Theatre News and Reviews

There’s been countless films made about Broadway in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s - the thrill of the spotlights, the greasepaint, the roar of the crowds, all of that. But as obvious an idea for a film as it may seem, a documentary has never been made about Broadway. Until now.

US Broadway lover and filmmaker Rick McKay has spent six years interviewing more than 140 Broadway stars, ranging from Carol Channing to Shirley Maclaine, Farley Granger and Uta Hagen. Some of them have since died, making the final product, Broadway: The Golden Age, By The Legends Who Were There, all the more important.

It started as a modestly short program for television, but McKay found it hard to sell the idea. “When I brought it to PBS, they said, ‘No one’s interested in old people; you’ve got to put young people in the cast’,” he explains.

“About two days later, Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse’s wife, died, and her last interview was in my film. And I thought, ‘It’s becoming a responsibility for me to do these interviews, because these people who are older will never get a chance to tell their story again’. I was in the right place right time.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 4th, 2005 at 9:30 am and is filed under Theatre, Broadway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.