High school musical time for Showtime
Showtime is getting into the high school musical business.
No, not with Zac and Vanessa, et al, but through a feature documentary to be produced with Lionsgate that promises to examine "the cutthroat world of high school musicals in southern Indiana." Pic will focus on the rehearsals, histrionics and hijinks surrounding tuner productions at three schools -- Floyd Central High, New Albany and Jeffersonville -- as students, parents, teachers and even local salons go at it head-to-head in an effort to have their shows selected to participate in the International Thespian Festival. Untitled docu will be produced by Barry Blaustein, producer of the wrestling docu "Beyond the Mat," and Nigel Sinclair, who produced Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" doc.Lionsgate gets worldwide theatrical distrib rights to the pic, which is expected to bow next year.
Blaustein's promising to capture "all the joy, all the love, all the backstabbing" that surrounds the process.
The southern Indiana setting is kinda close to home for Showtime entertainment chief Robert Greenblatt, who had his own "Waiting for Guffman" moments in high school as the stage manager of variety show and tuner productions at his high school in Rockford, Ill., including "Guys & Dolls," "No No Nanette," "Bye Bye Birdie" and "George M!"
As such, the untitled docu project "really speaks to me," Greenblatt says.
Young Bob recognized his gift for working with and befriending budding talents early on when he toiled on high school and Rockford-area community theater productions with such future boldface names as Joe Mantello, B'way director and actor; Shawn Ryan, exec producer-creator of bad-ass TV dramas "The Shield" and "The Unit"; helmer Gary Griffin (B'way's "The Color Purple"); writer-producer Linda Wallem ("That '70s Show"); art director Dan Webster; music director Kevin Stites; and a long list of thesps including Marin Mazzie (B'way's "Spam-a-Lot"); Tim Maculan ("Six Feet Under"); Sharon Sachs ("Weeds"); and Jodi Benson (B'way's "Crazy for You").
"We're all still close friends and try to work as often as possible," Greenblatt sez.
Somehow I'm guessing that if you'd asked the aforementioned folks back in the day, they would've pegged Greenblatt as one to watch as well.
(Pictured above: Greenblatt turns on the charm with "Dexter" co-star Julie Benz. Pic by Eric Charbonneau/WireImage)
Cynthia Littleton is deputy editor, news development at Variety and a veteran television reporter.
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I am in this! I am so stoked! Sure, I'm just an extra in the play, but The camera was shoved in my face a few times. Like when I cried, when I fell asleep backstage.
Practices can be grueling and unforgiving, but seeing people talk about it is awesome. Do you have any idea when the movie is due out?
Sarah Doyle
Former NAHS student
Posted by: Sarah Doyle | March 19, 2008 at 08:40 PM
I'm in this too.. Barry and myself were dancing backstage ,cause i'm a Techie, I was doing Tech for Zombie Prom at Floyd Central. I loved working with Barry and all of his crew it was a new experiance for me considering that i'm usually beind the scenes not in from of the Camera. To Barry: You are an AMAZING person and i hope everything went well, We enjoyed having you around the Theatre Department!
Posted by: Amber Berg | July 01, 2008 at 05:33 PM