Titles Available as of July 2022
This is a selective list of streaming video holdings in the American University Library. Streaming guides are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the library catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible. For complete up-to-date streaming holdings, please refer to our streaming catalog.
A stage musical director pushes himself too hard, and dies of a surfeit of wine, women and work. Self-indulgent, semi-autobiographical tragicomic extravaganza complete with heart operations and a recurring angel of death. Flashes of brilliant talent make it a must for Fosse fans.
A magical musical filled with romance and adventure, ANASTASIA is a spectacular, full-length motion picture about the lost princess Anastasia. Remembering nothing about her royal heritage, and her only clue a music box key that says "together in Paris," the princess sets off for Paris to find her true identity and begin a new life. Along the way, Anastasia meets a charming con man, and is pursued by the evil Rasputin and his gang of ghostly minions, who'll stop at nothing to complete his curse against her family. At the end of her journey, she must choose between the life of a princess and her one true love.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
This film is a sequel in name only to Valley of the Dolls (1967). An all-girl rock band goes to Hollywood to make it big. There they find success, but luckily for us, they sink into a cesspool of decadence. This film has a sleeping woman performing on a gun which is in her mouth. It has women posing as men. It has lesbian sex scenes. It is also written by Roger Ebert, who had become friends with Russ Meyer after writing favorable reviews of several of his films.
Bohemian Rhapsody is a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music and their extraordinary lead singer Freddie Mercury. Freddie defied stereotypes and shattered convention to become one of the most beloved entertainers on the planet. The film traces the meteoric rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound. They reach unparalleled success, but in an unexpected turn Freddie, surrounded by darker influences, shuns Queen in pursuit of his solo career. Having suffered greatly without the collaboration of Queen, Freddie manages to reunite with his bandmates just in time for Live Aid. While bravely facing a recent AIDS diagnosis, Freddie leads the band in one of the greatest performances in the history of rock music. Queen cements a legacy that continues to inspire outsiders, dreamers and music lovers to this day.
G.I. Sergeant Shep Dooley, former stage star awaiting discharge in postwar Tokyo, meets his estranged love Kay when she arrives to entertain the troops. Shep, who hasn't exactly lost his former irresponsibility, does his best to court Kay anew...but she has no lack of other admirers as she labors to put on a soldier show.
A Montmarte Dance hall owner of the 1800s is subjected to raids for her performances of the can-can.
Leonard Bernstein's brilliant comic operetta comes to dazzling new life under the guidance of director Lonny Price (A Class Act). Based on the classic Voltaire tale of an innocent young man's journey through a life filled with colorful characters and unexpected life lessons, this tune-filled frolic features Tony Award-winners Patti LuPone (Evita) and Kristin Chenoweth (from the Broadway smash Wicked) heading a dazzling cast including Paul Groves, Stanford Olsen, Sir Thomas Allen, and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. The impeccable score (with lyrics by luminaries including Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Wilbur, and John La Touche) includes a host of delightful songs including Life Is Happiness Indeed, It Must Be So, You Were Dead, You Know, and Make Our Garden Grow. Now enjoy this all-new production that brings you the best of all possible musical worlds!
At an all-black army camp, civilian parachute maker and "hot bundle" Carmen Jones is desired by many of the men. Naturally, she wants Joe, who's engaged to sweet Cindy Lou and about to go into pilot training for the Korean War. Going after him, she succeeds only in getting him into the stockade. While she awaits his release, trouble approaches for both of them. Songs from the Bizet opera with modernized lyrics.
Although a swaggering carnival barker mistreats the shy girl he marries, he loves her, and dies trying to provide for their expected baby. The acclaimed Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone."
This video directed by John Doyle is a concert performance of Sondheim's musical 'Company.'
On a trip to France, millionaire Jervis Pendelton sees an 18-year-old girl in an orphanage. Enchanted with her, but mindful of the difference in their ages, he sponsors her to college in New England. She writes him letters, which he doesn't read. After 3 years, he goes to visit her at a dance, not telling her that he is her benefactor. They fall in love, but the usual movie-type difficulties get in the way before they can get together at the end.
Lorelei and Dorothy are just "Two Little Girls from Little Rock", lounge singers on a transatlantic cruise, working their way to Paris, and enjoying the company of any eligible men they might meet along the way, even though "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." Based on the Broadway musical based on the novel.
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN is an original musical inspired by the life of P.T. Barnum, starring Hugh Jackman. Barnum was a visionary who rose from nothing to create the "Greatest Show on Earth," a spectacle and celebration of his larger-than-life imagination that captivated audiences around the globe. Also starring Michelle Williams, Zac Efron and Zendaya.
A matchmaker named Dolly Levi takes a trip to Yonkers, New York to see the "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire," Horace Vandergelder. While there, she convinces him, his two stock clerks and his niece and her beau to go to New York City. In New York, she fixes Vandergelder's clerks up with the woman Vandergelder had been courting, and her shop assistant (Dolly has designs of her own on Mr. Vandergelder, you see).
Yul Brynner's magnetic, Oscar-winning performance as the demanding 19th century king of Siam has indelibly linked him with the role. The clash of temperaments between governess Anna and the King culminates with "Shall We Dance," one of the screen's most joyous musical moments.
Filmed performance of Kiss Me Kate. Two squabbling, 20th-century ex-marrieds are cast as squabbling Renaissance romantics in a musical version of the taming of the shrew. On stage they fight it out and backstage they continue to clash.
Set in 1899, this musical drama features Ewan McGregor as a young poet who defies his father by moving to "the absinthe-soaked, amoral, bohemian" neighbourhood of Montmatre. It is here that he meets the diminutive artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) and is drafted to write a nightclub spectacular. In this seedy world of sex and drugs, he begins a passionate but ultimately doomed love affair with the most famous courtesan (Nicole Kidman) in Paris.
Angels and sugarplums, candy canes and mice...a magic prince, a winsome young girl, a mysterious old man and a Christmas tree that grows and grows and grows...George Balanchine's joyous and beloved holiday fantasy lights up the screen for Christmas in a dazzling feature film. George Balanchine's "The Nutcracker", the first feature-length live-action film of the world's most beloved ballet, combines the classic beauty of the New York City Ballet stage production with the sparking talent of contemporary young film star Macaulay Culkin.
I have been through two Ofsteds and this one I am ready to laugh at, says a headteacher arriving for a special performance of Ofsted the Musical! filmed for Teachers TV. Ofsted the Musical!, written and performed by drama students from Hull University, combines musical numbers, sketches and satire to depict the madder side of a school undergoing an inspection. The writer David Byrne was inspired to write the show after having experienced three inspections as a school pupil. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival performance received rave reviews which resulted in sell-out shows for the duration of the run, with packed audiences made up of teachers, headteachers, inspectors and ex-Chief Inspector of Schools, Chris Woodhead.This progamme includes excerpts from the production and comments from an invited audience of teachers, headteachers and comments from a mystery inspector.
In the Oklahoma territory at the turn of the twentieth century, two young cowboys vie with an evil ranch hand and a traveling peddler for the hearts of the women they love.
A new Broadway show starring Gary Blake shamelessly lampoons the rich Carraway family. To get her own back, daughter Mimi sets out to ensnare Blake, but the courtship is soon for real, to the annoyance of his costar, hoofing chanteuse Mona Merrick.
Jack Martin (Danny Kaye), an American entertainer working cabarets on the French Riviera, does an impersonation of philandering industrialist Henri Duran (Kaye, again) so convincingly that even Duran's beautiful wife (Gene Tierney) is fooled by it. When Duran's business interests compel him to be in London when he should be hosting a large soiree at his home, Martin is persuaded to impersonate Duran at the party. But matters threaten to get out of hand when Martin (as Duran) is confronted by several of the philanderer's women, and by Duran's ruthless business rival, M. Periton (Jean Murat).
A modern-day musical set on the streets of Dublin. Featuring Glen Hansard and his Irish band "The Frames," the film tells the story of a street musician and a Czech immigrant during an eventful week as they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story.
Glamorous Lorry Jones, the toast of a Missouri military canteen, has become "engaged" to almost every serviceman she's signed her pin-up photo for. Now she's leaving home to go into government service (not, as she fantasizes, to join the USO). On a side trip to New York, her vivid imagination leads her to True Love with naval hero Tommy Dooley; but increasingly involved Musical Comedy Complications follow.
Frederic (Rex Smith), who has spent his formative years as a junior pirate, plans to mark his 21st birthday by breaking free from the Pirate King (Kevin Kline) and beginning his courtship of Mabel (Linda Ronstadt). But because he was born on Feb. 29, a date that only arrives every fourth year, Frederic isn't technically 21 -- and the Pirate King is still his master. Unless something gives, Frederic will soon be on a collision course with the Pirate King's new nemesis: Mabel's father.
In the sprawling Northwest of the 1870s, a widower, his ten-year-old son and a dance hall singer travel down-river on a raft, menaced by rapids, Indians, and a sneaky gambler. In a climactic gunfight, the boy learns his father is not the coward he suspected him to be.
The oddly-assorted Hart cousins: revue singer Blossom, con man Harry, and machinist Chiquita (who gets radio through her teeth!), inherit southern plantation Magnolia Manor, which alas proves to be a "termite trap" and tax liability. Fortunately, Sgt. Rocky Fulton from a nearby army camp appears with a plan to convert the place to a hotel for army wives; but to pay bills until then, they decide to put on a show. Of course, romantic and military complications intervene...
Maria had longed to be a nun since she was a young girl, yet when she became old enough discovered that it wasn't at all what she thought. Often in trouble and doing the wrong things, Maria is sent to the house of a retired naval captain, named Captain Von Trapp, to care for his children. Von Trapp was widowed several years before and was left to care for seven 'rowdy' children. The children have run off countless governesses. Maria soon learns that all these children need is a little love to change their attitudes. Maria teaches the children to sing, and through her, music is brought back into the hearts and home of the Von Trapp family. Unknowingly, Maria and Captain Von Trapp are falling helplessly in love, except there are two problems, the Captain is engaged, and Maria is a postulant!
It is 1943 and the United States Navy has established several bases in the Solomon Islands, in preparation for an invasion towards New Guinea and the Central Pacific. On one such island lives a French planter named Emile de Becque, whom the Navy wishes to employ as a scout to nearby Japanese held islands. To accomplish this task, de Becque is approached by a US Navy nurse named Nellie Forbush. Amidst an outstanding musical score, and breathtaking scenery, the drama of "South Pacific" unfolds.
Film based on life of actress Gertrude Lawrence, on- and offstage, takes the opportunity to feature extravagant musical production numbers with 'Julie Andrews' , acting, singing and dancing.
A young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom. She achieves them only with the help of a leading man, who is himself rapidly descending into obscurity and alcoholism. Winner of Best Writing, Original Story Academy Award, and nominated for 6 other Academy Awards.
The story of two tenors. When Lincoln damages his voice by drinking cologne, thinking it cognac, Joseph agrees to sing in his place while Lincoln lip-synchs. While the tenors are seemingly satisfied with the arrangement, there are others who are not as pleased, including Joseph's girlfriend.
This musical performance was directed by Lonny Price.
It's the summer of 1964 and rock and roll is here to stay. Nobody knows that better than Guy Patterson, appliance salesman and drummer for The Wonders, a local rock band whose popular song, "That Thing You Do!," is about to change his life forever. Although their first club booking is in a spaghetti joint near the Erie airport, it isn't long before The Wonders land a recording contract, a state fair tour and a trip to Hollywood. And as their signature song rockets to the top of the charts, The Wonders embark on a humorous and surprising journey where they not only get a taste of fame, but an extraordinary look at the halcyon days of rock and roll.
There's No Business Like Show Business
Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.
Hit the road again with 200 Motels - The Suites, American composer and musician Frank Zappa's stage version of his 1971 musical surrealist documentary film. Exploring experiences touring with his rock band The Mothers of Invention, Zappa and his original collaborator created a psychedelic flight of fancy of a film that scandalized and electrified audiences, and pushed the boundaries of symphonic music. Led by music director Léo Warynski and stage director Antoine Gindt, this new French staged version brings together actors, singers, a rock band (The Headshakers), the Percussions de Strasbourg, the choir Les Métaboles, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. A remarkable, aptly nonconformist tribute to one of the greatest musical freethinkers of the 20th century!
Valley of the dolls tells the story of three remarkable women whose lives are affected by show-business celebrity. Neely O'Hara struggles to make it on the Broadway stage. Yet, when she's reached the pinnacle of success in that arena, she finds the view from the top lonely, empty, and non-fulfilling. Anne, a small-town New England girl, is unable to resist the temptation of the bright lights of New York. She finds a secretarial job with Lyon Burke -- a well-known entertainment attorney -- who numbers among his clients the creme de la creme of show-business elite (Neely O'Hara among them). After being asked by a photographer to "fill in" for a model who fails to appear for a job, Anne is suddenly catapulted into the role of supermodel. Her face is everywhere -- magazine covers, billboards, and television. Soon Neely and Anne find themselves competing for the affections of Lyon. Meanwhile, struggling starlit Jennifer, is forced to make "B" movies in order to make a living for herself and her over-demanding mother.
The Vox Animae Ensemble Perform Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum
An atmospheric filmed performance Hildegard's great "musical morality play" on the journey of the Soul. The dedicated ensemble Vox Animae directed by early music specialists Evelyn Tubb and Michael Fields perform Ordo Virtutum (The Ritual of the Virtues). Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a remarkable woman, a "first" in many fields. At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard, known as "Sybil of the Rhine," produced Major works of theology, music and visionary writings. When few women were accorded respect, she was consulted by and advised her local people as well as bishops, popes and kings. She used the curative powers of music and natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed.
The early years in the life and career of music legend Johnny Cash, whose work transcended musical boundaries to reach out to everyone. A testament to making art and music and being young, the film explores the world he came from and his experiences beginning a career during the birth of rock and roll. It also is a love story detailing Cash's burgeoning relationship with June Carter.