Hard to look past all those Pierce Brosnan Bond films that have just popped up on Netflix, but they haven’t swayed me from compiling my latest occasional list of the some of the service’s new offerings which happen to have a theatrical aspect to them (however slight). My own random musings, in no particular order.
Gnomeo and Juliet: Why this wasn’t a stage musical first is beyond me. Oh yeah, live stage has not yet mastered the chipped plaster effect
Rabbit Hole: Director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig herself) brings exactly the right light touch to David Lindsay-Abaire’s realistically absurd and bleak drama of child-loss.
Magic Trip: Documentary about Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters bus trip, with footage of him visiting the stage adaptation of his book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
The Last Circus: A Spanish Fascist allegory with horror-movie hooks, in which a sad-faced clown comes between a trapeze artist and the boyfriend who beats her.
Anne of the Thousand Days: The 1969 film version of the Anne Boleyn story, with Richard Burton as Henry VIII and Irene Papas as Katherine of Aragon. Anne is Genevieve Bujold.
Paris is Burning: The original drag-queen club-pageantry documentary by Yale grad Jennie Livingston, which introduced the concept of voguing to mainstream audiences (Madonna among them).
Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas: Decades after this Muppet TV holiday special first aired, the Goodspeed Opera House developed it into a stage musical, then honored its composer Paul Williams with one of the theater’s Goodspeed awards. The show had a second run, but didn’t hold as a holiday tradition. Wonder what would happen if they had it up now, in the wake of the Muppet film.
Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis: Fritz Lang’s silent classic, staged like a Broadway spectacle, is also available on Netflix on Demand in its recent restored version. This is the garish colorized 1984 version with a pop soundtrack featuring Freddie Mercury, Adam Ant and—it goes way downhill from there—Billy Squier, Jon Anderson, Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler and Loverboy. Several stars of Metropolis were active in the German theater before working in film with Lang. Alfred Abel , who plays Joh Frederson, worked with Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Heinrich George, who plays Grot, is in the theater history books for having refused to be directed by a young and cocky Bertolt Brecht in a showcase production of Arnolt Bronnen’s Parricide.
Heinrich George in Fritz Lang's Metropolis
Rejoice and Shout: Gospel music documentary. You’ll be reminded of “The Big Black Lady Stops the Show” in Martin Short’s show Fame Becomes Me.
The Singing Revolution: documentary about Estonian protesters who chose to dissent through ensemble protest-song singing.
Great Directors: Interviews by Angela Ismailos with Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Todd Haynesm Richard Linklater, Catherin Breillat, Ken Loach, John Sayles, Liliana Cavani and Agnes Varda. At least a couple of these folks started as stage directors.
Walker: Alex Cox’s biodrama about Nicaraguan dictator William Walker has a theater-ensemble feel with stage vets such as Keith Szarabajka and Rene Auberjonois.
The Black Power Mixtape: Oh, the power of live oratory. Much speechifying from Stokely Carmichael, Elridge Cleaver, Angela Davis and Bobby Seale (some of whom have been impersonated in big-deal plays), plus major theater star Harry Belafonte and stage director Melvin Van Peebles.
Mao’s Last Dancer: True story of Chinese ballet superstar Li Cunxin.
The real Li Cunxin.
Stephen Fry in America: This is the series that gets mentioned a bit in Stephen Fry’s irregular postcast series of a few years ago. He travels to all 50 states. Also now on Netflix on Demand is Fry’s dramedy series Kingdom, in which he plays a village lawyer with crazed siblings.
Downton Abbey: The show’s creator, Julian Fellowes, scripted the West End/Broadway musical version of Mary Poppins. He was also a professional stage and film actor before his success as a writer. It’s just been announced that Fellowes will be scripting a new West End musical version of Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows.
There are also killer stand-up specials by David Cross (Bigger and Blackerer), Norm MacDonald (Me Doing Stand-up) and Louis C.K. (Hilarious).