Sony A57 - best settings for indoor recital movies

[lumosma]

Hello - I am new to the forum, and came here because I have this beautiful A57 camera that I love but want to do better.

I take a lot of videos, and recently recorded a dance recital from the back of the auditorium on my tripod. I use the Superior Auto setting, and then just click the red Movie button to record the video. What I found is that when the dances started out with a darkened stage (why they do that, I don't know, but that's a different question, more for the dance producer, lol), the camera did a poor job of adjusting to that and really only the parts that were more lighted turned out. I was watching a video camera next to me, and it seemed as if that camera did a much better job of adjusting to the light coming in.

So my question is, what are the best settings for recording this kind of a video? Should I use the Movie setting on the round dial? If so, do I adjust anything else? I've had this camera for 9 months, it's my first DSLR and I just use auto all of the time because I can't figure out anything else.

Thanks in advance for any input!
Carolyn