Memphis: The Original Broadway Production Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Memphis: The Original Broadway Production Blu-ray Movie Review

Can't get to The Great White Way? No problem.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 13, 2011

It used to be a foregone conclusion that if a Broadway musical was a hit, it was optioned for film and more often than not went on to be a smash on screen as well. Even Broadway tuners that only eked out respectable runs had a good shot of being transferred to the screen if they had at least produced a hit song or two along the way. From the forties through at least the early sixties, the parade of Broadway shows getting the Hollywood treatment was virtually constant. But then of course things started to change sometime after The Sound of Music was such a phenomenon in 1965. A whole series of Broadway hits bombed as films, including everything from Camelot to Sweet Charity to Finian’s Rainbow. Even films that pulled in relatively decent box office, like Paint Your Wagon, ultimately never made a profit, at least not before they moved on to home video formats. And by the time the seventies came along, aside from such extremely rare exceptions like Fiddler on the Roof, the era of the successful transfer from Broadway to Hollywood was all but over. A few big titles still managed to trickle through the pipeline, but few if any managed to generate much audience interest.

It’s a sad commentary on changing tastes, really, because there are a wealth of fantastic musicals from this era which really could have been spectacular films, probably none more so than the iconic Stephen Sondheim early seventies legend, Follies, which actually was optioned for a screen version (with original director Harold Prince attached to direct, at least for a while). Follies easily could have reinvigorated the musical genre, especially since it (for a while at least) was going to reinvent itself from being a reunion of long ago theater stars to one of film stars, with such talents as Debbie Reynolds and Shirley MacLaine bandied about as potential leads. But even musicals that did manage to get filmed hardly ever clicked with audiences, at least until Chicago came along and supposedly “reinvented” the genre (which is highly arguable). Unfortunately, lightning hasn’t struck twice in the intervening years, and the big musical film culled from a Broadway hit seems once again largely moribund. Which brings us to this interesting new idea (actually, not so new) called Direct from Broadway, in this particular case a production of Memphis, the first time ever a still running show has been filmed and released theatrically (in limited markets) as well as for home video. This may well spell the wave of the future for Broadway musicals, and in a way some purists may find it preferable to the typical Hollywood treatment, which frequently drastically revises the original properties and tries to shoehorn glamorous Hollywood stars into roles that were created by journeymen singer-actors.

Memphis took home a handful of 2010 Tony Awards, including the trifecta of Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score (it also won for Best Orchestrations), but more churlish and/or cynical observers might argue that the 2009-10 season was not exactly a banner year for original musicals and the award had to go to something. Memphis has a score co-written by Bon Jovi’s David Bryan, and it’s a pulsating selection of tunes that perhaps owes more to Motown than to the city of Beale Street. Memphis tells the story of oddly accented schlub Huey Calhoun (Chad Kimball), a white guy with a deep love for what was then called “race” music, meaning nascent rhythm and blues which would soon erupt nationwide in “nice” versions by white artists like Elvis or (heaven help us) Pat Boone. Huey drops into a local blacks only club called Delray’s, where he’s drawn by the sounds of the incredible singing, including a lovely young African American woman named Felicia Farrell (Montego Glover).

(In an aside, I must say that this element of Memphis really struck home for me for completely personal reasons. I moved to Portland when I was around 19, having just graduated from college a couple of years early. I was walking around the streets of North Portland early one Sunday morning in the years when that was still a 99% African American neighborhood, and I heard the most glorious gospel music I had ever heard in my life [and truth be told I hadn't heard much, having lived the bulk of my life up until that point in Salt Lake City] emanating from a little white clapboard church down the street. As if in a trance, I walked into the place, and a congregation consisting solely of black folks turned around a stared, probably in disbelief, at the young white boy with long hair and a scraggly beard walking through their doors. Within seconds, though, several came back literally with open arms and welcomed me inside their sanctuary and it is a morning of beautiful music I’ll never forget).

The musical is a weird amalgamation of ideas from such disparate properties as Dreamgirls and Hairspray. Memphis wants to exploit the tension between whites and blacks and the burgeoning industry of R&B and rock and roll in the late fifties, as well as providing a fictionalized portrait of such iconic DJs as Dewey Phillips or Alan Freed. The musical also works in a star-crossed lovers angle as Huey and Felicia fall for each other, even though the morés of the era (especially those in the deep south) won’t allow their love to be publicly proclaimed. Memphis has little of Hairspray’s inherent ebullience, and in fact it’s a deliberately dark piece at times, which brings its shtick laden humor into perhaps uncomfortable bas relief at times. Huey manages to become a super-successful DJ (and ultimately TV host) while Felicia chases the brass ring of a skyrocketing music career. But Memphis wants social relevance at times in the place of slam dunk entertainment value, and that means a second act filled with turgid melodrama and a kind of Star is Born reversal of fortune.

What Memphis lacks in originality or nuance it probably more than makes up for in a slick and hugely energetic production which features some knockout singing and near acrobatic dance moves. Director Christopher Ashley has a filmic approach to the material, segueing effortlessly from scene with a variety of multi-plane sets and hydraulics lifting various actors up through trapdoors in the stage, for a fluid, nonstop feel. Montego Glover is inarguably the highlight of the show, despite Chad Kimball’s putative “starring” turn as Huey. Glover is a firecracker and an intensely emotional singer. Kimball is hobbled by a completely off-putting patois that has him mumbling, giggling and muttering in a weird portrayal that seems like he’s channeling Chuck Barris’ southern cousin at times. His singing is fine, if nowhere near as powerful as that of many of the rest of the cast, but I personally found his odd inflected speaking manner a trial to endure. (Kimball only very recently left the cast of Memphis when it was announced he had suffered some sort of voice damage that needed to be addressed).

The Direct from Broadway model has been utilized fitfully through the years for a variety of shows, but Memphis presents both a new opportunity and a new obstacle for the marketing effort. It’s a fabulous way to be able to see a still running show with its Original Broadway Cast intact, but that also perhaps will work to the detriment of the show’s Broadway and touring companies, leading to a Catch-22 situation where due to the filmed version having been seen by so many, the actual live theater production becomes less appealing. But until the next wave of Hollywood adaptations from Broadway hits comes along (if it ever does come along), offerings like this are a welcome addition to the home video market.

Memphis: The Original Broadway Production Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Memphis is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The show was filmed with a battery of HD cameras and an incredible multichannel (actually megachannel from the looks of it) soundboard over several nights in January 2011 and from a purely technical standpoint of camera coverage, this is a stellar outing. The image quality is generally very sharp, with excellent fine detail in close-ups, and good, solidly saturated colors that only tend to occasionally look drab due to the perhaps odd decision to clad so many characters in beiges and browns. Despite the interlaced presentation and the abundance of energetic dance moves throughout the production, there are few if any combing artifacts to report. Only very slight crush remains as an issue, which occasionally leads to things like black hair disappearing into murky shadow detail, but even this issue is quite slight. Overall this is a really sharp and vivid looking presentation that pops very nicely and should please lovers of live theater.

Memphis: The Original Broadway Production Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Memphis offers three sound mixes, a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix and two lossy Dolby mixes, one in 5.1 and the other a 2.0 stereo fold down. Though this score can hardly be called innovative, and in fact is rather pedestrian at times, what makes it such a sonic delight are the incredible brass drenched orchestrations, which sound absolutely fantastic on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. Fidelity is incredible throughout this track, reproducing the blistering brass attacks and the elegant singing effortlessly. There's not a huge amount of separation here, though occasionally some fairly wide splaying of dialogue and singing is evident when various actors are on the far stage left or stage right sides of the action. Dynamic range is also incredible on this track, handling everything from the quieter dialogue scenes to the incredible band numbers with ease.

Memphis: The Original Broadway Production Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 2:39)
• Cast Hellos (1080i; 2:38) features brief comments by the principals.
• Who's Who is a reprint of the Playbill cast pages (and very hard to read).
• Behind the Scenes: How Memphis Was Captured (1080i; 15:02) gives a little background, with comments by DiPietro and Bryan and their writing process, and theatrical director Christopher Ashley talking about the original staging. The best parts of this brief featurette are about the filming and especially the sound design of this high definition presentation.

Memphis: The Original Broadway Production Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Though I have a few issues with Memphis as a musical, if not as an entertainment, I can't help but hope that Direct from Broadway is a fantastic success and that this release is the harbinger of lots more great Broadway musicals being presented in this fashion. As a matter of fact, there's an incredible revival of that Sondheim show that never got filmed on the boards right now. I put my vote in right now for the next Direct from Broadway offering to be Follies. In the meantime, though, while Memphis is nowhere near as innovative as that Sondheim outing, it's a generally well crafted evening with some knockout performances and absolutely incredible sounding band. Recommended.