Broadway Documentary "On Broadway"

[jo]

New documentary, that will have a brief Hugh Jackman clip --

www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2019/10/14/rbg-producer-to-shine-spotlight-on--broadway-in-new-documentary/#1ec311fd3bf0



However, a review by The Wrap calls it somewhat superficial.


www.thewrap.com/on-broadway-film-review-documentary/


And some BWW members are cynical on the focus of the documentary.


www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1119511



It's probably informative and a good historical account of the plays - dramatic and musical plays which dotted the landscape for many decades ( as well as the financial successes and failures)...but not really a deep discussion of the artistic merits of the shows that marked each decade?


Jo

[jo]

Btw, according to a BWW member, the world premiere showing on Nov 11 is sold out... but he got a ticket for Nov 12.


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

Hugh is quoted in the NYTimes article re the tribute to Gerry Schoenfeld --

The line to enter the Majestic Theater is always long — “The Phantom of the Opera” plays there, after all — but Monday the line stretched much farther than usual, as more than 1,500 people arrived for a memorial tribute to Gerald Schoenfeld, the influential theater owner and producer who died at 84 in November.

It was an unusual Broadway moment, as famous friends of the famous Mr. Schoenfeld — like Henry A. Kissinger and Barbara Walters — mixed with the less-famous people who were also close to Mr. Schoenfeld: the ushers and cashiers and box-office clerks whom he checked in with nightly to see how business was doing at the 17 Broadway theaters owned by the Shubert Organization, which he ran.

Mr. Schoenfeld is widely regarded as having revived commercial theater in New York City in the 1970s, by acquiring musicals — like “Pippin” and “A Chorus Line” — that became hits. Befitting a memorial for a legendary producer, one Broadway star after another took the stage Monday, some singing standards from the musicals that Mr. Schoenfeld helped make famous.

An original star of “Cats,” Betty Buckley, performed her signature song from the show, “Memory.” Priscilla Lopez, an original cast member of “A Chorus Line,” sang “What I Did for Love,” her standard from that musical.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer of “Evita,” “Cats,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and many other shows, described how Mr. Schoenfeld had nicknamed him Cameron — a reference to Mr. Lloyd Webber’s theater rival, Cameron Mackintosh.



Angela Lansbury spoke too, and so did Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons, and Whoopi Goldberg and Hugh Jackman. Each told different anecdotes, adding up to a powerful image: Mr. Schoenfeld was no ordinary producer, but rather a champion of performance and of theater. Mr. Jackman recalled that when he was in “The Boy From Oz,” at the Shubert-owned Imperial, Mr. Schoenfeld seemed to be standing in the wings almost every other night.

“One of his favorite things was just to be in the theater,” Mr. Jackman said. He also referred obliquely to Mr. Schoenfeld’s “many, many names that I cannot mention here in good company” — a reminder of how Mr. Schoenfeld was also a tough, competitive theater titan who incited off-color comments from his rivals and some of his friends.



His hard-charging persistence as an advocate for Broadway’s needs was affectionately recalled by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who said Mr. Schoenfeld “loved to harangue me about traffic in Times Square.”

“Gerry’s already arguing with God about air rights,” the mayor said. “And God knows he will never hear the end of it.”
Toward the end of the tribute, a photo montage of Mr. Schoenfeld with family and friends — and, notably, with his longtime business partner, Bernard B. Jacobs, who died in 1996 — drew tears. But there was laughter, too, as Mr. Schoenfeld appeared in a video singing “Everything’s Coming Up Gerry,” his spin on the standard “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from “Gypsy.”

After the stars had their turns, Mr. Schoenfeld’s wife of 58 years, Pat, took the stage. “Gerry loved you — he loved all of you,” she said.

Then, with Mr. Schoenfeld’s “Everything’s Coming Up Gerry” still fresh on everyone’s minds, his widow left the audience with a laugh. “I never, ever let him sing in the shower.”

Btw, the last public appearance of Mr. Schoenfeld was during the premiere of AUSTRALIA at the Ziegfeld theatre in NYC. Hugh also wrote the foreword to the book Gerry Schoenfeld had worked on, which his wife Pat saw to it was eventually published. Hugh also spoke at the ceremony renaming a Broadway theatre ( part of the Shubert Organization) after Gerry Schoenfeld.



Jo