Liberace: Behind the Music
Liberace: Behind the Music | |
---|---|
Genre | Biography Drama Music |
Written by | Gavin Lambert |
Directed by | David Greene |
Starring | Victor Garber Saul Rubinek Michael Dolan Maureen Stapleton |
Music by | Hagood Hardy |
Country of origin | Canada United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Linda Yellen Nancy Bein |
Producer | Murray Shostak |
Production location | Montreal |
Cinematography | René Verzier |
Editor | Yves Langlois |
Running time | 97 minutes |
Production company | The Kushner-Locke Company |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | October 9, 1988 |
Liberace: Behind the Music is a 1988 Canadian-American
Description
The modest-length production (97 minutes) traces Liberace's life, as played by Canadian actor
The film highlighted an early casting appearance of then 20-year-old Shawn Levy as Glenn, a post-Thorson acquaintance of Liberace's through the pianist's final days.
The film was directed by
Film clips from Liberace's actual stage appearances are interspersed in the storyline.
Liberace: Behind the Music was broadcast one week after the ABC biopic production Liberace (1988), starring Andrew Robinson in the lead, and with a script holding to a point of view that Liberace was heterosexual. Liberace: Behind the Music, however, acknowledged his homosexuality.
Plot
Wladiziu Valentino Liberace, a gifted classical pianist fueled by poverty, was already playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 17. Through a variety of his highs and lows, chaptered in TV-style format, Liberace's life from his early years through his death are chronicled with the struggle of keeping his sexuality hidden from the public.
Cast
- Victor Garber as Liberace
- Saul Rubinek as Seymour Heller
- Michael Dolan as Scott Thorson
- Maureen Stapleton as Frances Liberace
- Shawn Levy as Glenn
- Michael Wilkes as George Liberace
- Macha Grenon as Joanne
- George Touliatos as Salvatore Liberace
- Joan Heney as Serious Lady
- Andrew Nichols as Teenager
- Paul Hipp as Elvis Presley
- Frances Hyland as Florence Bettray Kelly
- Stephen Watts as Jimmy
- Louis Giambalvo as Eddie
- Rochelle Bruneau as George's Girl
Home media
Liberace: Behind the Music is available on DVD from Kushner-Locke, distributed through Tango Entertainment.
See also
- Behind the Candelabra, another biopic, stars Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Thorson; it aired on the HBO television network on May 26, 2013.