET, donor.
- Research Call Number
- NCOX 2170