TCM’s festival begins on Thursday, May 6th and will continue through May 9th. Films will be available for viewing on specific times and dates on TCM and others will be available on demand on HBO Max.

So here are my choices as the films most likely to scratch that theater itch amongst this year’s Classic Film Festival selections.

On TCM:

May 6th:

West Side Story opens the festival at 8:00 PM ET. TCM is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the film. Joining the showing of this 10-time Academy Award winner will be a newly filmed conversation with George Chakiris (“Bernardo”), Rita Moreno (“Anita”) and Russ Tamblyn (“Riff”).

May 7th:

Annie Get Your Gun is showing at 11:45 AM ET in a new 4K restoration. Betty Hutton stars as Annie Oakley and Howard Keel stars as Frank Butler in this film version of the Irving Berlin musical.

Wuthering Heights is showing at 2:00 PM ET. The film stars Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Cathy. The film opened on April 7, 1939. Twenty days later a play by Randolph Carter opened at the Longacre Theater in New York with Don Terry as Heathcliff and Edith Barrett as Catherine Ernshaw. The play closed after just 12 performances.

Grease 2 is showing at 11:00 PM ET. While the original film Grease grossed nearly 400 million dollars worldwide, this sequel (starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Maxwell Caulfield and Lorna Luft) only grossed 15 million dollars worldwide.

The Producers, the original Mel Brooks film from 1968, is showing at 1:15 AM ET (technically May 8th, but on TCM’s schedule as a May 7th showing – but that’s 10:15 PM PT). Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel stars as Leo Bloom and Max Bialystock.

May 8th:

Nichols and May: Take Two, a documentary about Mike Nichols and Elaine May is being shown at 11:45 AM ET.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? screens at 1:00 PM ET. Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis star in this 1966 adaptation of Edward Albee’s play.

From Broadway to Hollywood, hosted by pianist Richard Glazier, screens at 3:00 AM ET. The show promises interviews, music and commentary.

May 9th:

Her Man, a film from 1930 with Helen Twelvetrees and X, is showing at 8:45 AM ET. The film is loosely based on the play Frankie and Johnnie, written by John M. Kirkland. The play opened in 1925 and ran for 61 performances.

The Goodbye Girl, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason, shows at 9:30 PM ET. The film served as the inspiration for the Marvin Hamlisch, Neil Simon and David Zippel musical from 1993. There will be a new interview with Dreyfuss as part of this program.

Fame screens at 11:45 PM ET. The film, which starred Debbie Allen, Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, Anne Meara, Barry Miller and others was directed by Alan Parker. It served as the inspiration for the 1998 musical (that only used the title song from the film). There will be a new interview with Allen as part of this program.

HBO MAX will also be showing the following films on demand:

Dogfight, the 1991 film by Nancy Savoca, starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. This film inspired by 2012 musical by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

MGM Musicals & Outtakes will show outtakes from It’s Always Fair Weather, Singin‘ in the Rain and Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

Once, the 2007 film by John Carney starring Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. This is the movie that inspired by 2012 Tony Award-winning musical.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. The film was inspired by Ken Kesey’s novel as was the 1963 play by Dale Wasserman which starred Kirk Douglas. The actor had long wanted to make a film, but was unable to do so. His son, Michael Douglas, produced the film being shown which went on to win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

A Star Is Born from 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason. Though it has never appeared on Broadway, there has long been talk of adapting this film for the stage. Most recently Bill Condon (who directed the film version of Dreamgirls and the Broadway revival of Side Show) was said to be involved with adapting the Bradley Cooper film for the stage.

Enjoy the movies!

Photo: Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel and Lee Meredith in The Producers (Photo by: Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection/Courtesy TCM Classic Film Festival 2021)

The post A Theater Lover’s Guide to TCM’s Classic Film Festival 2021 appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

A quick look at Klena’s resume reveals such shows as a revival of the much-maligned musical Carrie, Pasek & Paul’s Dogfight, the role of Fiyero in Wicked, Jason Robert Brown’s The Bridges of Madison County, Sheryl Crow’s musical of Barry Levinson’s 1982 film Diner, Anastasia and the upcoming Jagged Little Pill based on Alanis Morisette’s best-selling album. Not bad for a kid from West Covina.

That gave us plenty to talk about when we spoke by phone last week.

When you were doing For the Record, did you think it would take so little time for you to become so embraced by the theatre community in New York?

I really had no idea. I had a few crazy instances that lead me to audition for gigs in New York. I also did this competition in Los Angeles, “The Next Great Stage Star” and I got an agent from that. I ended up doing a cabaret show in Studio City as one of the Top 5 of that competition. At that time Catch Me If You Can was doing an out-of-town run in Seattle. I saw Aaron Tveit on YouTube doing a song from that show and I had to sing that song. I did it in my show, which was reviewed by Broadway World and Marc Shaiman [the composer of Catch Me If You Can] got a Google alert. He reached out and said, “I heard you sang the song. Did you sing it good?” He asked that I send him a recording of me singing the song since they would need a standby for Aaron. They felt I wasn’t quite right for it, but they had me seen for another show…Carrie.

For the Record seems like it was fertile ground for performers to make the leap to Broadway. You, Jessica Keenan Wynn (Beautiful), Kristolyn Lloyd (Dear Evan Hansen) and Joanna Jones (Hamilton) also made the leap. What was it about that experience?

They were so ambitious with the idea since the very beginning. Their network of friends and performers and relationships kind of formed this crazy talented cast that was such unique with such a broad skill set. I feel like the sky was the limit from the beginning. And it was such a unique experience to perform in an intimate venue in a concert environment. I had never been exposed to that before. That goes for most of us. That gave us a lot of confidence. It was almost improvisational in a way. You never knew what an audience member would throw your way. It was invaluable.

Let’s talk about some of the shows beginning with Carrie. What did you enjoy most about doing a musical that has had such a tortured history?

Because it was my first experience in New York I was a kid in a candy store. They had so many hopes for this production. It was such a young cast. Coming to a city where you don’t know anybody, having a young cast that was so inclusive and welcomed me with open arms was a gift. And having Marin Mazzie who was such a beautiful person and actor being the captain of that ship, I learned a lot. 

That lead to you working with Pasek & Paul on Dogfight, based on the 1991 film. Tell me about working with those two in the days before their massive success with Dear Evan Hansen.

It’s interesting to look at this young writing duo before all that instant fame. We were all young people trying to figure it out. Joe Mantello was directing the show and he was the only person who had that experience of developing musicals successfully. [He’s the director of Wicked.] It’s fascinating to look back at Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan [bookwriter] write and construct these pieces in the room and have Joe shoot it down or say “no, that’s not quite right” and then watch them go into another room, come back with a whole new piece and keep presenting all these pieces until we got the right fit. 

The Bridges of Madison County won composer Jason Robert Brown two Tony Awards, but didn’t last long on Broadway with only 100 performances. When you are in a show do you have a sense whether or not it is working with the audience?

I think it’s a tough subject matter to achieve as it is. I don’t think I was aware in the room that things were working or not working because [director] Bart Sher is so smart, he gave us a lot of confidence in what we were doing We also had Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale and every time they opened their mouth it was gold. You couldn’t help but be mesmerized by what they were doing. That gave us confidence in what we were doing.

Jason Robert Brown is top two if not my favorite composer ever. Parade is one of my favorite shows and I think he’s just a genius. The music he wrote was just beautiful. There were so many amazing elements to that show. 

Whether a musical succeeds on Broadway, there are so many things: the timing, the venue, the publicity…There are so many different reasons as to why it may or may not have worked. No matter what, we create something special and Jason was rewarded for that. That record will forever be idolized and looked up to.

That’s just a few of Derek’s shows. Tomorrow we’ll have part two of our interview with him where we’ll discuss a couple other shows and get his views on his latest project, the highly- anticipated Broadway production of Jagged Little Pill.

For tickets go here.

Klena will also be performing on Thursday, August 8th at Martini’s Above Fourth in San Diego. For tickets go here.

To see part two of my interview with Derek please go here.

Main photo courtesy of FitForBroadway.com

The post Derek Klena’s Front Row Seat to Contemporary Musicals appeared first on Cultural Attaché.