In HD and almost live

Say what you will about the theater. It's stubbornly old-fashioned. It moves at its own pace. The seats are too small. They cost far too much. A modicum of personal grooming is expected before attending, though unfortunately not required.

What we get in return -- and the bragging right of the theater -- is the live experience. What happens within the tightly shut doors of a playhouse is unique to the moment, shared only by the people in that room. Yes, performers repeat their same lines and make their same moves eight times a week. But because the actors are live, and you are live, and, though you may wish otherwise, the guy texting down the row is still alive, this is a one-time-only, special-for-you, disappearing-as-you-see-it event.

Or maybe not.

While theatergoers have been feeding our addiction to the high of the live, a new kind of "live" has been created in the mad laboratories full of digital-marketing test tubes. I speak of theater being presented sort-of live -- in strictly limited runs -- in movie houses around the country and the world.

And I think it is very smart, so long as the quality is high and the exposure is small enough to protect the real thing. In the five years since the Metropolitan Opera began its popular "Live in HD" cinema simulcasts, theater producers have begun picking up the scent. London's wonderful National Theatre is just finishing its second series of productions beamed by satellite to 400 screens in 20 countries. NT Live is shown in 92 movie houses and arts centers in this country, including several on Long Island.

Now, Broadway is pushing the plays-at-the-movies idea beyond the Met and the National. "Memphis," which won five Tonys, including best musical, last season, is going onto 530 national movie screens for four performances, April 28-May 1.

In the mid-'90s, a few other commercial musicals, including "Smokey Joe's Cafe," were taped during performance and shown later in movie houses. But this is the first time producers of an ongoing hit will dare to cannibalize their own Broadway audiences -- not to mention an upcoming national tour -- by practically giving itself away for a $20 movie ticket.

Sue Frost, one of the lead producers of "Memphis," admits this is a gamble, but trusts it will be "an amazing marketing tool for a show without a brand title or famous names." Co-producer Randy Adams adds something we already know about today's audiences. "A lot of people go to see what they know," he says. "If we were really worried, we wouldn't be letting it be screened in New York."

A different sort of gamble is happening at the Roundabout Theatre Company, the first not-for-profit American theater to attempt transmission into movie houses. "The Importance of Being Earnest," directed by and starring the delicious Brian Bedford, closes its extended run on Broadway July 3.

But from June 2 through June 30, the live-on-tape replica, "The Importance of Being Earnest: Live in HD," will be shown on various dates in movie theaters and performing arts centers around the country. Earlier this month, three performances were filmed in their entirety before live audiences on seven cameras. The director for the screen version sat in a production truck and watched seven monitors to cue live cuts.

But there was no editing and only one performance was chosen to be the final document of what deserves to be Bedford's legendary portrayal of Lady Bracknell. "Anyone who has seen Brian's performance in this production will testify that his Lady Bracknell cannot be confined to one stage or even one theater," says Todd Haimes, artistic director of the Roundabout. Not incidentally, he adds, "It's my hope that those who have never set foot inside a Broadway house will have the thrill of seeing a show live on Broadway."

For reassurance, he need look only as far as the National Theatre, which shares the same distributor, BY Experience. The National is now the gold standard in the evolving experiment and the one that comes closest to the deceptive promise of "live." From the start, when "Phédre," starring Helen Mirren, was zapped to the world in the summer of 2009, these events have actually been seen live in the United Kingdom and much of Europe. (Time zones make that impossible here.)

At a Manhattan movie house March 17, I was able to see the National's current sold-out smash, "Frankenstein," directed by Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire," "127 Hours"), hours after actor Benedict Cumberbatch writhed into devastating life as The Creature to Jonny Lee Miller's mad scientist. (The two switched roles in the second showing, March 24.)

For the first few minutes, I was aware that I was watching a play at a distance on a screen. But it wasn't long before I was pulled completely into Nick Dear's visceral and strangely noble adaptation of what we know as Mary Shelley's potboiler. (For the record, the half-hour birth scene is not played nude in the film version, a consideration for the actors' privacy and global sensitivities.)

"We were inspired by the Met," says David Sabel, who has been producer of NT Live from the start. "We ripped off the Met Opera -- shamelessly. But opera has a better track record on PBS, DVDs and the radio broadcasts.

"Theater on screen can be so static, so deadening," he continues. "A lot of opera uses fixed cameras, but we film by giving cameras the best seats in the house and film in really sophisticated ways. Nothing is edited. Audiences suspend disbelief and feel they are sharing the experience with everyone in the theater."

He says that union negotiations have been mutually beneficial, though U.K. unions are less strict than our own. There may be a future with DVDs. For now, however, Sabel says the experiment "creates buzz and excitement. It is very much about sharing an event."

Dylan Skolnick, co-director of the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, is delighted to see audiences clapping at the end of the popular NT Live showings. "People seem a little uncertain, but they want to express how much they like it and share that -- even though the actor can't hear them."

In the introduction to "Frankenstein," playwright Dear sees the work saying, "Look what we have done, and we are worried." So far, this mad experiment isn't blowing up in the theater's face.

"Frankenstein" can be seen Thursday at Kew Gardens Cinema in Queens. Visit NTlive.com for the complete schedule.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" will screen June 2 at Staller Center, Stony Brook University. Check earnesthd.com for additional screenings. For "Memphis," visit fathomevents.com.