Widescreen: Hollywood Bowl comes home, virtually of course
Live outdoor concerts? In January? During COVID-19?
PBS makes it possible with a new limited series premiering at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 15, on WTTW Channel 11.
“In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl” presents past performances from the iconic outdoor venue in the hills of Los Angeles, beginning this week with “Musicals and the Movies.”
The hourlong program includes four selections from “On the Town,” a 1949 film starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, as performed by Broadway titans Sutton Foster (“Anything Goes”) and Brian Stokes Mitchell (“Kiss Me, Kate”), and a variety of musical favorites sung by Kristin Chenoweth (“Wicked”) and Audra McDonald (“Porgy and Bess”).
The next two installments in the series are “Hecho en Mexico” and “Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl,” and future episodes include appearances by Misty Copeland, Katy Perry, Nile Rodgers and even former Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully — and he's not just singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Episodes also will be available online at wttw.com.
• Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who is hoping for a new adaptation of “Needful Things” at some point.