Noticias

Richard Linklater set an unusual precedent when the 2014 film Boyhood came out. It was a film he had worked on for twelve years, telling the story of a boy, his sister, his parents, and the world around him. It was a great movie, and the most interesting part was how he chose to tell the story. Instead of casting multiple people to play each role, or use makeup to age an adult in the film, he simply shot the film over a twelve year period. So when it was all said and done, you watched those characters grow upon the screen. It was really cool. It’s more of a gamble to do a film this way, but I think it’s a pretty cool payoff with the end result. He’s now taking on a project with the same format, but this time, it’s even more ambitious.

Linklater...

Just when you think there's nothing original or exciting left to mine from a coming-of-age story, along comes the totally irresistible Lady Bird – a reminder that no genre is played out when there's a new artist around to see it with fresh eyes. Screenwriter Greta Gerwig, in a spectacular solo directing debut (she co-directed Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg in 2008), has carved a brilliantly hilarious and heartfelt script out of her own teen life. Not a punch is pulled, and sentiment takes a holiday. All that's left is blunt honesty.

Record producer Thomas Z. Shepard has won twelve Grammy awards for producing the original cast albums of shows like VictorVictoria, Ain't Misbehavin' and La Cage Aux Folles. He is best known for his many collaborations with Stephen Sondheim on such albums as Company, Sweeney Todd, Follies In Concert, Sunday in the Park With George, Merrily We Roll Along, A Little Night Music and Pacific Overtures.

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman recreates her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts Huntington Avenue Theatre. Watch the cast sing 'Opening Doors' in the video below...

On last night's Late Show, 'Hit the Road' star Jason Alexander recalled starring in Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along and explained how he pissed off the legendary composer.

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman recreates her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts Huntington Avenue Theatre. Watch the cast sing 'Now You Know' in the video below...

The Huntington Theatre Company opened its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman recreates her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts Huntington Avenue Theatre.

The Huntington Theatre Company will open its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman will recreate her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts Huntington Avenue Theatre. Step inside the rehearsal room with the cast and creative team in the video below...

The Huntington Theatre Company will open its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman will recreate her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances run now through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts Huntington Avenue Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the star-studded cast in action below...

The Huntington Theatre Companyopens its 2017-2018 season with the legendary musical Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim. Director Maria Friedman will recreate her critically celebrated West End production for Boston audiences. Performances will run tonight, September 8, through October 15, 2017 at the Avenue of the Arts Huntington Avenue Theatre.

Soundtracking is our newest wekly series, with Chris Feil talking music in the movies! The Tony Awards are this weekend, so here is a documentary on a Broadway flop...

Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened charts the making and failing of Stephen Sondheim / Hal Prince collaboration Merrily We Roll Along. The musical charts the decades-spanning friendship of three showbiz types, but told in reverse and with teenagers playing the roles. It was high concept and it was a notorious bomb - but with one brilliant and emotionally involving score.

If you’re unfamiliar with the musical and its complicated backwards plotting, Best Worst Thing does a pretty snappy job of quickly explaining the show’s concept before focusing on the cast left out in the cold by Merrily’s failure. What sounds rather niche for a documentary subject is actually quite moving and emotionally accessible, and still touches on some hefty themes.

BroadwayWorld continues our exclusive content series, in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which delves into the library's unparalleled archives, and resources. Below, check out a piece by Diana Bertolini, Specialist at the New York Public Library's Archives Unit on Four Things You Didn't Know about George Furth's First Draft of Merrily We Roll Along.

Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical “Merrily We Roll Along” has become as notorious — and beloved in some circles — as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays. The first Broadway production closed after just 16 performances, a high-profile flop that’s chronicled in the brilliant new documentary “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” by original cast member Lonny Price. A new Los Angeles revival by young director Michael Arden, which had a delayed press opening on Saturday night at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, is brilliantly sung by a talented cast of 20 led by Broadway veterans Aaron...

You don't have to be a fan of Broadway musicals to love every minute of Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened. This story of one of the most crushing flops to ever hit the Great White Way speaks to the ambition that drives all of us, even sometimes into a brick wall. Back in 1981, composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim and producer-director Harold Prince were the toasts of Broadway with such hits as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. They could do no wrong – that is until their new collaboration,...

Tony and SAG Award winner Jason Alexander, who starred in the original Broadway cast of Merrily We Roll Along, will participate in a QampA at one of the first Los Angeles public screenings of the new documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened - a thrilling, behind-the-scenes look into the 'then' and 'now' of perhaps Stephen Sondheim's most beloved work, Merrily We Roll Along.

Just announced, TonyandSAGAward winner Jason Alexander, who starred in the original Broadway cast of Merrily We Roll Along, will participate in a QampA at one of the first Los Angeles public screenings of the new documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened -a thrilling, behind-the-scenes look into the 'then' and 'now' of perhaps Stephen Sondheim's most beloved work, Merrily We Roll Along.

The fall specialized season (with attached awards campaigns) is going into high gear. This weekend brings the release of Amazon Studios Sundance pickup “Manchester by the Sea” (Roadside Attractions), one of the year’s most anticipated films, to a strong initial response in its first two cities. Also, Focus Features released buzzy festival hit “Nocturnal Animals” somewhat wider to enough interest to suggest ongoing adult audiences ahead.

None of these grosses challenge 2016’s top limited releases, though, consistent with what has been a decline in overall specialty numbers this year. But they join “Moonlight” and “Loving” among successful launches that perform well enough to keep their awards chances alive along with their commercial prospects.

That’s in stark contrast with Ang Lee’s technological experiment “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” After what seemed to be a decent start in two theaters last weekend, its wider national break ranks with...

It’s a hard road in making a Broadway hit, and the path is just as bumpy when it turns out to be a flop. Few shows managed what Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical “Merrily We Roll Along” has, however: to swing from assumed smash to shock bomb, then to venerated, oft-performed classic. Forever changed by that original run was its cast of young unknowns, one of whom, Lonny Price, has made a documentary about the show’s creation called “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” that should be catnip for Sondheim aficionados, musical theater geeks, and anyone who loves a.

Michael Arden, who brilliantly re-imagined The Wallis and Deaf West Theatre's production of Spring Awakening that received rave reviews on Broadway, directs this rarely staged Stephen Sondheim Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, West Side Story musical. Merrily We Roll Along travels backwards in time to navigate the bumpy history among three friends - Franklin, Charlie and Mary - who begin their in careers in show business together. The powerful and moving story, based on the Kaufman and Hart play, features some of Sondheim's most beautiful songs including 'Good Thing Going,' 'Our Time' and 'Not a Day Goes By'.

Two-time Tony winner Bernadette Peters, a Broadway legend and one of Sondheim's most iconic leading ladies, will host a QampA with director Lonny Price at one of the first public screenings of his new documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened - a thrilling, behind-the-scenes look into the 'then' and 'now' of perhaps Stephen Sondheim's most beloved work, Merrily We Roll Along.

“One of the lessons of adulthood is disappointment,” says a bleary-eyed Abigail Pogrebin as she muses on her time in the original Broadway production of “Merrily We Roll Along,” Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince’s notorious flop that ended their decades-long collaborative friendship and the subject of Lonny Price’s nostalgic documentary, “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened,” which debuted at the New York Film Festival.

Price, (whom “Dirty Dancing” fans may recognize as the guy who put Baby in the corner), was part of the original cast of the musical. Based on the popular 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, “Merrily” tells the life stories of its three main characters in reverse order; they start out bitter and jaded adults, and by the show’s end have reverted to hopeful and starry-eyed kids. Prince, the legendary Broadway producer and the first to combine producing with directing,...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Exclusive: Zeitgeist Films has announced that it has acquired “Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story,” a documentary about two fascinating (and unsung) heroes of 60+ years of Hollywood history. Directed by Daniel Raim and executive produced by Danny DeVito, the film had its premiere in the Cannes Classics section of the Festival.

The film will open in the first quarter of 2017 with a national rollout to follow.

– Open Road Films has acquired all North American rights to the romantic comedy “Home Again,” which will star Reese Witherspoon. The film was written by Hallie Meyers-Shyer and will be directed by Meyers-Shyer in her directorial debut. Nancy Meyers is producing alongside Black Bicycle Entertainment’s Erika Olde, who also financed the film.

Atlas Media has just announced its upcoming feature-length documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened --a thrilling, behind-the-scenes look into the 'then' and 'now' of perhaps Stephen Sondheim's most beloved work, Merrily We Roll Along --has been acquired for theatrical distribution by Abramorama, the industry's preeminent distributor of independent cinema. Check out the official trailer for the film below...

Jim Jarmusch with his Only Lovers Left Alive star Tilda Swinton at the 51st New York Film Festival Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The 54th New York Film Festival announced two “An Evening with...” celebrations: Olivier Assayas’s latest muse Kristen Stewart, who is also in Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, will be honoured, as well as Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson star Adam Driver in a separate dinner and conversation with Kent Jones.

Jarmusch's salute to Iggy Pop and The Stooges in Gimme Danger; Lonny Price's Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened on Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince's journey with their musical Merrily We Roll Along, and Lin-Manuel Miranda and company in Hamilton’s America by Alex Horwitz are three more of the Special Events to look forward to.

Terence Davies's A Quiet Passion, starring Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson,...

Kristen Stewart and Adam Driver will be honoured in the 54th New York Film Festival’s “An Evening with…” on-stage conversation series.

The festival will also premiere Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened in Special Events, a non-fiction chronicle of the 1981 musical flop Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince.

Hamilton’s America will also receive its world premiere and tells the story of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning production, Hamilton: An American Musical.

Jim Jarmusch’s Gimme Danger joins the line-up and will feature an appearance by the director and Iggy Pop. Jarmusch’s Paterson will screen in the main slate. Nyff runs from September 30-October 16.

Amazon Studios is developing a TV series based on Martin Scorsese’s crime drama The Departed. Vertigo Entertainment, Initial Entertainment Group and Plan B Entertainment are producing with Amazon Studios in association with Warner Bros TV.White Rabbit and Phillm Productions have begun shooting on The...

Special Events will feature the world premiere of Lonny Price's Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, a nonfiction account of Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince's 1981 musical-flop-turned-cult-favorite Merrily We Roll Along, with Price and theater luminary Sondheim in person. Thirty-five years later in the world of musicals, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton is a Broadway sensation. Alex Horwitz's Hamilton's America goes behind the history of the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning production, and makes its world premiere at Nyff with the director and special guests to be announced.

The 54th New York Film Festival, running from September 30 – October 16, is shaping up to be a can’t-miss event. Today, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the lineup for the Special Events section and “An Evening With…” honorees.

This year, the annual “An Evening With” celebration will feature two of the brightest young actors working today: Kristen Stewart and Adam Driver. Stewart stars in three Nyff titles, Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women,” Olivier Assayas’ “Personal Shopper” and Ang Lee’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” which was previously announced as a special world premiere presentation in the Special Events section. Driver can be seen in the drama “Paterson,” directed by Jim Jarmusch.

The event, which recognizes individuals who have made significant artistic contributions to film culture, will include dinner and an intimate conversation between the award-winning actors and Nyff Director Kent Jones.

Read More: Nyff 2016 Adds Ang Lee...

Tony Award-nominee Michael Arden has just concluded a weeklong research and development session led by Broadway and television star Tituss Burgess, Tony Award-winners Steve Kazeeand Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Tony Award-nominee Valarie Pettiford Fosse, in advance of a new production of the Stephen Sondheim masterwork Merrily We Roll Along, set to hit the stage of the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts November 22, 2016 through December 18, 2016. Casting for the fall production will be announced at a later date. Check out photos from the session below...

Today in 1981, Merrily We Roll Along closed at the Alvin Theatre now the Neil Simon Theatre, where it ran for 16 performances. Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Furth and Sondheim retained the basic structure and overall theme of the play but updated it to encompass the period from 1957 to 1976. The story revolves around Franklin Shepard who, having once been a talented composer of Broadway musicals, has now abandoned his friends and his songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood flicks. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank's life that shaped the man that he is today.

Cole Porter's classic feel-good musical High Society comes to The Old Vic in a glittering new production staged in the round. According to the Daily Mail, Kate Fleetwood will star as socialite 'Tracy Lord' in the show, to be directed by Olivier-winning director and musical star Maria Friedman Merrily We Roll Along. High Society is slated to begin previews April 30 with an official opening on May 14, 2015.

The Award-winning Astoria Performing Arts Center Apac, has announced that their 14th season spring musical will be Merrily We Roll Along, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth, based on the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and directed by Apac's Artistic Director Dev Bondarin. The musical begins on Thursday, April 30, 2015 and continues through Saturday, May 23, 2015. Apac's performance venue is located at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 30-44 Crescent St 30th Rd, in Astoria, Queens.

Lyrics amp Lyricists gets going on the opening show of its 45th season with A Good Thing Going The Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince Collaboration on January 10, 11 and 12. Artistic director David Loud, himself a frequent Sondheim collaborator, explores the 1970-1981 partnership behind the groundbreaking musicals Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along - with cast members Kate Baldwin, Heidi Blickenstaff, Liz Callaway, James Clow, Jason Danieley, and Alan H. Green.

Today in 1981, Merrily We Roll Along closed at the Alvin Theatre now the Neil Simon Theatre, where it ran for 16 performances. Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Furth and Sondheim retained the basic structure and overall theme of the play but updated it to encompass the period from 1957 to 1976. The story revolves around Franklin Shepard who, having once been a talented composer of Broadway musicals, has now abandoned his friends and his songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood flicks. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank's life that shaped the man that he is today.

There are two upcoming movie musicals that, for a long time, I've wanted to make into motion pictures, should someone with money be willing to give me the funds to make them -- Into The Woods and The Last 5 Years. I'm both nervous and excited to see how directors Rob Marshall and Richard Lagravenese, respectfully, have interpreted the material I hold so close to my heart. I am especially nervous for Into The Woods, given Marshall's less than impressive track record. If someone is going to screw up something I cherish, it should be me. Of course, there are far more than two musicals I have a deep connection to. Some have already been made into films, like Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Les Miserables, but there is a vast collection of musicals I have thought could make fantastic films, but have never been made.

As we look ahead to the Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8, EW takes a closer look at this season’s nominated selection of new musicals, plays, and revivals, all of which will be competing for Broadway’s highest honor. Today, we dive into this year’s nominees for Best Play.

Act One

Opened: March 20, 2014

Closing: June 15, 2014

Starring: Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin, Santino Fontana, Beatrice Kaufman, Frieda Fishbein

Directed by: James Lapine

Written by: James Lapine, based on the memoir by Moss Hart

Synopsis: Act One chronicles the life of Moss Hart (1904-61) and his growth from a poor kid interested...

Six By Sondheim, an intimate and candid look at the life and art of the legendary composer-lyricist, airs on HBO tonight, December 9th, directed by Tony Award-winner and frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine. Click below to get a sneak peek behind the scenes with Darren Criss in the studio, about to record his part for 'Opening Doors' with musical director Andy Einhorn the day before shooting the scene from Merrily We Roll Along with Stephen Sondheim...

Few love words as passionately as Broadway's master composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, but there's one word that makes him cringe: "Hummable," a quality some (erroneously) find lacking in his challenging, rewarding scores. "Drives me up the wall," he growls.

Which is why it's such an ironic delight when Sondheim performs as part of a new staging of his autobiographical "Opening Doors" production number (from the initially flop musical Merrily We Roll Along), playing a producer who bullies a team of young songwriters to conjure a "humm-umm-able melody."

Read More >...

"Gypsy." "A Little Night Music." "Sweeney Todd." "Follies." "Company."

Stephen Sondheim's credits -- and that's a sampling -- are staggering. He's won eight Tony Awards, more than any other composer and lyricist. And though he has been an incredible force since he burst on the scene with his first Broadway project, "West Side Story," Sondheim, 83, is reserved about himself.

HBO's "Six by Sondheim" on Monday, Dec. 9, though, manages to paint an intimate portrait of the man, examining his career through six signature songs.

In one of very few interviews granted for this project, Sondheim tells Zap2it that though he had seen a few edits of this film, he doesn't like to watch himself.

"I am embarrassed to see myself," Sondheim says. "I have seen myself on-screen quite a lot."

This features wonderful footage of Sondheim, including photos from his youth, being mentored by family friend Oscar Hammerstein, and...

Who could ever forget Liz Callaway stopping the show cold with a simple plaintive Maltby and Shire song called The Story Goes On back in 1983 in the Broadway production of Baby Or, of course, Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along Or her Grizabella Or any of the amazing albums she has made over the years, either solo or with her sister Ann Hampton Callaway...

Today in 1981, Merrily We Roll Along closed at the Alvin Theatre now the Neil Simon Theatre, where it ran for 16 performances. Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Furth and Sondheim retained the basic structure and overall theme of the play but updated it to encompass the period from 1957 to 1976. The story revolves around Franklin Shepard who, having once been a talented composer of Broadway musicals, has now abandoned his friends and his songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood flicks. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank's life that shaped the man that he is today.

Theater fans, Gleeks and Ugly Betty mourners (I’m all three), get ready to lose your minds!

On Dec. 9, HBO premieres Six by Sondheim, a brand-new documentary that profiles arguably the greatest composer in contemporary musical theater, Stephen Sondheim. Directed by frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine and produced by former Times theater critic Frank Rich, the doc takes a deep look at six of Sondheim’s greatest songs, deconstructed and defined by Sondheim himself.

Among the highlights: “Send in the Clowns” (A Little Night Music), “I’m Still Here” (Follies), “Something’s Coming” (West Side Story), “Being Alive” (Company) and...