MVD Entertainment Group has two music-themed documentaries lined up for release during the month of August as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings.
We begin the festivities with the Aug. 10 debut of documentary filmmaker Frank Munoz’s 2021 updated presentation of Superstars: The Documentary - Extended Version.
Superstars was originally broadcast in 2015 following the New York City reunion of the cast —along with director Norman Jewison — which was organized by Ted Neeley in April of 2015. Munoz has extended the original 51-minute documentary out to a full 90-minutes with additional footage and interviews for the reunion … it is now a more complete document.
In the beginning, Jesus Christ Superstar was nothing more than an LP from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It was released in the U.K. in 1970 as a “concept album,” but was not all that successful, however it soon arrived on domestic shores and took off. It was quickly adapted as a Broadway musical and opened in the fall of 1971.
It was here that the first connection was made, with Broadway’s Pontius Pilat (Barry Dennen), who had a small part in Jewison’s 1971 film release of Fiddler on the Roof, giving Jewison a copy of the cast album. History records that Jewison was hooked and immediately reached out to Universal Pictures, which had acquired film rights, to work out a deal … with Fiddler on the Roof a huge theatrical success, such a deal was quickly struck.
The Hollywood trades during the period reported that something like 3,000 individuals were auditioned for the film, out of this multitude a select group was formed, including a number of the key roles culled from members of the Broadway stage play … and of course, Barry Dennen was among these, as well as Yvonne Elliman (her only film role … well, she did have a small cameo in director Michael Schultz’s Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band).
Jewison had the entire film worked out in his head, which was based not on the Broadway play, but of him listening to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice over and over again. The result was an almost surreal presentation, but it worked perfectly … and, as they say, the rest is history.
Superstars: The Documentary - Extended Version includes material from the 2015 cast reunion, additional interviews, a Q&A session and as a special bonus a trio of Ted Neeley music videos.
Also on the way from MVD Entertainment Group on Friday, Aug. 6 as both DVD and Blu-ray editions is documentary filmmaker Mark Archer’s Don’t Go Gentle: A Film About Idles.
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