Carl Gordon

The Great White Way comes into your living room via this disc of rare performances from some of Broadway's brightest luminaries. Culled from clips from the Tony Awards shows, this unique collection features acting powerhouses James Earl Jones, Annette Bening, Joan Allen, Joe Mantegna, Gary Sinise and Maggie Smith, among others, performing works by such playwrights as August Wilson, David Mamet, Wendy Wasserstein and more.

Shelby Coles (Halle Berry) is engaged to marry talented white jazz musician Meade Howell, but the pair face opposition from both Meade's family, who object to an inter-racial marriage, and Shelby's parents, who want her to marry a professional. As Shelby is afflicted by pre-marital doubts, handsome Lute McNeil arrives on the scene, determined to make Shelby his at any cost.

Walter and Hume, roommates in a veterans home, are complete opposites. Walter is a sarcastic wise mouth who loves to speak his mind. Hume is meticulous and quiet but loves to wind Walter up. Tired of being poked, prodded, and placated with pills by the nursing staff, the two escape. Determined to end their lives in quiet dignity, they load their weapons and hail a cab to a remote wooded area.

1930's Pittsburgh, a brother comes home to claim "my half of the piano", a family heirloom; but his sister is not wanting to part with it. This is a glimpse of the conditions for African-Americans as well as some of the attitudes and influences on their lives. But whether he is able to sell the piano so that he can get enough money to buy some property and "no longer have to work for someone else" involves the story (or lesson) that the piano has to show him.

An unconventional undercover Chicago cop and his partner are recruited to commit the murder of a New Orleans criminal kingpin.

A mute alien with the appearance of a black human is chased by outer-space bounty hunters through the streets of Harlem.

An actress in New York City goes against a group of gangsters who are abusing her "party girl" friends.

A deranged engineer, bent on revenge for the deaths of his wife and daughter, sets two passenger trains on a collision course, and con-man William Shatner puts his life on the line to ward off the crash.

Top baseball pitcher Bingo Long is fed up with how his Negro League team owner treats him, so he forms his own lineup, recruiting big-hitting Leon Carter and Charlie Snow, who dreams of playing in the majors. Boycotted by black teams, Long's outfit play minor league white teams, earning more attention as entertainers than as players. However, their success wins them a chance to play again in the Negro League, this time as equals.

A black soldier comes home to Harlem after a tour in Vietnam and discovers that his wife had become a heroin addict and died of an overdose. Infuriated, he gathers three of his ex-GI buddies and they lay out plans to fight the drug dealers.