ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway

ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
Directed by Dori Berinstein
Produced by Dori Berinstein
Written by Dori Berinstein
Richard Hankin
Starring Alan Cumming
Boy George
Idina Menzel
Rosie O'Donnell
Kristin Chenoweth
Raul Esparza
Euan Morton
George C. Wolfe
Tonya Pinkins
Robert Lopez
Jeff Marx
Tony Kushner
Stephen Schwartz
Stephanie D'Abruzzo
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Cinematography Alan S. Deutsch
Edited by Richard Hankin
Adam Zucker
Distributed by Regent Releasing
Release dates
May 11, 2007
Running time
102 min
Language English
Box office $151,708

ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway is an American documentary film, the first feature film directed by Dori Berinstein, a Broadway Producer, Writer and Filmmaker. Berinstein completed the film in 2005. The film premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. The film was named one of the top 5 films of 2006 by the IDA (International Documentary Association) and received the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2006 Florida Film Festival.[1] The film was released commercially in 2007, with the first such showings on 11 May 2007 in New York City.[2]

Berinstein filmed each principal musical on Broadway for her project during the 2003-2004 season, for about 600 hours of initial film footage.[3] She focused the film on four musicals, through the difficulties of pre-production, their openings, attendant publicity around the shows, and their reviews, through the 2004 Tony Award competition. The four musicals, three of which were nominated for Best Musical in the Tony Awards that season, were:

The film climaxes with the 2004 Tony Awards ceremony. In addition to coverage of the musicals themselves, the movie includes interviews with New York theatre critics, and footage of several theatre critics discussing in a restaurant the various musicals and their predictions for the Tony Award winners.[4][5][6]

Theatre critic Michael Riedel received harsh criticism from actors and songwriters who were subjects of the film, after seeing his comments in the film.[3][5][6][7]

References

  1. Roberta Hershenson (6 May 2007). "A Winning Producer Chronicles a Broadway Season on Film". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  2. Zachary Pincus-Roth (26 January 2007). ""ShowBusiness" Documentary — About Wicked, Avenue Q and Others — Gets Release May 11". Playbill Arts. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Michael Buckley (8 May 2005). "Dori Berinstein and Her "Show Business" Documentary". Playbill Arts. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  4. Matt Zoller Seitz (10 May 2007). "Review of ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway (2005)". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Charles McNulty (1 June 2007). "Review of ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Philip Kennicott (22 June 2007). "'ShowBusiness': A Peek Behind the Curtain". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  7. Eric Grode (11 May 2007). "The Business of Broadway". New York Sun. Retrieved 2008-02-24.

External links