If anyone could get an entire season of Broadway on film, Tony Award-winning producer Dori Berinstein was the person to do it. Having worked closely within the theater community, Berinstein was able to work out complicated logistics to gain unlimited access to shows headed for Broadway during the 2003-2004 season. A season that offered four landmark musicals ( Wicked; Avenue Q; Caroline, or Change; Taboo ) whose stories are told concurrently in ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway, Berinstein's documentary that opens this Friday at the Music Box Theatre. The first-time feature director drew on over 250 hours of footage, and the result is a hugely entertaining film that offers an all-access backstage pass into the world of Broadway.
Windy City Times: I did not want the movie to stop. I'm like the biggest show-tune queen and I thought I was in hog heaven.
Dori Berinstein: Oh, my God. That's great.
WCT: But I kept thinking the logistics of filming had to have been a nightmare. Was it?
DB: Well, it wasn't a nightmare because I loved every second of it. It was a complete gift. It definitely required tremendous coordination and I was so fortunate to have such support from the community across the board. I think being part of that community for as long as I had made it possible. I knew, [ from ] having produced so many shows, what was going to happen at what point. I had lived it and I never would have been able to do it if I was starting from scratch, coming in from the outside.
WCT: There are so many amazing moments in the film. What stands out now?
DB: It's those magical insider moments. They are firsts. They are only happening that one time. That, for me, was unbelievably magical, but also capturing genius at work [ was great ] . Also, [ there were ] the Broadway traditions like the Gypsy Robe ceremony and being at every single one that season. That was extraordinary because it's so insider and just rich with history and lore and a beautiful tradition; it was a thrill to be able to capture it.
WCT: How important is television exposure to Broadway? Are you the saddest person in the world now that Rosie's left The View; she's like the Broadway cheerleader.
DB: Absolutely. Broadway needs a hundred Rosies. I feel so strongly that the more people are exposed to theater, the more people are going to fall in love with it and make theater a part of their lives. Whatever's on television about theater just obviously reaches so many more people than any local advertising that we can do, or what the Internet and ... a great article in a major newspaper in a big city can do.
WCT: From Alan Cumming to a host of performers and behind-the-scenes creatives—notice I got everybody in there—the Broadway scene and your movie is full of My People! Why is this seemingly the one performing art in America that's left a person's sexuality at the stage entrance? It's like it doesn't…
DB: It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
WCT: Do you have a clue why that is, because you've worked in film, TV and theater.
DB: Well, theater has been around for centuries. Since the beginning of time—going back to Greek tragedy—plays have been presented to make people think differently about the world. It's been around so long, [ so ] maybe the theater community is just more evolved and the rest of the world has to catch up with us. I don't know; it makes no sense to me.
WCT: Me, either. I was fortunate to speak with Alan Cumming a few months back. Wasn't he originally going to narrate the movie?
DB: Yes. Alan and I had worked together quite a bit, and I adore him and respect him so much. The idea at the get-go was to tell the story of a Broadway season, as narrated by Alan and seen through his eyes, but as the season went along in the editing room it started to become clear that we'd have a stronger film if we let the season tell itself. Alan was part of that decision and supported it 100 percent, and it just gives us that much more to have that's rich and fabulous on the DVD. We have great stuff with Alan interviewing one-on-one with Liza Minnelli, John Lithgow, Patrick Stewart, Eileen Atkins, and on and on and on. It's going to be a great DVD.
WCT: Rick McKay, who shot and directed Broadway: The Golden Age, talked to me at length about this mythical Broadway that inspired him to seek out and record the stories of the Broadway legends. As someone steeped in the theater, did you feel a similar urge to document your world?
DB: Absolutely. I love what Rick created. It's magnificent. I was drawn to theater in the first place because of the magic behind the curtain and the risk and the passion and the creativity and everything that goes into putting on a show. That process to me was so remarkable that it's something that I wanted to capture and bring to life for a broader audience.
WCT: Playwright Wendy Wasserstein once told me that there's nothing that can compare with giving a child a gift of his or her first Broadway show, and obviously you'd agree with that assessment—but why do you think that's true?
DB: I think theatrer is such a precious thing. It's a living, breathing thing that is completely transporting. I heard George Wolfe talk a long time ago about how Joseph Papp would talk about how when you go to see a movie you lean back, you have your popcorn [ and ] you take it in. [ However, ] when you go see a Broadway show, you're leaning into—physically—and you're becoming one with what's going on onstage and you truly are transported. To give that gift to a child, to give them an opportunity to go into another world and have them think about life in a different way with the great storytelling that theater offers—to give them the gift to laugh and cry and share this experience with other people sitting next to you—there isn't anything else like it.
