"Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody"

We get a lot of theatre time in "Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody" (Columbia, 2022). The film is bookended with a performance at the Metropolitan/Wang Theatre in Boston. And there's a visit to the Radio City Music Hall.

It's a biopic about, yes, Whitney Houston. Anthony McCarten wrote the script, Kasi Lemmons directed. The cinematography was by Barry Ackroyd. The film stars Naomi Ackie as Whitney, Stanley Tucci as Clive Davis, Tamara Tunie as Cissy Houston and Ashton Sanders as Bobby Brown.

 A lovely Shrine Auditorium flyover shot before we go to the Soul Train Music Awards.  

 

We cut to this rowdy street scene outside the Shrine before the Soul Train Awards. Except we're not at the Shrine. This was shot elsewhere. 

 

 

 

For the Soul Train scenes the lobby and auditorium shots were done at the Emerson Majestic Theatre in Boston.  

 

Later in the film we're headed to the Billboard Music Awards. Here Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown are coming in the front doors of the Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S. Broadway. 

 

Heading up the stairs.

Posing on the stairs. This particular shot from the trailer isn't in the finished film. 

 

 

 

A later shot across a piano during a rehearsal. 

 

A wider view reveals we're in the basement lounge of the Los Angeles. They're rehearsing "Star Spangled Banner" for the Super Bowl.

Looking toward the lounge entrance. That blue drape at the end hides the entrance to the men's room.

See the pages about the Shrine Auditorium and the Los Angeles Theatre on the L.A. Theatres site for a history of the two buildings along with hundreds of photos.

On IMDb: "Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody"