How a Creative Team Brought "42nd St" from a London Stage to the Screen
Kerry Breen
One of Mark Bramble’s final projects is accessible to theatre-lovers around the world, as the London production of 42nd Street is available for streaming on BroadwayHD.
Bramble, who co-wrote the book for the original 1981 Broadway production, helped edit the filmed version for the screen, working alongside director Ross MacGibbon, who directed the original movie of 42nd Street, and BroadwayHD founders Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley.
“Working with Marc was a joy, and was in fact instrumental in securing the digital capture,” said Lane. “His enthusiasm and faith in what BroadwayHD was doing inspired the artistic team and producers to work with us.”
To make sure that viewers at home could see 42nd Street in all its glory, the BroadwayHD crew filmed in 4k and utilized eight cameras at three performances to capture the full production. While that many cameras isn’t a new number for the team, Comley and Lane said that they made sure to do whatever was necessary to capture the production as fully as possible.
With over fifty actors, the crew had their work cut out for them, but the combined efforts of Bramble, Lane, Comley, and MacGibbon, along with the production’s creative team, led to the high-quality recording, now available for streaming.
“With the full cooperation of the cast and crew, we were able to overcome any [technical] difficulties,” Lane explained. “The 54 actors and the crew had been working together on the show for two years. They were a well-oiled machine, operating seamlessly.”
The BroadwayHD team has more productions up their sleeves, though they were unable to share any details about upcoming plans. In the past, they’ve put together filmed versions of “A Night with Janis Joplin” and “Ruthless: The Musical,” and of course, their live-stream of “She Loves Me,” which earned the streaming service a Guinness World Record.
BroadwayHD, founded in 2015 by Tony Award® winning producers Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley, is the only streaming service offering premium full-length stage plays and musicals captured specifically for multi platform viewing to theatre fans across the globe. In addition to exclusive live-streamed content of the world’s best productions, BroadwayHD offers subscribers unlimited on-demand access to a library of more than 250 theatre productions from Broadway, The West End and beyond.