FLASH FRIDAY: Lonny Price, COMPANY & Co.

Today, in honor of the nationwide release of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY in movie theaters, we are celebrating the many accomplishments of the film's director who has made a name for himself in the twenty-first century as the finest and most productive theatrical filmmaker of our age - Lonny Price. With his string of highly successful filmed stage performances before COMPANY ranging from last year's stupendous SONDHEIM! THE BIRTHDAY CONCERT back to SWEENEY TODD: IN CONCERT starring George Hearn and Patti LuPone, CANDIDE starring Kristin Chenoweth, CAMELOT with Gabriel Byrne, as well as well as the LIVE FROM LINCOLN center broadcast of Sondheim's PASSION and the forthcoming feature film version of Athol Fugard's Pulitzer prize-winning MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS, Price is ushering in a new era of theatrical films for television and, now, the cinema. So, let's go back and take a look at what led up to the feature film live capture of COMPANY taking musical theatre to an entirely new level - and an enormously appreciative audience.

Three Is Company

So, SWEENEY TODD to CANDIDE to CAMELOT to PASSION to SONDHEIM! and COMPANY - let's go show-by-show through the thrilling live performance captures of productions directed for the stage and screen by master director Lonny Price over the last ten years in celebration of COMPANY in movie theaters this weekend - and, as it was just announced, making a return to the cinema in early July!

Also, be sure to check out the world premiere first review of the COMPANY broadcast in my SOUND OFF column as well as our BWW EXCLUSIVE InDepth InterView with Lonny Price that went live on BroadwayWorld earlier today! Enjoy them both - and, now, this! COMPANY is everywhere - even on the Tony Awards - and that's thanks in no small part to Mr. Price!

Kicking off our comprehensive Lonny Price clip countdown, check out Neil Patrick Harris leading the starry cast of COMPANY at Sunday's highly successful ratings-wise Tony Award broadcast from the Beacon Theater, with the toe-tapping Act Two opener "Side By Side". Note the acidic aftertaste and bitter bite of that dance break - musical theatre at its best and one of the best moments in the film, as well!

Now that you've seen a live performance preview of the live performance film version of COMPANY, you just have to see it in theaters! But, first, let's go back a decade or so…

SWEENEY TODD: LIVE IN CONCERT

With a clip from Price's very first foray into filmed theatrical presentations, here is SWEENEY TODD: IN CONCERT and a Sondheim patter song performed with aplomb by COMPANY's own Neil Patrick Harris over ten years ago, long before he was a two-time Emmy-winning leading man with an international fan-base. Yet, even here, Harris displays the charm and commitment to character that would make his Bobby such a smashing, resounding success - don't miss it, or this!

With the bustling and busy second act opener of SWEENEY TODD, "God That's Good!", watch Neil team up with Patti LuPone - who delectably essays the role of Sweeney's nefarious partner in crime, Nellie Lovett - long before they set the stage and screen afire in their chilling closing scenes together in the film version of COMPANY. Also, George Hearn is a commanding Sweeney and, yes, that is soon-to-be Tony-winner Victoria Clark as the Beggar Woman. What an effective and entertaining iteration of the operatic thriller this production was thanks in no small part to Price's precise and flowing directorial style employed in the staging and fluid filming, and, furthermore, what a way to kick off a career capturing the best of musical theatre on film for the ages!

With one more Harris/LuPone moment can there ever be enough? here is the touching and tender lullaby duet - with some seriously scary undertones - "Not While I'm Around" taken from SWEENEY TODD: IN CONCERT.

CANDIDE: LIVE IN CONCERT

Next, let's take a look at Price's production of Bernstein's CANDIDE with Patti LuPone wheeling an impossibly pert and pink Kristin Chenoweth onstage to sing one of Bernstein's most difficult songs, the rousing, arousing and all-around deliriously delightful "Glitter & Be Gay". With pearls!

Now, take a look at Patti LuPone's most memorable and characteristically fantastic moment from CANDIDE: LIVE IN CONCERT, "I Am Easily Assimilated". Even Voltaire would be impressed, no doubt!

With one last CANDIDE number to devour, here is a LuPone/Chenoweth duet - reason enough to rejoice - the snide and soprano-thick "We Are Women"! What a duo!

PASSION: LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER

Since PASSION is one of those long and winding rivers of a show -"the musical equivalent of being swept down a river", as it were - that does not lend itself particularly well to chopping up and enjoying clips taken out of context from it, perhaps it would be best to present the opening remarks of the live broadcast of the show led by Leslie Stahl from Lonny Price's PASSION: LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER and then let you choose the path you wish to take. Stahl interviews Sondheim and original book writer/director James Lapine following a short preliminary introduction and the idea of PASSION as a "mood piece" is certainly apt indeed, though this live film of the show had all the intensity and pathos of the Broadway original with an air of excitement and, well, passion that had previously been lacking at least for me.

Price's live broadcast of PASSION was led by Patti LuPone in the lead role of Fosca and featured a sensitive and brooding Georgio in Tony-winner Michael Cerveris and a luminous Clara in multi-Tony-winner Audra McDonald. Here is the opening number, "Happiness". Proceed from here with extreme caution - you are likely to be swept up in a tsunami-like tidal wave of emotion and, sooner or later: sadness!

Now, with unquestionably the most famous song from the Tony-winning score, here is a near-death Fosca admitting her deep-felt desire for and infatuation with her betrothed in Sondheim's searing and painfully sensitive "Loving You". "I will live / And I would die / For you," - what simple, elegant brilliance.

CAMELOT: LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's CAMELOT is a troublesome show onstage given its massive book and hindering structure, yet the concert presentation of the show directed by Lonny Price for LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER covered many of the flaws of the imperfect musical with a quite glorious and glimmering score.

Such an example of the greatness that can be found in the score can be seen and heard here with Marin Mazzie's simply lovely "The Lusty Month of May" from CAMELOT: LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER.

Now, witness Nathan Gunn's handsome and ingratiating Lancelot meeting Gabriel Byrne's King Arthur in CAMELOT.

With the musical moment of the CAMELOT concert, fall in love with this alluring and lusty "I Loved You Once In Silence" performed by Marin Mazzie and Nathan Gunn.

And, lastly, Nathan Gunn's highly romantic "If Ever I Would Leave You". What pipes!

SONDHEIM! THE BIRTHDAY CONCERT

It simply does not get any better than SONDHEIM! THE BIRTHDAY CONCERT, at least for the Broadway babies among us. This is the top. Sondheim himself was moved beyond words with the concert, as he told me himself in our extensive InDepth InterView, and this collection of performers singing these songs was something truly special to cherish forever. And, thank Lonny, we can, forever, on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Though it would be impossible to pick just a handful of clips showcasing the artistry on full display in this exceptional entertainment event, it would be most illustrative to share Patti LuPone's "The Ladies Who Lunch" if only because she sings it onstage with the original Joanne herself, Elaine Stritch, watching on and it acts as an ideal entrée into the world of COMPANY for the uninitiated - as the film itself so expertly does, as well.

Next, here is "Move On" from SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE performed by Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters - the latter just announced as taking to the Broadway stage as Sally in the Kennedy Center transfer of Sondheim's FOLLIES. The producer of all of Lonny's television and film broadcasts, Ellen Krass, selected this moment as her personal favorite out of all when I interviewed her last year. It's easy to see why - and impossible not to be moved. On. Right on.

COMPANY

Believe it or not, this is the second time Lonny Price has presented COMPANY for a national audience in the last five years. The last time out, he translated John Doyle's avant garde actor-musician version of the show starring Raul Esparza to the small screen for PBS now available on DVD and Blu-Ray. Here is Esparza performing "Being Alive" as only he can, proving why he is one of the finest musical theatre performers we have today - and why Price is so amazingly adept at capturing illustrious performances.

While the Doyle-directed COMPANY was a worthwhile and revealing take on the show, Price's own stage and screen version that opened this week in movie theaters is even more entertaining, joyous and fun, and, if only for those reasons - though it is so, so, so much more than merely those things - it is worth a viewing. Or three. Or five. Or seventy. See why I say that and find out for yourself! It's that good.

Etc.

Since Summer is nearly upon us, perhaps it would be most instructive to end on an up note, so here is one of my favorite moments from the SONDHEIM! birthday concert: "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/ Love Will See Us Through" from FOLLIES. What spot-on casting, too - it looks like a Gucci ad at the beginning and, then, a Mickey & Judy movie; just as it should be. Pitch perfect - casting, sound, video and performance - as it almost uniformly always is in a Price production.

Let's hope COMPANY is the Spring of movie musicals coming to theaters in the future! It's the start of a revolution and Lonny Price is the captain of the ship. A true pioneer - amply evident in the clips on display here today.