If you were to re-watch an old Tony Awards telecast it would be for the musical numbers. Show Business: The Road to Broadway examines the 2003-2004 Broadway season, which was unusually gay even for New York theater, up to and including the Tonys. It focuses on four of the season's five biggest new musicals ( The Boy from Oz is the elephant that's missing from the room ) but has no complete musical numbers, only excerpts, mostly from rehearsals and showcases.
Considering the incredible access Dori Berinstein had to Avenue Q, Wicked, Taboo and Caroline, or Change, the documentary she's assembled is unremarkable. There may be a few revelations of interest but mostly it's what you'd expect to hear about how hard the work is, how great the financial risk and how exciting it is to be involved with a show on Broadway.
The four musicals are all gay to some extent. Avenue Q mixes gays and straights, puppets and humans, in a Sesame Street-for-adults tolerance lesson. Caroline, or Change is gay playwright Tony Kushner's ( Angels in America ) memoir of his childhood in Louisiana. Taboo, produced by Rosie O'Donnell with songs by Boy George, is a fictionalized tale of George's rise to fame in the London club scene of the early '80s. Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, and you can't ask for gayer than that.
If you watch the Tonys you know gays are far more open in the New York theater than they are in Hollywood, so nobody's butching it up for Berinstein's camera.
The film is divided into four seasons, beginning in the summer of 2003, and follows the four shows from rehearsal through opening night and beyond. The focus with Avenue Q is on creators/songwriters Jeff Marx and Bobby Lopez, who held their first workshop in 1999 with a TV show in mind; and bookwriter Jeff Whitty, who reportedly clashed with Marx during the creative process. They're not the only ones who can't believe their little show is going to Broadway.
Periodically, the film checks in with a round table of theater critics and columnists who are surprisingly candid about their expectations of shows they haven't seen yet, as well as their opinions after they've seen them.
Composer Stephen Schwartz ( Godspell, Pippin ) says he got the idea for Wicked when someone suggested he read the novel. They tried the show out in San Francisco, where it had problems, notably with lead character Elphaba ( played by Idina Menzel ) not being strong enough. Schwartz insisted on having time to work on the show between the tryout and the start of previews in New York. Despite mixed critical reaction the show is still Broadway's top grosser, as well as a consistent performer on the road.
Taboo gets a lot of bad press in advance because of various traumas in O'Donnell's private life, even when Boy George behaves himself. Actor Raul Esparza says it's like living in a fishbowl and makes the work more difficult. Star Euan Morton feels intense pressure because he was a nobody when the show opened in London but now that he's come over with it more is expected of him. Reviews are devastating and while Taboo develops a cult it's not enough to keep it running through a severe winter.
Caroline, or Change is the last show to open, one of several that rush to make the Tony deadline in the spring. Kushner and composer Jeanine Tesori talk a little but the emphasis is on director George C. Wolfe and star Tonya Pinkins. The latter has been away from New York for a decade since going through a messy divorce and losing custody of her children shortly after winning a Tony for Jelly's Last Jam.
At the Tonys Harvey Fierstein and Nathan Lane are among the presenters who give awards to Avenue Q, the David that slays Wicked's Goliath. Both shows are still running, while the other two ( and The Boy from Oz, the Peter Allen biography ) are long gone. One critic notes about Wicked, 'It's making a million dollars a week. That shows you our influence.'
Alan Cumming, who has a co-producer credit on the film but didn't work on Broadway that season, makes a few general comments. Cynthia Nixon and Billie Jean King are among the first-nighters glimpsed at premieres.
In a too-little, too-late effort to earn cred with the young crowd, Idina Menzel sings a hip-hop version of Lullaby of Broadway during the closing credits, following a punk-rock Cockeyed Optimist.
There are some creative camera angles and a couple of clever montages of shows other than those highlighted. In a few years Show Business will be required viewing for theater classes but right now, being too late for reportage and too early for nostalgia, it isn't ready for the big time.
( This review doesn't include the commentary and hour of deleted scenes included as extras on the DVD. )
