Filmed Live Musicals was created by Luisa Lyons. Luisa is an actor, writer, and musician who grew up in Sydney, trained in London, and now lives and plays in the New York City area.
Luisa wrote her Masters Thesis on Filmed Live Musicals at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama after seeing an interview with producer Ellen M. Krass who stated that she had trouble getting funding for filming live musical theatre. Having grown up watching Into the Woods and Victor/Victoria on VHS, and loving Legally Blonde on MTV, Luisa wanted to understand why no one had heard of filming live musicals.
Shortly after finishing her dissertation, Luisa was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Unable to attend live theatre due to a suppressed immune system, Luisa built Filmed Live Musicals as a way to catalog all the stage musicals that had been legally filmed and made publicly available, and share the love of filmed musicals with the world!
Learn more about Luisa at www.luisalyons.com.
Luisa wrote her Masters Thesis on Filmed Live Musicals at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama after seeing an interview with producer Ellen M. Krass who stated that she had trouble getting funding for filming live musical theatre. Having grown up watching Into the Woods and Victor/Victoria on VHS, and loving Legally Blonde on MTV, Luisa wanted to understand why no one had heard of filming live musicals.
Shortly after finishing her dissertation, Luisa was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Unable to attend live theatre due to a suppressed immune system, Luisa built Filmed Live Musicals as a way to catalog all the stage musicals that had been legally filmed and made publicly available, and share the love of filmed musicals with the world!
Learn more about Luisa at www.luisalyons.com.
What is a "filmed live musical"?
A stage musical, filmed in front of a live audience, and made available for public viewing."
Filmed live musicals also go by the name of capture, pro-shot, broadcast, live cinema, transmission, HD transmission, cine-cast, live capture, and outside broadcast.
To be included in the database, a musical needs to be:
The following shows are not included:
- A stage musical
- Legally filmed in front of a live audience
- Legally made available for public viewing
The following shows are not included:
- Bootlegs. They're illegal. They deny the cast and creatives fair compensation for their work. They are often poor quality and make people think that filmed live theatre is awful.
- "MusicalLIVE!" events like The Sound of Music Live!, Peter Pan Live!, Grease LIVE! and The Wiz LIVE! that didn't have a live in-person audience able to watch the musical in its entirety
- Movie musicals. I love 'em, but they are not films of live stage shows - even if the movie is based on a show that was once on stage
- Musicals filmed for the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) at the New York Public Library. These recordings are only made available to approved researchers, and are only available to view in New York City.