Tag: Great Performances

Christopher Plummer Reprises His Role as John Barrymore for Great Performances

Fans of Broadway and theater history will enjoy Great Performances’ presentation of Barrymore, premiering January 31 at 9 p.m on West Virginia PBS. Actor Christopher Plummer re-creates his Tony Award-winning performance for this film adaptation of William Luce’s Broadway play.

Set in 1942, Barrymore shines a dramatic spotlight on the acclaimed—and notorious— John Barrymore, capturing the famously combative star in the final months of his life as he struggles to prepare for a backer’s audition to stage a revival of his 1920 Broadway triumph in Richard III.  Once among the most acclaimed stage actors of his generation, as well as a central member of Broadway and Hollywood’s most famous acting dynasty, Barrymore is now in the twilight of his career, no longer a leading box office draw and wrestling with the ravages of his life of excess.  With equal parts lacerating wit and piercing despair, the faded icon revisits the highs and lows of his theatrical triumphs and remarkable life.

Celebrate the life and 50-year career of Luciano Pavarotti

The late great tenor in some of his finest performances and in duet with Sting, Bono, Eric Clapton, and The Three Tenors

Watch Pavarotti: A Voice for the Ages from Great Performances on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 9:30 p.m. on WV PBS.

Like Enrico Caruso before him, Luciano Pavarotti extended his presence far beyond the limits of Italian opera. Quickly establishing his trademark rich sound as the great male operatic voice of the 20th century, he expanded his reach to stadium concerts and pop collaborations which brought him fame beyond measure. The 50th anniversary of the launch of Pavarotti’s of meteoric international career is celebrated in Pavarotti: A Voice for the Ages.

This one-hour program includes “Nessun Dorma” and other beloved arias from “La Boheme,” “Rigoletto” and “Aida;” Neapolitan songs in arrangements by Henry Mancini including “Mamma” and “La mia canzone al vento,” and audience favorites  “O Sole Mio” and “Torna a surriento;” as well as popular duets with Bono, Sting, and Eric Clapton.

The full musical program follows below:

  • “Che gelida manina” (La Boheme first recording, 1965 Modena performance and first “Live From the Met” broadcast)
  • “La donna e mobile” Rigoletto film
  • “Celeste Aida” (Aida) (performed in concert at the Metropolitan Opera)
  • “Mamma” (Madison Square Garden – 1984)
  • “Donna non vidi mai” (Manon Lescaut) (Hyde Park)
  • “Nessun Dorma” (Turandot) (Central Park)
  • “Miss Sarajevo” (with Bono/Pavarotti & Friends)
  • “Holy Mother” (with Eric Clapton/Pavarotti & Friends)
  • “A Vucchella” (Barcelona recital)
  • “O Sole Mio” (Three Tenors in Rome)
  • “Non ti scordar di me”
  • “La mia canzone al vento”
  • “Panis Angelicus” (Sting)
  • “Torna a surriento” (Three Tenors/Naples)
  • “la Danza”

Great Performances presents Barbra Streisand live on WV PBS

Watch Barbra Streisand: Back to Brooklyn Friday, Nov. 29 at 9 p.m. on WV PBS

“I love people from Brooklyn. Because they’re real. Down to earth. They tell it like it is.” So Barbra Streisand informs an adoring audience at the opening of her heralded hometown return at the brand new Barclays Center.

Mixing her trademark classics with rarer older material and selections from her more recent albums, Streisand, in her first concert appearance in six years, and backed by a 60-piece orchestra led by William Ross, keeps the capacity house enthralled. In all, she sings 27 songs, nine of which she never before performed live, and three which she sings in different ways; that is, either with different arrangements or with newly composed lyrics.

Streisand masterfully holds the stage for two hours, joined by special guests Il Volo, trumpeter Chris Botti, and  son Jason Gould, who thrilled the audience singing solo and in a duet with his mother.

The songs are framed by multi-faceted video montages of Streisand’s childhood and early career. Her alma mater Erasmus High School, the Loews Kings Theatre, the Dodgers, her yeshiva, Brighton Beach and Brooklyn Heights all figure in her reminiscences. The superstar left her fourth-floor apartment at 3102 Newkirk Avenue (one of three residences at which she lived as a child) when she was 16 to pursue her acting career, and the rest is history. She joked that “the last time…(she) sang in Brooklyn was on a stoop on Pulaski Street.”

Throughout the concert, she sings selections from every stage of her career, including “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” (which she sang during her memorable appearance on “The Judy Garland Show” in 1963); “Enough is Enough (No More Tears)” (her disco hit with the late Donna Summer); “My Funny Valentine” (from her 1967 album “Simply Streisand”); and “The Way We Were” (in loving tribute to Marvin Hamlisch who unexpectedly passed away in August 2012).

And then there are songs from her more recent albums like “Nice ‘N’ Easy,” “That Face,” “Some Other Time,” and “Here’s to Life.”

The concert also includes “Make Our Garden Grow” from Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide,” a song she recorded for an unreleased Broadway album in 1988. Here, she’s backed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Oklahoma! starring Hugh Jackman from Great Performances

Tonight 9 p.m. to Midnight on WV PBS

Great news for Hollywood and Broadway fans: Hugh Jackman—who recently starred in the worldwide hit film version of Les Misérables— can be seen again in his breakout musical role as cowpoke Curly in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!,” Friday, Nov. 15 at 9 p.m. on West Virginia PBS.

This Great Performances is part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival.

Still “doin’ fine” after 60 years, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s landmark American musical “Oklahoma!” is reborn in this film version of the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain’s award-winning production. Directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Susan Stroman, it set box office records during its run in London, and again on Broadway, with critics and audiences alike captivated by its fresh new take on a venerable classic.

The magic of the original London cast was captured in this deluxe film adaptation, which includes a sensational, star-making performance by X-Man Hugh Jackman as Curly. Also featured are original cast members Josefina Gabrielle as Laurey, Maureen Lipman as Aunt Eller and Tony-winner Shuler Hensley as the menacing yet hauntingly sympathetic Jud Fry.

Among the work’s famous songs are “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” “Out of My Dreams,” “I Cain’t Say No,” “Oklahoma!,” and “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” perhaps Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most beloved creation.

The Hollow Crown: Henry V premieres October 11 at 9 p.m.

The Hollow Crown is a lavish new series of filmed adaptations of four of Shakespeare’s most gripping history plays: Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 and Henry V  from  Great Performances.

The series is completed with the premiere of Henry V on Friday, October 11 at 9 p.m. on West Virginia PBS.

The first three parts of this series are available free, at our on-demand video player. (Watch now.)

The films — chronicling a bloody tale of family, politics and power — tell the rise and fall of three kings and how their destiny shaped English history. Richard II (Ben Whishaw) is a vain, self-indulgent man who rules with little regard for his people’s welfare. He is ultimately overthrown by his cousin Bolingbroke (Rory Kinnear), who ascends the throne as Henry IV (Jeremy Irons). Henry IV’s reign is marred by his own guilt over Richard’s death, civil war, and the gnawing fear that his son Hal (Tom Hiddleston) is a total wastrel unworthy of the throne. When Hal comes to the throne as Henry V, he is left to bury the ghosts of his father’s past while fighting both the French forces as well as his own inner demons.

http://video.wvpubcast.org/video/2365049199/

The Hollow Crown features some of the most pre-eminent Shakespearean actors of our time. The kings are played by Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston respectively, supported by a phenomenal cast including Rory Kinnear, Patrick Stewart, David Suchet, and David Morrissey in Richard II, Simon Russell Beale, Michelle Dockery, Julie Walters and Maxine Peake in Henry IV and John Hurt, Anton Lesser and Paterson Joseph in Henry V. The plays were filmed on location in England between summer 2011 and spring 2012 and are all set in their authentic medieval period.

An Educator’s guide, maps and more available at Great Performances.

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