The BEST episodes directed by Kirk Browning
#1 - Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall
Great Performances - Season 21 - Episode 13
A tribute from Carnegie Hall to composer Stephen Sondheim by Hollywood and Broadway performers.
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#2 - The Gospel at Colonus
Great Performances - Season 14 - Episode 2
A renowned collaboration between experimental theater director Lee Breuer and composer Bob Telson, THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS retells Sophocles' classical tragedy Oedipus at Colonus through the medium of modern gospel. This filmed version of the much-lauded 1985 Philadelphia performance traces the epic storyline of the original text, while also interweaving aspects of Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and the Christian salvific narrative. Taking up the dramatic tension and emotional turmoil of classical tragedy and infusing it with passionate, inventive performances and an electrifying gospel and soul inflected musical montage, the production also features an unforgettable cast, including Javetta Steele, Isabell Monk, Robert Earl Jones, Carl Lumbly, Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama (who collectively play Oedipus), and, as the Messenger (and here Pentecostal preacher), Morgan Freeman. Freeman's commanding oratory to a rapt live audience recasts classical rhetoric in an African-American gospel mode, impressively fusing Hellenistic myth and Christian parable.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - Rules of the Game
Great Performances - Season 3 - Episode 11
The main characters are an impulsive young woman, Silvia Gala (Joan Van Ark), the lover she exasperates (David Dukes) and her cynical, sneering spouse, Leone (John McMartin). The husband's apathetic attitude is that life is a game played by arbitrary rules, and his role is that of an unemotional observer. His philosophy is severely put to the test when his wife draws him into a duel with a nobleman who drunkenly accosted her.
#4 - The Time of Your Life
Great Performances - Season 4 - Episode 19
William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play revolves around the denizens of a San Francisco bar in 1939. Lonely, lovelorn, weary or cynical, the characters drift in and out of the bar and each other's lives, giving voice to Saroyan's philosophies as they randomly comment about the impending world war, the beauty of art, and traditional notions of good and evil. At least one of the relationships stands a chance of enduring: a brawny innocent named Tom is falling in love with a vulnerable young prostitute named Kitty. Saroyan himself is heard reciting the play's prologue.
#5 - Alice in Wonderland
Great Performances - Season 12 - Episode 2
From the elaborate Broadway revival of the 1932 Eva Le Gallienne/Florida Friebus production comes a whimsical retelling of the Lewis Carroll classic.
#6 - You Can't Take it With You
Great Performances - Season 13 - Episode 6
Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst star in “You Can't Take It with You,” Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's satire of the work ethic, which follows the loves and lives of the eccentric Sycamore family. Kolenkov: George Rose. Penny: Elizabeth Wilson. Paul: Jack Dodson. Alice: Maureen Anderman.
#7 - Hamlet
Great Performances - Season 19 - Episode 3
Arguably Shakespeare's and theatre's greatest work, the tragedy of Hamlet's quest to admonish his uncle and seek revenge for his father's murder remains a breathless, tense and endlessly rich tale that continues to enthrall and inspire. With television director Kirk Browning, Kevin Kline adapts, directs and stars in this indelible production of Shakespeare's most famous play with a daring and depth few of his American contemporaries seem prepared to match.