A ‘Carousel’ of musicals
RICHARD Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were the most successful team on the Great White Way from 1943, when their first collaboration, “Oklahoma!,” premiered on Broadway, until their last show, “The Sound of Music,” opened in 1959.
In between, they wrote the scores for “Carousel,” “South Pacific,” “The King and I” and “Flower Drum Song,” and even managed to find time to pen the tunes for the 1945 movie musical “State Fair,” for which they won the best song Oscar for “It Might as Well Be Spring.” They also took their talent to TV in 1957, writing the music and lyrics for “Cinderella,” starring a very young Julie Andrews.
Of course, Hollywood was eager to bring hit their shows to the big screen. And we mean big screen -- CinemaScope, Todd-AO, 70-millimeter.
Beginning Friday, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Leo S. Bing Theater will be alive with the sound of their music when the three-week series “Six Enchanted Evenings: Rodgers and Hammerstein on Film” kicks off with the uneven 1956 version of “Carousel,” based on Ferenc Molnár’s play, “Liliom.” Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones star in this tragic love story between a carnival barker and a shy millworker. Songs include “If I Loved You” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
On tap for Saturday is 1958’s “South Pacific,” which was laboriously directed by Joshua Logan. A stiff -- and dubbed -- Rossano Brazzi stars as a French plantation owner on a South Sea island during World War II who falls for a plucky American nurse (Mitzi Gaynor). John Kerr (also dubbed), France Nuyen, Juanita Hall and Ray Walston also star. Songs include “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame” and “This Nearly Was Mine.”
Also on Saturday, the Writers Guild Foundation will fete veteran and venerable screenwriters Fay Kanin, 90, Irving Brecher, 93, and Millard Kaufman, 90. “Living Legends: Three Classic Films and Their Writers” features Brecher in conversation with Robert L. Freedman following a screening of “Meet Me in St. Louis,” Kanin chatting with Robin Schiff after 1958’s “Teacher’s Pet” and Kaufman discussing “Bad Day at Black Rock” with Phil Alden Robinson.
The fourth annual Elevate Festival of Film and Music, which describes itself as the “first ever guerrilla filmmaking competition to challenge the international film community to create works of social and global importance,” visits the Kodak Theatre on Saturday. Participants include singer Alanis Morissette, poet and performer Saul Williams, producer Brian Gerber, performer India.Arie, cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth and producer Mark Harris. A week before the festival, participating producers and directors draw on the topic they are to produce and then have 48 hours to complete their films. The works will be shown at the Kodak. Competition is in three categories: music video, narrative short and documentary short.
Film at REDCAT opens its second season with a rare screening Sunday of Werner Penzel and Nicolas Humbert’s “Step Across the Border,” their award-winning documentary on Fred Frith, a founder of the late-1960s underground band Henry Cow. The 1990 film features performances by Frith and Cyro Battista, Iva Bittová, Tim Hodgkinson, Arto Lindsay, René Lussier, Bob Ostertag, John Zorn and the late Tom Cora.
Wolfgang Petersen will participate in a Q&A; on Tuesday after AFI at ArcLight’s presentation of “Troy: The Director’s Cut.” The new version of the 2004 sword-and-sandal epic starring Brad Pitt and Eric Bana, which will be released Sept. 18 on DVD, has been reedited to include 30 minutes of new footage.
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Screenings
Six Enchanted Evenings
* “Carousel”: 7:30 p.m. Friday
* “South Pacific”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, lacma.org
Living Legends
* “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Teacher’s Pet” and “Bad Day at Black Rock”: 11 a.m. Saturday, Writers Guild Theater, 135 S. Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills,
www.wgfoundation.org
Elevate Festival of Film and Music
* 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Kodak Theatre, elevatefilmfestival.com
REDCAT
* “Step Across the Border”: 7 p.m. Sunday, REDCAT, redcat.org
AFI at ArcLight
* “Troy: The Director’s Cut”: 7 p.m. Tuesday, ArcLight, www.afi.com
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