Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ Will Be Playing On Broadway
Okay, this is cool.
Faced with a situation where many theaters will not screen The Irishman because it is premiering on streaming less than a month after it opens on the big screen, Netflix is getting creative. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the service is renting out the Belasco Theatre on Broadway, and making it the home of The Irishman for the month of November. The three-and-a-half hour long Irishman will play the Belasco according to a Broadway schedule: Eight times a week, with Mondays off and matinees on Saturdays and Sundays.
Here is director Martin Scorsese’s comment on the news:
We’ve lost so many wonderful theaters in New York City in recent years, including single-house theaters like the Ziegfeld and the Paris. The opportunity to re-create that singular experience at the historic Belasco Theatre is incredibly exciting.
According to THR, Netflix is installing “state-of-the-art equipment” for the run, which is important because the acoustics in a Broadway house and a movie palace don’t work the same way. (Plus, the Belasco is more than 100 years old.)
I love this idea. It’s like a throwback to the old roadshow presentations of big Hollywood epics, something I’m sure is very appealing to Scorsese. It gives New Yorkers the opportunity to see The Irishman on a huge screen, in a huge room. From Netflix’s perspective, it makes The Irishman an event. (And the patina of Broadway “class” it gets from playing on the Great White Way can’t hurt its Oscar chances either.) While I’m sure ticket prices will be higher than a typical multiplex admission, the uniqueness of the event will make this very hard to pass up. The Irishman opens in theaters on November 1, and comes to Netflix on November 27.
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