Lloyd Richards

An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.

Eugene O'Neill tells the haunting story of the life and work of America's greatest and only Nobel Prize-winning playwright -- set within the context of the harrowing family dramas and personal upheavals that shaped him, and that he in turn struggled all his life to give form to in his art.

A tale of greed, one-upmanship, family distrust, abuse, apathy, and lost love, set in the deep south at the turn of the twentieth century.

Aristocrat Lord Dawlish is told by his girlfriend's father that he must find a job if he wishes to continue seeing her. He finds employment as a dancing partner at a dance club and prospers in his new role, despite facing a jealous rival.

Major events in the life of Robeson are recounted in this solo performance.

This 1977 drama by Phillip Hayes Dean, deals with the sad division between what a man hopes for and what he achieves. In the title role, Dick Anthony Williams portrays a naïve, ambitious, recklessly optimistic man who is not understood by those closest to him and who finds himself in difficulty because of his unrealistic hopes.

1930's Pittsburgh, a brother comes home to claim "my half of the piano", a family heirloom; but his sister is not wanting to part with it. This is a glimpse of the conditions for African-Americans as well as some of the attitudes and influences on their lives. But whether he is able to sell the piano so that he can get enough money to buy some property and "no longer have to work for someone else" involves the story (or lesson) that the piano has to show him.

Much-married and once successful writer Henry T. Aythecliff, now heavily in debt, summons his three ex-wives to his mansion, planning to extort a sizable amount of money from each. When he is discovered dead, clues indicate that each of his four wives had motive and opportunity to murder him, and a young detective must sift through some ingeniously devised evidence.

A TV Film from the PBS Anthology programme Visions