#network broadway

(Photographer is Jeff Widener https://www.instagram.com/jeff.widener/)

 BTS Tony Goldwyn Network 

Tatiana Maslany and Tony Goldwyn shared a kiss while being filmed in front of the Belasco Theater.

Solving the 6 Biggest Mysteries of This Broadway Season

How does she stay so still? Is that scene really live? And how tall is that guy, anyway? We dig into the burning questions about Tony-nominated shows.

Is the sidewalk scene in “Network” performed live?

Yes, it’s really live.

Here’s what the “Network” audience sees projected on a video screen: Tatiana Maslany, playing Diana, and Tony Goldwyn, playing Max, run into each other on the street. They talk, they kiss, and they walk to a restaurant. They open the door, and appear at a restaurant on stage — where they proceed to have sex.

Here’s what’s really happening: the two actors are outside on West 44th Street, she on the south side, by the Long Room bar, and he on the north, by Cafe Un Deux Trois. There’s usually a crew of seven — a Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera operator, a sound person, a video technician trailing a 100-yard cable with audio, video and power, two stage managers, a dresser and a security guard — who, according to union rules, have to stay on the Belasco Theater property, basically under the marquee.

Ms. Maslany crosses the street to meet Mr. Goldwyn, they talk and kiss, and then, following the camera crew, walk down a cleaned-out and re-lit maintenance alley along the side of the theater until entering via a stage door.

The whole thing, crafted by video designer Tal Yarden, is broadcast to the audience inside, and the audience is supposed to understand, in part because the video is one long unbroken tracking shot, that what they are seeing on screen is actually happening in real time outside. “What I like is that you are between worlds — reality and fantasy get mixed up, and as an audience you have to decide, do you believe it or not,” said the show’s Tony-nominated director, Ivo van Hove.

There are backup plans: an alternate route outside for terrible weather, used once; and prerecorded videos, one shot during the day and one shot at night, that can be employed if there are technological problems with the live shot, which has happened twice.