"Director: John Doyle"

• Main Street | DVD | (09/03/2015) from £2.59   |  Saving you £10.40 (401.54%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Several residents of a small Southern city whose lives are changed by the arrival of a stranger with a controversial plan to save their decaying hometown. In the midst of today’s challenging times each of the colourful citizens of this close-knit North Carolina community will search for ways to reinvent themselves their relationships and the very heart of their neighbourhood.

• Peter Grimes | DVD | (15/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Anthony Dean Griffey and Patricia Racette excel in John Doyle's new production of Britten's most celebrated opera Peter Grimes - filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera in Hi-Definition. This new MET production by award-winning director John Doyle (2006 Tony Award'' Best Direction of a Musical - Sweeney Todd) of Britten's haunting seaside tale continues EMI Classics' recent collaboration with the 'Metropolitan Opera : Live in High-Definition series'. Peter Grimes Britten's second opera is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of postwar opera and its premiere 63 years ago marked a turning point in the history of British Opera. It is now considered a masterwork of 20th Century opera and since its premiere it became the first opera by an English composer to enter and remain in the international repertory. The work is based on a poem by the turn-of-the-19th-century writer George Crabbe entitled The Borough and is set in an isolated English fishing village in the 1830s. Much of the emotional drive of the opera comes from the six 'Sea Interludes' - calm storm at dawn and by moonlight. These are among the most brilliantly evocative music that Britten ever wrote and which help to establish the constant overpowering presence of the sea as the opera's dominant force. Anthony Dean Griffey as Grimes is superb (San Francisco Chronicle). Patricia Racette as Ellen Orford the schoolmistress who tries and fails to rescue Grimes from his anger and self-pity is near faultless (New York Sun). Donald Runnicles music director of the San Francisco Opera drew an inspired performance from the Met Orchestra full of passion and commitment yet free of bombast. Without slackening the dramatic tension he found ways of drawing out both the music's austere lyricism and its violent extremes. - Boston Globe

• Stephen Sondheim - Company | DVD | (19/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A Brilliant Musical By The Creator Of ""Sweeney Todd""! Described by The New York Times as ""Elegant Unexpectedly Stirring "" Company is set in modern upper-crust Manhattan Company is a funny sophisticated exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married slightly envious friends. With a wise and witty Stephen Sondheim score including ""Another Hundred People "" ""Side by Side by Side "" ""The Ladies Who Lunch"" and ""Being Alive "" Company offers musical comedy at its finest. Stephen Sondheim is an American stage musical and film composer and lyricist winner of an Academy Award multiple Tony Awards (seven more than any other composer) multiple Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. He has been described by Frank Rich in the The New York Times as ""the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater."" His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Company Follies A Little Night Music Sweeney Todd Sunday in the Park with George Into the Woods and Assassins as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. Winner of the 2007 Tony Award! Sweeping all the major theatre awards for Best Revival of a Musical a beloved era-defining classic is stunningly reinvented in this powerful Broadway production featuring an explosive starring performance by Raul Esparza.

• We Love Ella! | DVD | (12/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  An All-Star concert special paying tribute to the great jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald featuring a powerhouse gathering of music icons and sensational new voices spanning jazz rock R&B and gospel! This once in a lifetime event taped on April 29th 2007 at the University of Southern California's Galen Center was co-hosted by Natalie Cole and Quincy Jones as part of Thirteen/WNET New York's Great Performances series on PBS.