Special Free Screening of Carlisle Floyd and Hal Prince's: WILLIE STARK
By: Rebecca Russo Feb. 24, 2017
The Paley Center for Media in New York City (25 WEST 52ND ST., NYC) will screen the complete 1981 PBS Great Performances telecast of WILLIE STARK starring Timothy Nolen on Saturday, February 25, from 1 to 3:30 pm.
This Houston Grand Opera production of Carlisle Floyd's AMERICAN MUSICAL DRAMA was directed by Harold Prince and conducted by John DeMain. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1946 novel All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, WILLIE STARK, set in the South during the Depression, portrays the final days in the life of Gov. Willie Stark (Nolen), a charismatic, corrupt politician who is in danger of being impeached. The cast also includes Alan Kays as Jack, Jan Curtis as Sadie, Julia Conwell as Anne, Don Garrard as Judge Burden, and Robert Moulson as Sugar BoY. Willie Stark HAS SET DESIGNS by Eugene Lee and WAS directed for television by Brian Large.
AFTER ITS INITIAL AIRINGS ON PBS IN THE FALL OF 1981, THE TELECAST WAS NOT BROADCAST AGAIN AND IT WAS NOT RELEASED COMMERCIALLY.
THE SCORE IS A FUSION OF CLASSICAL, JAZZ, AND FOLK MUSIC. "WHAT WAS GOOD ABOUT WILLIE STARK ON STAGE, ESPECIALLY THE VIVID CREATION OF ITS TITLE ROLE BY Timothy Nolen, IS EVEN BETTER ON THE SCREEN," WROTE MUSIC CRITIC IRVING KOLODIN IN NEWSDAY, WHILE NEW YORK TIMES TV CRITIC JOHN J. O'CONNOR ENTHUSED THAT "Willie Stark indisputably provides ample opportunities for splendid television."
The screening includes filmed interviews with Carlisle Floyd and Harold Prince.
Composer-librettist Carlisle Floyd will ATTEND the Paley Center SCREENING. FLOYD, COMPOSER OF THE CRITICALLY PRAISED OPERAS SUSANNAH AND OF MICE AND MEN, WILL BE IN NEW YORK FOR THE LOCAL PREMIERE OF HIS NEWEST WORK, PRINCE OF PLAYERS, WHICH WILL BE PRODUCED FEBRUARY 23 TO 26 AT THE KAYE PLAYHOUSE AT HUNTER COLLEGE BY THE LITTLE OPERA THEATRE OF NEW YORK.
Admission TO THE PALEY CENTER SCREENING is free.
The Paley Center is located at 25 West 52nd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. For more information, call (212) 621-6600 or go to https://www.paleycenter.org/weekend-screenings-2017
LOCATION: THE PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA - 25 W. 52ND STREET (BTW 5TH & 6TH AVE), NEW YORK, NY.
WEBSITE: www.paleycenter.org
ENTRY FEE: FREE
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