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http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/102875069

[Interview with Ben Vereen raw footage]

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type

about

alternateName

http://schema.org/alternateName

  • "Broadway, the American musical"

contributor

description

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  • "Discussion resumes with more on O'Horgan, whom Vereen believes was responsible for breaking the "fourth wall," of a Broadway production, in which the cast leaves the stage to move about the theater and interact with the audience; more on what it was like to work with Fosse; the upsurge of vibrant Black productions on Broadway during the 1970s, and the continued need for support of African Americans in the theater; the redevelopment of Times Square; the American musical as a product of a people who have a heartfelt desire to tell their stories in song."
  • "Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Actor, dancer and singer Ben Vereen discusses the American musical. Topics of discussion include performing on Broadway as the pinnacle of achievement for the performer; preparing for a show, and his feelings on opening night; his motivation as a performer in doing his work well, rather than in being a star; the satisfaction of dancing for a Broadway audience; his early influences and training, including a trio called Tip, Tap and Toe who would tap dance and shine shoes in the shoeshine parlor they ran in his childhood neighborhood in Brooklyn, making up his own dances and then taking lessons at the Green Dance Studio in Brooklyn, attending the High School of the Performing Arts, which caused him to gravitate to modern dance and ballet, looking up to dancers like Arthur Mitchell, Alvin Ailey, Jo Jo Smith and Hymie Rogers, as well as television and movie stars like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Sammy Davis Jr., and his studies with teachers Norman Walker, David Wood, and Gertrude Shurr; musicals of the 1960s like Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Inner City Mother Goose, which introduced social consciousness into the theater; the sixties as a period when he and his contemporaries were focused on effecting social change; his Broadway roles in Pipin, Hair, and Jesus Christ Superstar, in which he played Herod; the controversy surrounding Jesus Christ Superstar, when the show was at first denounced as blasphemous by the church; the visionary production and direction of the show by Tom O'Horgan, and its book and lyrics by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber; the revolutionary effect of the casting decisions involving Black performers by O'Horgan and Bob Fosse; the contributions of early 20th century Black performers like Bert Williams who "took the knocks" in order for Black performers to gain acceptance; Williams' obligation to wear blackface makeup in order to perform; his widely popular tours in Europe where he made the statement that being Black in America was an "inconvenience"; the Minstrel show, in which White entertainers wearing blackface makeup portrayed Blacks in stereotypical and often disparaging ways, and its influence on the genius work of Bert Williams and his partner George Walker, initially called their act The Real Coons; Vaudeville's demand for multi-talented performers, and how this led to the development of musical comedy; the significance the early Black musicals Shuffle along and In Dahomey, written by and starring Bert Williams; more on Williams' who was a star peformer in the Zeigfeld Follies for ten years, yet faced racism from his colleagues as well as from strangers; the source of his greatness in his timing and his material; more on Fosse, a friend and a "task master," who demanded perfection from performers. Audio-only discussion begins ca. 45 min. and continues for about one minute."

genre

http://schema.org/genre

  • "Musicals"
  • "Unedited footage"
  • "Interviews"
  • "Documentaries and factual works"

name

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  • "[Interview with Ben Vereen raw footage]"

workExample