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top of page | home | search | site map | contact info | credits shows | tickets | location | backstage | services | site info ©
The National Theatre Corporation,
a 501.c3 nonprofit institution managed by The
Shubert Organization.
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Set
in the fictional town of Blaine, Missouri, This mock documentary
chronicles the desperate and dramatic efforts of its talent-challenged
little theatre group to put on a show celebrating the hamlet's 150th
anniversary. From the fey director Corky St. Clair to the Dairy
Queen girl, the cast and the production scream incompetence. Furthermore,
St. Claire has invited Guffman -- a Broadway producer -- to see
the production, in the hope that the cast and their show will be
"discovered" and whisked the Great White Way.
This is the heartwarming story of a young boy from a working-class
family who discovers a passion that will change his life forever.
Billy Elliott, the eleven-year-old son of a coal miner, is on his
way to boxing lessons when he stumbles into a ballet class. He joins
the class secretly, knowing that his blue-collar family would never
approve. Under the guidance of a demanding teacher, Billy's raw
talent flourishes brilliantly. However, when his father discovers
his son's artistic ambition, Billy must fight for his dreams and
his destiny.
With
music by Rodgers and Hart, this fond celebration of the theatre
follows two precocious youngsters who "put on a show"
to raise money for their unemployed vaudevillian parents. Obstacles
to their success include an untimely hurricane, Margaret Hamilton
(the witch who antagonized Judy in the land of Oz!), and their parent's
own disillusions with show business. Of course, nothing can dampen
the enthusiasm of these show-biz kids, so their bright-eyed optimism
ultimately pays off. Old stage acts are fondly revived. The shadow
of the Depression on these Age of Innocence entertainers lends the
film depth. Compassionate, earnest, still funny and of course, brilliantly
choreographed to timeless melodies, it's quite a show!
Colonel
Pepper brings his daughter, Peggy, from Georgia to Hollywood to
make her an actress. There she meets Billy who gets her work at
Comet Studio doing comedies with him. But Peggy is discovered by
High Art Studio, and she leaves Billy and Comet to work there. Developing
her new image, she is renamed Patricia Pepoire and ignores
Billy when he sees her on location. When she is no longer wanted
by the "little people" who do not understand her high
"ART", she decides to marry Andre and acquire a fake title.
But Billy will not let her go without a fight.
This
is the story of the brilliant but bedeviled Billie Holliday. Raped
as a young girl, Holliday then ascended from bordello songbird to
great fame, rising as far as an African American singer could climb
in the white-dominated show business world of the 1930's. The pressures
and excesses of her life and career led her to narcotics, and she
is confined to a strait-jacket and awaiting a drug sentence when
the film opens and her reveries begin. Strong stuff, but graced
with wonderful music and stunning performances.
Lonely
woodcarver Geppetto longs for a child, and his wish is partially
granted when the Blue Fairy brings his wooden marionette Pinocchio
to life. In order to become a real boy, Pinocchio must prove himself
worthy. He sets out into the world, accompanied by his "conscience,"
Jiminy Cricket. Pinocchio is led astray by the wicked fox J. Worthington
Fowlfellow, first to "a life in the theater"- Stromboli's
puppet show - and then to Pleasure Island, where boys behave like
(and become!) jackasses. Pinocchio redeems himself by saving Geppetto
from Monstro, the whale.
This
musical meditation on death by heart failure has particular resonance
here at the National Theatre, since its creator, Bob Fosse, died
on a street near the theatre, on the eve of the opening of a revival
of his show SWEET CHARTIY. In the film Fosse, as director/choreographer,
examines his own life as a driven entertainer and workaholic, juggling
a new Broadway production, ex-wife Audrey, his steady girlfriend,
a young daughter, and various conquests, all the while editing his
new movie. The film alternates brilliant choreography with extravagant
cinematography, as Joe meditates on his life, his women, and his
death.
A
pre-Broadway show encounters hilarious difficulties. In Nothing
On, a play-within-this-film, a British couple have slipped
back from their tax haven in Spain to their English manor house.
Their slovenly housekeeper, an ancient burglar, and a real estate
agent hoping to luxuriate in the bedrooms, are featured players.
Two besieged stage managers and a down-on-his-luck stage director
superintend the mad proceedings. Tumultuous onstage action is matched
by riotous backstage mayhem as the actors cope with professional
rivalries, romantic entanglements and myriad disasters. Missed cues,
missed entrances and stuck doors implode the play. Anyone who has
set foot on a stage has to love this film!
Free
films are shown at the National Theatre during summer months. Performances
are at 6:30 pm on Monday evenings in the Helen Hayes Gallery, where
the national portrait of Miss Hayes is displayed. Admission is free,
on a first-come, first-seated basis. The series was inaugurated
in 1985.
