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BROADWAY:
THE GOLDEN AGE
BY THE LEGENDS WHO WERE THERE

Director, Writer, Filmmaker, Editor, Producer
Rick McKay

Producer
Albert M. Tapper

Executive Producer
Georgia Frontiere

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: Dolby SR
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rating: Unrated

Publicity Contacts

New York Studio
Rick McKay
1st Act Films/2nd Act Prods.
495 West End Ave., Suite 3K
NYC, NY 10024
Telephone: 212-721-7431
Fax: 212-721-1990
rick@broadwaythemovie.com

Los Angeles
Carol Marshall
PMK/HBH Public Relations
700 San Vicente Blvd., Suite G910
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Telephone: (310) 289-6200 -x206
Fax: (310) 289-6677
carol.marshall@pmkhbh.com

Website: www.broadwaythemovie.com

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Director, Writer, Filmmaker, Editor, Producer
Rick McKay

Producer
Albert M. Tapper

Executive Producer
Georgia Frontiere

Co-Producers
Jamie deRoy
Anne L. Bernstein

Associate Producers
Jack Coco
Sandi Durell
Jane Klain
Richard Weigle

Assistant Editors
Jeremiah Black
John Carhart III
Jake Diamond
Nicole London
Allison Eve Zell

Final Sound Mix:
Tom Paul
The Cottage, NY

Online Editor:
Steve Pequinot
Glue Editing & Design

Sound Effects Editor:
Tom Paul
The Cottage, NY

Production Supervisor
Nicole London

Administrative Assistant
Fran Sherwood

On-Line Editor
Jake Diamond

Archival Clearance:
Target Audience Media, Inc.

Music Clearances:
Yolanda Ferraloro
for Music Rightz

Archival Researcher
Morgan Sills

Research Consultant
Robert E. Milite

Special Archival Research
Jane Klain

Legal Representation:
John Breglio, Esq.
Olivier Sultan, Esq.
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton & Garrison LLP
Alan H. Bomser, Esq.

Production Assistants
Joel Coriat, Linda Pereira, J. Michael Grey, Leslie Strain

Transcriber
Leslie Strain

Photos Exclusively by:
PHOTOFEST

Archival Resources
Beech Grove Public Library, Las Vegas News Bureau
Absolutely Archives
Beech Grove Public Library
Roy Bernstein, Esq.
Kevin Bianchi
Christopher Cohen
C&C Visual, Ltd.
Ethel Burns Estate
Fox Television
George Eastman House
Getty Images
Leigh Harralson
Historic Films
Alexander W. Kogan, Jr.
Las Vegas News Bureau
Alan Jay Lerner Estate
Daniel Mayer Selznick
Robert Milite Collection
The Museum of Television and Radio
NBC News Archives
Paramount Pictures
Prelinger Archives
Producers Library Services
SabuCat Productions, Inc.
Showcase Productions
UCLA Film & TV Archive

Fiscal Sponsor
Film Video Arts, Inc., NY, NY Est. 1969

Music Credits
"Before the Parade Passes By"
from "Hello, Dolly"
(Jerry Herman)
Performed by Carol Channing
Courtesy of Biff Liff for
William Morris Agency

"Lullaby of Broadway"
(Al Dubin and Harry Warren)
Performed by Doris Day
Witmark M & Sons (ASCAP)
c/o Warner Bros. Inc. c/o
Warner Chappell Music, Inc.(ASCAP)
Courtesy of Columbia Records,
by Arrangement wtih Sony
Music Licensing

"New York, New York" from
"On the Town"
(Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden
and Adolph Green)
Performed by Original Broadway Cast
Warner Bros. Inc. c/o Warner/Chappell
Music, Inc. (ASCAP) and the Leonard
Bernstein Music Publishing Co. LLC.
c/o Universal Music Publishing Group
(ASCAP)
Courtesy of Columbia Records, by
Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

"Soliloquy" from "Carousel"
(Oscar Hammerstein ll & Richard Rodgers)
Performed by John Raitt
Williamson Music Co. (ASCAP)

"Steam Heat" from "The Pajama Game"
(Richard Adler & Jerry Ross)
Performed by Carol Haney, Buzz Miller
and Peter Gennaro
The Songwriter Guild of America
o/b/o J&J Ross Co. (ASCAP)
and Lakshmi Puja Music Ltd. (ASCAP)

"Finale (So, Kiss Me, Kate)"
from "Kiss Me, Kate"
(Cole Porter)
Performed by Patricia Morison, Alfred Drake
and the Original Broadway cast
Chappell & Co., Inc. (ASCAP)
c/o Warner/Chappell Music. Inc.

"I Hate Men" from "Kiss Me, Kate"
(Cole Porter)
Performed by Patricia Morison
Chappell & Co., Inc. (ASCAP)
c/o Warner/Chappell Music. Inc.

"If Ever I Should Leave You" from "Camelot"
(Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe)
Performed by Robert Goulet
Chappell Camelot Account (ASCAP)
c/o Warner Chappell Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

"Whatever Lola Wants" from "Damn Yankees"
(Richard Adler & Jerry Ross)
Performed by Gwen Verdon & Bob Fosse
The Songwriter Guild of America
o/b/o J&J Ross Co. (ASCAP)
and Lakshmi Puja Music Ltd. (ASCAP)

Act 1 Prologue (Orchestra, the Jets, the Sharks)"
from "West Side Story"
Original Cast Album
(Leonard Bernstein)
Performed by original Broadway cast
Chappel & Co., Inc. (ASCAP)
c/o Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. (ASCAP) and
the Leonard Bernstein Publishing Co. LLC. c/o
Universal Music Publishing Group (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Sony Classical (SK 60724)
by Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

"Tonight"
from "West Side Story"
(Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim)
Performed by Carol Lawrence & Larry Kert
Chappel & Co., Inc. (ASCAP)
c/o Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. (ASCAP) and
the Leonard Bernstein Publishing Co. LLC. c/o
Universal Music Publishing Group (ASCAP)

"Overture" from "Mame"
(Jerry Herman)
Jerryco Music Co./MPL Communications
(ASCAP) Used courtesy of Biff Liff for
William Morris Agency

"Mame"
(Jerry Herman)
Peformed by Broadway cast
Jerryco Music Co./MPL Communications
(ASCAP) Used courtesy of Biff Liff for
William Morris Agency

"Give My Regards to Broadway"
(George M. Cohan)
Performed by Rick McKay
and the Ian Finkel Orchestrette
Public Domain

"There's No Business Like Show Business"
(Irving Berlin)
Performed by Susannah McCorkle
Irving Berlin Music Company (ASCAP)
c/o Williamson Music Co. (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Concord Jazz Record

BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE
By the Legends Who Were There

Introduction

Did the Golden Age of Broadway really exist?
That is the question posed by writer-director-producer Rick McKay in the compelling new feature documentary Broadway: The Golden Age. Finding the answer became a magnificent obsession, and more of an adventure than McKay ever imagined.

Arriving in New York in 1981, McKay — a native of Beech Grove, Indiana — was surprised to realize that the Broadway of his boyhood dreams had been replaced by rock operas and musicals imported from England. Rick yearned for a glorious year like1955 when he could have seen the original productions of Silk Stockings, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Bus Stop and Damn Yankees. Or 1957—with the openings of The Music Man and West Side Story. Or 1964, with Carol Channing in Hello,Dolly! and Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof. Or 1966, when he could have seen Angela Lansbury as Mame, Gwen Verdon in Sweet Charity, and Ethel Merman in a revival of her 1946 hit Annie Get Your Gun.

McKay fantasized what it would be like to sit at the feet of a legend and ask them what it had really been like. So, with no crew, no budget and one digital camera, the former actor-singer set out on a five-year journey that took him to four continents, interviewing over 100 theatrical performers, composers, and writers.

The 111-minute film — produced, directed, written, filmed and edited by McKay — re-creates the excitement of this world that was, these magical four decades of Broadway history—the thirties through the sixties—through the eyes of the legends who were there, who saw it all, who soaked it all up, who lived it to the hilt.

McKay spoke to Golden Era luminaries like Carousel's John Raitt (1945), West Side Story's Chita Rivera (1957), The Music Man's Barbara Cook (1957), Camelot's Robert Goulet (1960), Mame's Angela Lansbury (1966), Company's Elaine Stritch (1970), and dozens and dozens of other major players. Without special effects, the film manages to catapult viewers back in time, to the fascinating world of the Broadway theatre, to an age of glamour and excitement that has never before been documented.

McKay wanted to know, when speaking to the actors, what drew each of them to a life in the theatre. What performance had the most influence on them as aspiring young actors? The answer may surprise you. For many it was an actress whose name is now rarely heard, but whose poignant performances remain vivid and pivotal in the minds of actors like Kaye Ballard, Charles Durning, Martin Landau, Marian Seldes, June Havoc, Fred Ebb, Maureen Stapleton, Anne Jackson, Betsy von Furstenberg, Karl Malden, Gena Rowlands, Nanette Fabray and Patricia Neal. She was a theatre actress named Laurette Taylor and what struck everyone who saw her was the unprecedented naturalness of her acting—she didn’t seem to be “acting” at all.

The performance most recall was Laurette Taylor’s portrayal of Amanda Wingfield in the original 1945 mounting of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Fred Ebb saw that performance and returned six times; Patricia Neal said, "It was the greatest performance I've ever seen in my entire life." Amazingly, McKay was able to find the only known footage of a speaking LauretteTaylor—a 1938 screen test for Hollywood icon, David O. Selznick. Ironically, Taylor was so realistic, so natural in her audition that the powers-that-be didn’t realize she was acting and never used her in a film.

The Golden Age of Hollywood can still be experienced by walking into a local video store and renting a handful of motion pictures, but where-o-where are the shows of yesteryear? Some of them are thankfully in revival (Gypsy, Wonderful Town, Fiddler on the Roof, 42nd Street, Sweeney Todd), some—like Chicago and Guys and Dolls—are inspiring new films. But the original live performances are lost forever, living on only in vivid memories. They were seldom captured on film and, if they were, where would the footage be now? Well, McKay actually found some rare and never-before-seen archival footage from the original stage productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Bus Stop, Carousel, West Side Story, Camelot and Mame—as well as the only known audio recording of Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy in the 1947 Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

In Broadway: The Golden Age, we hear legendary theatre stories from the legends themselves. Shirley MacLaine recalls her star-making performance in The Pajama Game (1954) when she filled in for the injured Carol Haney. Lainie Kazan remembers the despair of being replaced out-of-town in Seesaw (1973) by a young Michele Lee. Robert Goulet remembers his intimidating audition for the role of Lancelot in Camelot (1960), how awed he was to see at the first rehearsal (his future co-star) Richard Burton there, and how Burton reacted to hearing him sing. Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince and Chita Rivera all have stories about the groundbreaking musical West Side Story (1957). And, Angela Lansbury talks about nabbing the only role that she ever desperately wanted: Mame (1966) in Jerry Herman's Tony-winning musical.

The actors recall a time when Manhattan rents ranged from $19 to $50, when cast members gathered after shows at Walgreen's Drugstore, and when theatre tickets could be purchased for little more than a dollar -- yet a starving actor, who couldn’t afford to pay, resorted to “second-acting.” Broadway: The Golden Age also evokes some touching personal memories, like the smell of an actress's perfume that wafted into the first few rows of the orchestra, or the bead of sweat from an actor that flew onto the face of an awestruck young fan in the audience, or the feather that drifted into the audience and became a treasured memento.

"Was there really a Golden Age?" McKay asks again at the documentary's end. "Without question," he answers, and Broadway: The Golden Age offers all the evidence you’ll ever need.

QUOTABLE QUOTES from BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE

Actress Elizabeth Ashley: “What does the theatre have to offer that movies and television don’t? The theatre, above all else, is live.”

Actress Eva Marie Saint: “My mother took me to plays, and she’d always get the front row, and I remember for some reason this one particular play, the first one, the leading lady had this incredible perfume that really came across the stage to me, and there was just something about that. And to this day, when I’m on the stage, I think I wear a little more perfume than I ought to, so I hope I get somebody from that audience, some young person who says, ‘Oooh, there’s something about this.’”

Lyricist Fred Ebb: “I saw [The Glass Menagerie] seven times, seven times. And Laurette Taylor turned around and pulled down her girdle, and I have never been that affected by a stage action in my whole life. It made me weep.”

Actress Carol Burnett: “Four of us bought a dress, a dress. Each one of us put in five dollars, so it was a 20-dollar dress at Bloomingdale’s, which was expensive. Then, if you had an audition and you got first claim to it, you got to wear the dress, but then you were responsible for having it cleaned and put back in the closet for the next person.”

Actress Betty Garrett: “We didn’t have an ironing board for two years, and ironing boards were about $3.95, and theatre tickets were $1.10 apiece, sitting way up in the balcony. But whenever we wanted to get an ironing board, my mother would say, ‘Should we get an ironing board or should we go to the theatre?’ And I’d say, ‘Let’s go to the theatre.’”

Actress Donna McKechnie: “The audiences in Boston, in Philly, in New Haven, they had to tell us what was good and what wasn’t. That was the last piece of the puzzle . . . That’s why they say the best songs were written out of town in these shows.”

Composer/lyricist Jerry Herman: “‘Before the Parade Passes By’ was written under unbelievable pressure in a Detroit hotel room in the middle of a blizzard. And, I don’t know if I would have written it with as much passion if I didn’t have David Merrick breathing down my neck and threatening me.”

Actress Elaine Stritch: “You know, after a long run in a show, you kind of get, ‘Oh, my God, two [shows] today, you know, Wednesday.’ I never got tired of watching Kim Stanley [in Bus Stop], never, never. She was wonderful.”

Actor Jerry Orbach: “When I was 17, 18, I played a little bit part in Trip to Bountiful with Kim Stanley and Lillian Gish. I watched Kim every night, watched her every night. It was so startling some of the things that she did. Nobody had ever done before. I had never seen acting like that, just totally mind blowing.”

Director Hal Prince about West Side Story: “I’ve worked on a few shows in my life where I thought, ‘This rhythm, this sound, the way this is happening, this is unique and getting me in some visceral place where I’m so excited I could scream.’”

Actress Angela Lansbury: “I never did anything before it, and I’ve never done anything since that came close to Mame.”

Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim: “Going to the theatre is no longer just something you do. It’s an event. For most people, you plan it, often a year in advance. You get tickets for whatever the big hit is, whatever is difficult to get tickets for — that’s what you go to.”

Director Hal Prince: “The more you know, the less you know, and I would know.”

Filmmaker Rick McKay: “Did I find what I was looking for? Was it a Golden Age? Without question. Is it one now? That’s not for me to say. There’s some kid in Beech Grove, Indiana, or some small town, sitting in front of his computer, downloading songs over the internet from Hairspray or The Producers, and that’s his movie to make in 20 years.”

Q&A WITH FILMMAKER RICK McKAY

Your childhood obviously played a big role in your eventual decision to create this film. Tell me a bit about growing up in Indiana.
I grew up in the small town of Beech Grove, Indiana with no live theatres or movie theatres. So, I spent most of my youth watching the beat up, old black & white tv set that was relegated to the basement of our house. If you ever saw the movie Frances with Jessica Lange and Kim Hunter, you will remember that the troubled Hollywood actress Frances Farmer had a lobotomy and was wound up, confused, on This is Your Life as the film came to a close. What they don’t tell you is afterwards she ended up, for some odd reason, in Indiana hosting an afternoon television show called Frances Farmer Presents. I would race home from school as a kid to be in front of the TV by 3:30 to see what old movie she showed that day. Even “slightly dazed” I knew she was as close as you could get in Indiana to that era I was seeing in those movies.

I was particularly fascinated by the backstage musicals and dramas, like All About Eve with Bette Davis and Celeste Holm, Bandwagon with Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant playing Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Jane Powell in Royal Weddin” or Judy Garland in Summer Stock. I loved the hard reality of the theatre, interpreted and glamorized by the magic of the studio system of MGM or 20 Century Fox. I couldn’t wait to grow up and move to New York City. In the meantime, I joined Columbia Record Club and got every cast album I could. I spent most of my childhood in debt to that record club, my first experience with bad credit.

In your film there’s a segment about actors’ first theatrical memories or experiences. Do you remember your first time in a legitimate theatre seeing a live show?
The first live show I saw was Applause, which was the musical version of the film All About Eve. The film had Bette Davis and the musical coming to town had Lauren Bacall. I had already ordered the cast album and was shocked at first to hear Bacall’s croak instead of an actual singing voice, but I didn’t care. It was my first experience with a live sensation of charisma overpowering craft. I was already figuring out that in movie musicals you had to be perfect, or could be made perfect, while on stage you had to be electric.

I was too young to be able to drive to the theatre, so I used the pretense of taking my mother for her early Christmas present to get her to drive me there. Those were the days when a kid with a newspaper route could make enough for two theatre tickets. On stage, Bacall was everything I expected and generated a tremendous energy and glamour. The show has not aged well, but it was very contemporary at the time and I never dreamed that it was, as Bea Arthur later told me, “the last time we would see a show written for a female star to carry, like Dolly or Mame.” It had a kind of Broadway/rock sound, people were in bell bottoms, and stuff. To me it was absolutely as current as television or film.

What year did you decide to move to New York?
I had severe wanderlust by the time I left Indiana and had gone to school for awhile in Boston, left to work as a nightclub singer in Japan and then stopped back in Indiana and found that there were community and repertory theatres that I started to work in. I got a scholarship in dance there and worked for a few years there before that hunger for New York City overcame me and I finally moved here in 1981.

What was your reason for coming to New York at that time?
Well, I was still in my early 20’s and I knew that I had better get moving if I was going to get a chance to work in the business. I was still under the misguided impression that New York was a place full of old-fashioned musicals and sophisticated, intimate supper clubs. I had gone to NYC to see things like 42nd Street with Jerry Orbach, Tammy Grimes and Carole Cook or “Sweeney Todd” with Angela Lansbury – and when you are in NYC for a week you see what you want to see. I didn’t realize that the world was changing very quickly on Broadway.

What was the first Broadway show you saw when you moved to New York?
It was Amadeu” with Ian McKellan and Peter Firth, which completely blew me away. I saw Gemini just before it closed and of course, Chorus Line. I was studying dance at Alvin Ailey and taking singing lessons while I waited tables, so money was always tight. I remember that another singer/dancer/actor/waiter told me about “second-acting” and the first show that I snuck in to at intermission was Merrily We Roll Along where I saw Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim whispering quietly and taking notes in the half empty mezzanine. The show was in previews and I think I watched them more than the show – which was easy to understand since “Merrily” took place in reverse chronological order and having snuck in at intermission, I had no idea what was going on. That first year I “second-acted” shows like Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, Katherine Hepburn in The West Side Waltz and Tommy Tune and Wally Harper’s Nine and A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.

What year did you decide to make the documentary?
It started on paper and planning in 1997 and I started shooting in 1998.

In those interim years how much did you perform and how did your career change?
I kept singing right up till the mid-nineties. By the time I got to NYC, Broadway was struggling and the “British Invasion” had begun. The music had become a hybrid that was no longer considered “popular music” anymore, with the exception of “Memory” from Cats and a few other songs. I slowly realized that a John Raitt-type baritone was not going to work much, and summer stock was already drying up, so I started to work as a solo act in clubs. I did well, eventually winning three “Best Vocalist” awards in the early 90’s, but there was no work really. Having trouble making a living in NYC, I worked as a headliner on cruise ships and made a very good living with a ten-piece band behind me, only having to do my show twice on every ten-day cruise. But, I realized one night as I was sitting at the midnight buffet with the magician, his assistant in fishnet stockings and their doves, a husband and wife dance team, an aging comic and a tired juggler that Vaudeville was not dead, it was simply lost at sea.

I continued to go between NYC clubs and ships and began to write other people’s nightclub acts as well. It was about this time that Wally Harper, who had been my musical director and friend, recommended me to the director Mike Nichols to film drag queens to help him make the film, Birdcage. I had no experience, but fast-talked my way into the job and was on a plane with a borrowed video camera 48 hours later. I soon realized that capturing people on camera and putting them at ease came easily to me and I made a 75-minute film for Mike Nichols to use to train Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

I wrote a story about my experience working for Mike Nichols and the article, “Birds of a Feather,” won Best Journalist in San Francisco the next year. I then sold a monologue I had written called “Raised on Judy, or What Chance Did a Boy Have?” about my mother raising me on Judy Garland records. It ended up in the book “Rainbow: A Star-Studded Tribute to Judy Garland” along with essays by Michael Musto, Lorna Luft, Liza Minnelli and William Goldman.

I realized that with those two stories I was reaching more people than I could in a nightclub in a year so I took a break from singing and sold stories to magazines. Jamie deRoy approached me to go with her to WNET, NYC’s local PBS outlet, to pitch stories to the series “City Arts.” We got the first story we pitched and began to produce segments for the show. I never went back to singing. We were nominated for Emmy Awards and I went on my own to work with EGG: THE ARTS SHOW on WNET, helped put together the openings for the Tony Awards broadcast, and produced for BIOGRAPHY on A&E before realizing it was time to combine my experience in theatre, performing, writing and producing and start shooting and editing this film in my small Manhattan apartment.

Who was the first person that agreed to be in “Broadway: The Golden Age?”
I asked friends like Barbara Cook and June Havoc if they would do it for me, and once they said yes, I began to write to people, using their names. I think Tom Bosley was the first message on my answering machine that said yes. When I heard that voice I knew that it was real and that I was off and running. I flew to Los Angeles on frequent flier miles and rented a friend’s couch in West Hollywood for a week. I started faxing from my laptop, giving the illusion that I was a big production house, and inviting more and more people. Patricia Morison, the original Kate in Kiss Me, Kate was the next to agree. I remember Gwen Verdon leaving me a message on my answering machine in NYC, agreeing to be part of the film. I came back the next week, moved from my one-room studio into a one-bedroom and Gwen was the first person I shot here in my apartment. It was her last interview.

How did you go about getting all these different legends to agree to talk to you? What was your process?
I learned quickly that going through agents didn’t work. I had to find a way to get to them directly. I had called Stephen Sondheim but never gotten a response. But, when Barbara Cook did her first Sondheim show at Carnegie Hall, she had a party at her apartment where I saw Mr. Sondheim in a corner of the dining room surrounded by his impenetrable “posse.” I knew that he was standing by one of the two doors that led into the kitchen, where the waiters were. So, I slipped in and quickly went through that door, hitting Mr. Sondheim in the bottom. As I apologized, I proceeded to introduce myself and invite him to be part of the film again. He promptly declined as we discussed the pros and cons of what I was doing. He said it was impossible to document an era that had never been captured and I returned that it was too late for me to quit now and that it would not be complete without him. He finally asked me to write him a letter explaining the film again and within a few days he wrote me back, accepting. He said he could give me ten minutes on film and in the end we ended up speaking for well over an hour.

That led me to writing Angela Lansbury and telling her how Mr. Sondheim had talked about her in his interview. When Ms. Lansbury finally agreed to do the film, we had a great shoot. At the end, as I was breaking down the lights she said, “If I had seen this at the movies or on TV and had not been included I would have been very sorry. I am ashamed to say that I think I turned this down once didn’t I?” “No, Ms. Lansbury,” I replied. “You turned it down four times.”

Bea Arthur thought I was crazy when I showed up at her home with no crew and shot and lit the interview myself. But, by the end of the interview she was evidently impressed enough to say, “Who haven’t you gotten that you want?” Without telling her that I had seen the invitation in her kitchen while I was getting a glass of water, I mentioned a few names that I knew that she was seeing the next week at an 80th birthday party for Nanette Fabray. “Oh my God,” she said. “Get me my address book and my reading glasses. I’m seeing all those people next week - let me give you some numbers!” It is hard to make clear what a help that was – as much to my morale as to my contact list. Agents often didn’t even take my calls or would just blow me off when I eventually got through to them. Since not one of the stars in the film got paid, most agents treated me as 10% of a major waste of time for them.

But, Deborah Kellman, who is Carol Burnett’s longtime publicist, helped me. Carol had turned me down three times as well, but Deborah agreed to get a letter to her in which I mentioned all the people in the film who talked about her. Carol was moved by the letter and agreed to do a “a few minutes.” She ended up doing well over an hour as well and she took me back in time, making me feel like I was at her side in 1955.

Jane Powell got me Jerry Herman and Robert Goulet, but, Kaye Ballard was the greatest champion. She literally did only give me 15 minutes, but a year later when I sent her 30 minutes of the film she jumped on board, opening her address book and calling people herself, Fred Ebb, Laine Kazan and anyone who would take her call. She even sponsored a sneak preview of the rough cut of the film at the Camelot Theatre in Palm Springs and got everyone from Carol Channing and Janis Paige to Robert Goulet and Charles Durning up on stage with us at the screening for a Q&A.

It became like an uber “Six Degrees of Carol Channing” to get everyone on board. But, I gotta’ tell you, once they sat down, got talking and began to trust me, they all opened up and really let go. It became clear that although their work on stage hadn’t gotten them the house in Bel Air or the pool, it had been the happiest, most satisfying time of their careers. They were – without exception – very proud of being part of that era.

Who were you most excited to film?
Stephen Sondheim was up there. As time went by and I had to sell my piano and anything that wasn’t nailed down to keep making the film, I would think of him telling me how no one gave them a dime when he and Leonard Bernstein did backers’ auditions for “West Side Story” in rich people’s apartments. Believe me, that helped me keep going.

Shirley MacLaine was pretty great. Smart and funny – tough and direct - like a laser, she cut to the quick and was completely accessible. After the interview she said, “Why didn’t anyone tell me how important this was? We should have had more time.” Hal Prince was great. Alec Baldwin was deeply passionate and very smart, once he realized he was filming in my tiny apartment and that I wasn’t going to kidnap him. He was the only younger generation that I didn’t move to “Broadway: The Next Generation” which will be on the DVD. I found him to be the closest parallel to the charisma of a Broadway star of days gone by that is working in this generation. And he is back on Broadway again now. Ben Gazzara, Julie Harris (who had a stroke just after and, although in good health, has not done an on camera interview since), and Karl Malden and Charles Nelson Reilly were deeply, deeply dedicated and inspiring. Elizabeth Ashley was pure fire and unbridled passion, never mincing words. Ann Miller was the epitome of the old star system and I will never forget her descending her circular staircase in her Beverly Hills home. She’s gone now. So is Uta Hagen, who did her only interview after her stroke with me for this film – she was deeply passionate, actually reverent, and one of the last of the actors who dedicated a life to the stage. Marian Seldes and Cherry Jones are still here now – and keeping the torch lit – and both wonderful interviews. Cherry will be on the DVD as well, with Amanda Plummer, Audra McDonald, Jason Alexander, Joanna Gleason, Betty Buckley, Cameron Mackintosh, Ann Reinking, Alan Cumming, George C. Wolfe and many others – all great as well.

Was there anyone you tried to get that you didn’t that you would have liked to be part of the film?
Oh, sure. I was disappointed not to get Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. I tried again and again and Elizabeth Ashley even wrote them a letter explaining how important the film was, but to no avail. Julie Andrews’ agent turned it down three times, finally telling me that Ms. Andrews wanted to do a similar project herself. I told him that she better hurry up as time was running out. Bernadette Peters turned it down four times through her press person. Although she is much older than Alec Baldwin, I thought of her as a similar link between that era and today, since she was working on Broadway back in the 50’s. I never got Liza Minnelli or Barbra Streisand, but I haven’t given up. There is room on the DVD! Marlon Brando turned it down but then called me and helped me with contacts and told me stories for 90 minutes. That was more help than I can tell you and something I will never forget.

If you had to describe the film to someone who hadn’t seen it, how would you describe it?
I guess I would say that it is a journey film or a time-travel film. It is a trip back in time to a completely different New York City; a different time in America when the world was simpler and passions may have run more deeply. Broadway was where more daring work was done than could be done in films and Hollywood came to Broadway looking for product and inspiration. The top songs came from Broadway and many songs in a new musical were hits on the radio before the show even opened. Young actors in NYC lived five in a room and were deeply passionate about learning their craft.

One choice I did make along the way was to really try and make a personal film that recounted one man’s journey to find this lost era. I consciously chose not to make a timeline-sensitive, chronological film with a disembodied, stentorian voice over connecting it all together in post production. I knew that PBS could do that very well for television - but I wanted to make a movie, and hopefully one that would inspire and remind people of an era that was scantily documented. I wanted it to play in theatres and be seen with an audience, the way live theatre is. I actively chose not to use the computer-generated effects that many use today to try and transform a “documentary” into something more accessible. Instead I chose to get out of the way of these legends, let them tell their story, and become a fly on the wall, sitting in for the audience member. My original goal had been to sit at the knee of one of these legends and ask them “what it had really been like,” the way one might with an older relative. I never dreamed that the film would have large portions dedicated to Laurette Taylor or Kim Stanley, or focus on a mostly forgotten Gretchen Wyler who waited in the wings for her big break. I tried to let the film tell me what it would be as it became clear that the people who had inspired so many others had to be documented, or they would disappear from any consciousness before the next generation documented this same terrain. I knew that Ethel Merman and Mary Martin would not disappear without me. And I also made a conscious choice not to separate the musicals from the dramas – which is always done – as I found that it was really one community of passionate artists who co-existed. It made it virtually impossible to qualify for grants, but once I had gone out that far on a limb it was easier to keep going than to turn back.

It meant a great deal to me when the critic Judith Crist said to her Tarrytown House Film Festival audience after an advance screening, “I know intellectually that this film was shot all over the world and took five years, and I know that they are all talking to a camera. But, as I watch it you can not tell me that these 100 people are not all sitting in one room talking to me personally for two hours – and that’s editing.” I think it meant so much to me because I worked very, very hard to make it appear that there was no work done, which I hope is the way the audience will see it. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. Now, if you could go back and catch one show or one performance from that era of Broadway that you didn’t get to see, do you know what it would be?
You know, I asked everyone in the film almost the same question! I would say, “if we could go downstairs and hail a cab, but instead of telling him an address, tell him the show and year you would take me back to . . .” And my answer is the same as almost all the people in the film: Merman in Gypsy, Laurette Taylor in The Glass Menagerie, and Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden and Jessica Tandy in A Streetcar Named Desire. I would probably add Uta Hagen in Who’s Afraid Virginia Woolfe or The Country Girl. Gwen in Damn Yankee” or just about anything she ever did. And I would love to walk into the St. James Theatre and see The Pajama Game – but I would have to see that one twice. Once to see John Raitt, Janis Paige and Carol Hainey - with Hal Prince in the wings stage managing and producing his first show – and then again to see the performance that Carol Hainey first missed when young Shirley MacLaine went on for her and became a star. I would probably say hello to Edie Adams, who was in the audience that day, too. Ha! Wouldn’t that be nice if we could go back in time to see that?! But, then again, the fact that we can’t is the reason I made this movie, I guess.

Do you think an age like this could happen again?
I am sure for some people in the theatre today this is a golden age, and I completely respect that. But, I think whether it is Hollywood movies, or Italian Opera, or Greek architecture or the Renaissance, each art form has one incredible golden age when it affects the world, and I don’t think it is meant to go on indefinitely. This may be the golden age of digital filmmaking for all we know. But life is meant to change. If it didn’t we would be going to the theatre tonight and seeing a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta or a melodrama. We would never have heard of Rodgers and Hart or Hammerstein, or Tennessee Williams, or Stephen Sondheim or Eugene O’Neill or Irving Berlin or Arthur Miller. But, what I do know is that it is not supposed to be forgotten just because it didn’t happen on a Hollywood sound stage in front of a movie camera.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

The Legends Who Were There and Their Broadway Credits:

Edie Adams : Wonderful Town, Li’l Abner

Bea Arthur: Threepenny Opera, Plain and Fancy, Seventh Heaven, Nature’s Way, Fiddler on the Roof, Mame, The Floating Light Bulb, Bea Arthur on Broadway.

Elizabeth Ashley: Take Her, She’s Mine; Barefoot in the Park; Ring Around the Bathtub; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; The Skin of Our Teeth; Legend; Caesar and Cleopatra; Hide and Seek; Agnes of God; Garden District; Gore Vidal’s The Best Man; Enchanted April.

Alec Baldwin: Loot, Serious Money, Prelude to a Kiss, A Streetcar Named Desire, Twentieth Century.

Kaye Ballard: The Golden Apple, Carnival, The Beast in Me, Molly, The Pirates of Penzance.

Betsy Blair: Panama Hattie, The Beautiful Parade, The Glass Menagerie, Face of a Hero.

Tom Bosley: Fiorello!, Nowhere to Go But Up, Natural Affection, A Murderer Among Us, Catch Me If You Can, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, Beauty and the Beast, Cabaret.

Marlon Brando: Remember Mama, Truckline Café, Candida, A Flag Is Born, A Streetcar Named Desire.

Carol Burnett: Once Upon a Mattress, Fade Out—Fade In, Moon Over Buffalo, Putting It Together, Hollywood Arms.

Kitty Carlisle Hart: Champagne, Sec, White Horse Inn, Three Waltzes, Walk With Music, The Rape of Lucretia, Anniversary Waltz, On Your Toes.

Carol Channing: Let’s Face It!; Proof Through the Night; Lend an Ear; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Wonderful Town; The Vamp; Show Girl; Hello, Dolly!; Four on a Garden; Lorelei.

Betty Comden (lyricist, librettist): On the Town; Billion Dollar Baby; Two on the Aisle; Wonderful Town; Peter Pan; Bells Are Ringing; Say, Darling; A Party with Betty Comden & Adolph Green; Do Re Mi: Subways Are for Sleeping; Fade Out—Fade In; Hallelujah, Baby!; Applause; Lorelei; On the Twentieth Century; The Madwoman of Central Park West; A Doll’s Life; Singin’ in the Rain; Jerome Robbins’ Broadway; The Will Rogers Follies.

Barbara Cook: Flahooley, Plain and Fancy, Candide, Carousel, The Music Man, The Gay Life, She Loves Me, Any Wednesday, Something More!, Little Murders, The Grass Harp, Enemies, Barbara Cook: A Concert for the Theatre, Mostly Sondheim, Barbara Cook’s Broadway.

Carole Cook: Romantic Comedy, 42nd Street.

Hume Cronyn: Hipper’s Holiday, Boy Meets Girl, High Tor, There’s Always a Breeze, Escape This Night, Off to Buffalo, Three Sisters, The Weak Link, Retreat to Pleasure, Mr. Big, The Survivors, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Hilda Crane, The Little Blue Light, The Fourposter, The Honeys, A Day By the Sea, The Egghead, The Man in the Dog Suit, Triple Play, Big Fish Little Fish, Hamlet, The Physicists, Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, A Delicate Balance, All Promenade, Noël Coward in Two Keys, The Gin Game, Foxfire, The Petition.

Arlene Dahl: Applause, Mr. Strauss Goes To Boston, Cyrano de Bergerac.

Charles Durning: Poor Bitos, Drat! The Cat!, Pousse-Café, The Happy Time, Indians, That Championship Season, Boom Boom Room, The au Pair Man, Knock Knock, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Inherit the Wind, The Gin Game, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man.

Fred Ebb (lyricist): From A to Z; Flora, The Red Menace; Cabaret; The Happy Time; Zorba; 70, Girls, 70; Liza; Chicago; Shirley MacLaine; The Act; The American Dance Machine; The Madwoman of Central Park West; Woman of the Year; Zorba; The Rink; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Steel Pier; Minnelli on Minnelli.

Nanette Fabray: Let’s Face It!, By Jupiter, My Dear Public, Jackpot, Bloomer Girl, High Button Shoes, Love Life, Arms and the Girl, Make a Wish, Mr. President, No Hard Feelings.

Cy Feuer (producer): Where’s Charley?, Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, The Boy Friend, Silk Stockings, Whoop-Up, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Little Me, Skyscraper, Walking Happy, The Goodbye People, The Act. I Remember Mama (as director).

Betty Garrett: Of V We Sing; Something for the Boys; Jackpot; Laffing Room Only; Call Me Mister; Bells Are Ringing; Beg, Borrow or Steal; Spoon River Anthology; A Girl Could Get Lucky; The Supporting Cast; Meet Me in St. Louis; Follies.

Ben Gazzara: End as a Man, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Hatful of Rain, The Night Circus, Strange Interlude, Traveller Without Luggage, Hughie/Duet, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Shimada.

Robert Goulet: Camelot, The Happy Time, Moon Over Buffalo.

Farley Granger: First Impressions, The Warm Peninsula, The Seagull, The Crucible, The Glass Menagerie, Deathtrap.

Adolph Green (lyricist/librettist): On the Town; Billion Dollar Baby; Two on the Aisle; Wonderful Town; Peter Pan; Bells Are Ringing; Say, Darling; A Party with Betty Comden & Adolph Green; Do Re Mi; Subways Are for Sleeping; Fade Out—Fade In; Hallelujah, Baby!; Applause; Lorelei; On the Twentieth Century; The Madwoman of Central Park West; A Doll’s Life; Singin’ in the Rain; The Will Rogers Follies.

Tammy Grimes: Look After Lulu, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Rattle of a Simple Man, High Spirits, The Only Game in Town, Private Lives, A Musical Jubilee, California Suite, Tartuffe, Trick, 42nd Street, Orpheus Descending.

Uta Hagen: The Seagull, The Happiest Days, Key Largo, Vickie, Othello, The Whole World Over, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Country Girl, Saint Joan, In Any Language, The Magic and The Loss, Island of Goats, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Cherry Orchard, Charlotte, You Never Can Tell.

Julie Harris: It’s a Gift; The Playboy of the Western World; Alice in Wonderland; Macbeth; Sundown Beach; The Young and Fair; Magnolia Alley; Montserrat; The Member of the Wedding; I Am a Camera; Mademoiselle Colombe; The Lark; The Country Wife; The Warm Peninsula; Little Moon of Alban; A Shot in the Dark; Marathon ’33; Ready When You Are, C.B.!; Skyscraper; Forty Carats; And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little; Voices; The Last of Mrs. Lincoln; The au Pair Man; In Praise of Love; The Belle of Amherst; Break a Leg; Mixed Couples; Lucifer’s Child; The Glass Menagerie; The Gin Game.

Rosemary Harris: The Climate of Eden; Troilus and Cressida; Interlock; The Disenchanted; The Tumbler; You Can’t Take It With You; The Lion in Winter; The School for Scandal; Right You Are If You Think You Are; We, Comrades Three; The Wild Duck; War and Peace; Old Times: The Merchant of Venice; A Streetcar Named Desire; The Royal Family; Heartbreak House; Pack of Lies; Hay Fever; Lost in Yonkers; An Inspector Calls; A Delicate Balance; Waiting in the Wings.

June Havoc: Forbidden Melody, Pal Joey, Mexican Hayride, Sadie Thompson, The Ryan Girl, Dunnigan’s Daughter; Affairs of State, The Warm Peninsula, Dinner at Eight, Habeas Corpus, Annie. As playwright and director: Marathon ’33.

Jerry Herman (composer/lyricist): From A to Z; Milk and Honey; Hello, Dolly!; Ben Franklin in Paris; Mame; Dear World; Mack & Mabel; The Grand Tour; A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine; Jerry’s Girls; An Evening with Jerry Herman.

Mimi Hines: Funny Girl, Grease!.

Al Hirschfeld (artist): famed caricaturist for The New York Times and various other publications. At the Drop of a Hat (frontcloth design), Passionate Ladies (cover drawing), Jackie Mason’s The World According to Me (artwork), Jackie Mason: Politically Incorrect (cover art).

Celeste Holm: Gloriana, The Time of Your Life, Another Sun, The Return of the Vagabond, Eight O’Clock Tuesday, My Fair Ladies, Papa Is All, All the Comforts of Home, The Damask Cheek, Oklahoma!, Bloomer Girl, Affairs of State, The King and I, Anna Christie, His and Hers, Interlock, Third Best Sport, Invitation to a March, Mame, Candida, Habeas Corpus, The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall, I Hate Hamlet.

Sally Ann Howes: My Fair Lady, Kwamina, Brigadoon, What Makes Sammy Run?, James Joyce’s The Dead.

Kim Hunter: A Streetcar Named Desire, Darkness at Noon, The Chase, The Children’s Hour, The Tender Trap, Write Me a Murder, Weekend, The Penny Wars, The Women, To Grandmother’s House We Go, An Ideal Husband.

Jeremy Irons: The Real Thing, A Little Night Music.

Anne Jackson: Signature; King Henry VIII; What Every Woman Knows; John Gabriel Borkman; A Pound on Demand/Androcles and the Lion; Yellow Jack; The Last Dance; Summer and Smoke; Magnolia Alley; Love Me Long; The Lady from the Sea; Arms and the Man; Never Say Never; Oh, Men! Oh, Women!; Middle of the Night; Rhinoceros; Luv, The Exercise; Inquest; Promenade, All!; The Waltz of the Toreadors; Twice Around the Park; Café Crown, Lost in Yonkers; The Flowering Peach.

Derek Jacobi: The Suicide, Much Ado About Nothing, Cyrano de Bergerac, Breaking the Code, Uncle Vanya.

Lainie Kazan: The Happiest Girl in the World, Bravo Giovanni, Funny Girl, My Favorite Year, The Government Inspector.

John Kenley: Separate Rooms, A Bell for Adano.

Joan Kobin: nee Bartels: (singing teacher/actress) Carnival!, Call Me Mister, Firebrand of Florence, Ballet Ballads.

Miles Kreuger (dramaturge): Show Boat (historical advisor).

Martin Landau: Middle of the Night, Actor’s Studio West President

Frank Langella: Yerma, A Cry of Players, Seascape, Dracula, Passione, Amadeus, Passion, Design for Living, Hurlyburly, Sherlock’s Last Case, The Father, Present Laughter, Fortune’s Fool, Match.

Angela Lansbury: Hotel Paradiso, A Taste of Honey, Anyone Can Whistle, Mame, Dear World, Gypsy, The King and I, Sweeney Todd, A Little Family Business.

Arthur Laurents: As playwright: Home of the Brave, The Bird Cage, The Time of the Cuckoo, A Clearing in the Woods. As book writer: West Side Story; Gypsy; Do I Hear a Waltz?; Hallelujah, Baby. As playwright and director: Invitation to a March. As director: I Can Get It for You Wholesale, La Cage aux Folles. As book writer and director: Anyone Can Whistle, The Madwoman of Central Park West, Nick & Nora.

Carol Lawrence: Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952, Plain and Fancy, Shangri-La, Ziegfeld Follies of 1957, West Side Story, Saratoga, Subways Are for Sleeping, Night Life, I Do! I Do!, Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Michele Lee: Vintage ’60, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Bravo Giovanni, Seesaw, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.

Hal Linden: Bells Are Ringing, Something More!, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Illya Darling, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, Three Men on a Horse, The Rothschilds, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, The Pajama Game, I’m Not Rappaport, The Sisters Rosensweig, Cabaret, The Gathering.

Shirley MacLaine: Me and Juliet, The Pajama Game, Shirley MacLaine on Broadway.

Karl Malden: Golden Boy, How to Get Tough About It, Missouri Legend, The Gentle People, Key Largo, Journey to Jerusalem, Flight to the West, Uncle Harry, The Sun Field, Counterattack, Sons and Soldiers, Winged Victory, The Assassin, Truckline Café, All My Sons, A Streetcar Named Desire, Peer Gynt, Desire Under the Elms, Tea and Sympathy, The Desperate Hours, The Egghead.

Rick McKay: (see separate biography)

Donna McKechine: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N*K*A*P*L*A*N, Promises, Promises, Company, On the Town, A Chorus Line, State Fair.

Ann Miller: George White’s Scandals of 1939, Mame, Sugar Babies.

Liliane Montevecchi: La Plume de Ma Tante, Folies Bergère [1964], Nine, Grand Hotel.

Patricia Morison: The Two Bouquets; Allah Be Praised!; Kiss Me, Kate; The King and I.

Robert Morse: The Matchmaker; Say, Darling; Take Me Along; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Sugar; So Long, 174th Street; Tru.

James Naughton: I Love My Wife, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, City of Angels, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, Chicago, The Price, Our Town.

Patricia Neal: Another Part of the Forest, The Children’s Hour, A Roomful of Roses, The Miracle Worker.

Phyllis Newman: Wish You Were Here, Bells Are Ringing, First Impressions, Moonbirds, Subways Are for Sleeping, The Apple Tree, On the Town, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Madwoman of Central Park West, Awake and Sing!, Broadway Bound.

Nicholas Brothers (Harold and Fayard): Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, Babes in Arms, Sammy.

Jerry Orbach: Threepenny Opera; Carnival!; Guys and Dolls; Annie Get Your Gun; The Natural Look; Promises, Promises; 6 Rms Riv Vu; Chicago; 42nd Street.

Janis Paige: Remains to Be Seen, The Pajama Game, Here’s Love, Mame, Alone Together.

Don Pippin (musical director): Ankles Aweigh (additional dance music), Irma la Douce (assistant conductor), Oliver!, 110 in the Shade, Foxy, Ben Franklin in Paris, Mame, Dear World, Applause, Seesaw, Mack & Mabel, A Chorus Line, A Broadway Musical, The Grand Tour, Woman of the Year, La Cage aux Folles, Jerry’s Girls, Cabaret, Teddy & Alice, Catskills on Broadway (opening musical sequence arrangement), The Red Shoes, Dream.

Jane Powell: Irene.

Hal Prince: As producer and/or director: Tickets, Please!; Call Me Madam; Wonderful Town: The Pajama Game; Damn Yankees; New Girl in Town; West Side Story; Fiorello!; Tenderloin; A Call on Kuprin; Take Her, She’s Mine; A Family Affair; A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum; She Loves Me; Fiddler on the Roof; Poor Bitos; Baker Street; Flora, the Red Menace; It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman; Cabaret; Zorba; Company; Follies; The Great God Brown; Don Juan; A Little Night Music; The Visit; Chemin de Fer; Holiday; Candide; Love for Love; The Rules of the Game; The Member of the Wedding; Pacific Overtures; Side by Side by Sondheim; Some of My Best Friend; On the Twentieth Century; Sweeney Todd; Evita; Merrily We Roll Along; A Doll’s Life; Play Memory; End of the World; Grind; Roza; The Phantom of the Opera; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Show Boat; Parade; Hollywood Arms.

John Raitt: Carousel, Magdalena, Three Wishes for Jamie, Carnival in Flanders, The Pajama Game, A Joyful Noise, A Musical Jubilee.

Rex Reed: theatre critic

Elliott Reid: From A to Z, Two on the Aisle, The Live Wire, Two Blind Mice, Macbeth, The Shoemaker’s Holiday, Julius Ceasar

Charles Nelson Reilly: Bye, Bye Birdie; How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Hello, Dolly!; Skyscraper; God’s Favorite; Charlotte. As director: The Belle of Amherst, Paul Robeson, Break a Leg, The Nerd, The Gin Game.

Diana Rigg: Abelard and Heloise, The Misanthrope, Medea.

Chita Rivera: Can-Can; Seventh Heaven; Mr. Wonderful; Shinbone Alley; West Side Story; Bye, Bye Birdie; Bajour; Chicago; Bring Back Birdie; Merlin; The Rink; Jerry’s Girls; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Nine.

Tony Roberts: Something About a Soldier, Barefoot in the Park; The Last Analysis; Don’t Drink the Water; How Now, Dow Jones; Promises, Promises; Play It Again, Sam; Sugar; Absurd Person Singular; They’re Playing Our Song; Murder at the Howard Johnson’s; Doubles; Arsenic and Old Lace; Jerome Robbins’ Broadway; The Seagull; The Sisters Rosensweig; Victor/Victoria; Cabaret; The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.

Mary Rodgers (composer): Once Upon a Mattress, From A to Z, Hot Spot, Working, The Madwoman of Central Park West.

Gena Rowlands: Middle of the Night, The Seven Year Itch.

Eva Marie Saint: The Trip to Bountiful, The Lincoln Mask, Mr. Roberts.

Marian Seldes: Medea, Crime and Punishment, That Lady, The Tower Beyond Tragedy, The High Ground, Ondine, The Chalk Garden, The Wall, A Gift of Time, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance, Before You Go, Father’s Day, Next Time I’ll Sing to You, Equus, The Merchant, Deathtrap, Ivanov, Ring Round the Moon, 45 Seconds From Broadway, Dinner at Eight.

Vincent Sherman: Volpone, Marco Millions, Elizabeth the Queen, Judgment Day, Paradise Lost, Bitter Stream. As director: Battle Hymn, It Can’t Happen Here.

Stephen Sondheim (composer/lyricist): Girls of Summer, West Side Story (lyrics), Gypsy (lyrics), Invitation to a March(incidental music), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear a Waltz? (lyrics), Company, Follies, Twigs (incidental music), A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Side by Side by Sondheim, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Passion, Putting It Together, The Frogs.

Maureen Stapleton: The Playboy of the Western World; Antony and Cleopatra; Detective Story; The Bird Cage; The Rose Tattoo; The Crucible; The Emperor’s Clothes; All in One; Orpheus Descending; The Cold Wind and the Warm; Toys in the Attic; The Glass Menagerie; Plaza Suite; Norman, Is That You?; The Gingerbread Lady; The Country Girl; The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild, The Gin Game, The Little Foxes

Kim Stanley: The House of Bernarda Alba, The Chase, Picnic, The Traveling Lady, Bus Stop, A Clearing in the Woods, A Touch of the Poet, Cheri, A Far Country, Natural Affection, Three Sisters .

Elaine Stritch: Loco; Angels in the Wings; Yes, M’Lord; Call Me Madam; Pal Joey; On Your Toes; Bus Stop; The Sin of Pat Muldoon; Goldilocks; Sail Away; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Company; Love Letters; Show Boat; A Delicate Balance; Elaine Stritch at Liberty.

Laurette Taylor: The Great John Ganton, The Ringmaster, Mrs. Dakon, Alias Jimmy Valenti, Seven Sisters, The Bird of Paradise, Peg O’ My Heart, Just as Well, The Harp of Life, Out There, The Wooing of Eve, Happiness, Laurette Taylor in Scenes from Shakespeare, One Night in Rome, The National Anthem, Humoresque, Sweet Nell of Old Drury, Pierrot the Prodigal, Trelawny of the “Wells,” In A Garden, The Furries, A Night of Barrie, Outward Bound, The Glass Menagerie.

Tommy Tune: As performer: Baker Street; A Joyful Noise; How Now, Dow Jones; Seesaw (also associate choreographer); Tommy Tune Tonite! As director and/or choreographer: The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, Nine, My One and Only (also star), Stepping Out, Grand Hotel, The Will Rogers Follies, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. As production supervisor: Grease!

Leslie Uggams: Hallelujah, Baby!; Her First Roman; Blues in the Night; Jerry’s Girls; Anything Goes; King Hedley II; Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Gwen Verdon: Alive and Kicking, Can-Can, Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, Redhead, Sweet Charity, Children! Children!, Chicago, Sweet Charity revival (assistant to Bob Fosse), The Tenth Man (dance consultant), Fosse (artistic advisor).

Betsy von Furstenberg: Second Threshold; Dear Barbarians; Oh, Men! Oh, Women!; The Chalk Garden; Child of Fortune; Nature’s Way; Much Ado About Nothing; Mary, Mary; The Paisley Convertible; Avanti!; The Gingerbread Lady; Absurd Person Singular.

Eli Wallach: Skydrift; King Henry VIII, What Every Woman Knows; A Pound on Demand/Androcles and the Lion; Yellow Jack; Alice in Wonderland; Antony and Cleopatra; Mister Roberts; The Rose Tattoo; Camino Real; The Teahouse of the August Moon; Mademoiselle Colombe; Major Barbara; The Cold Wind and the Warm; Rhinoceros; Luv; Staircase; Promenade, All!; The Waltz of the Toreadors; Saturday Sunday Monday; Twice Around the Park; Café Crown, The Price, The Flowering Peach.

Fay Wray: Nikki, Mr. Big, Golden Wings, The Brown Danube.

Gretchen Wyler: Guys and Dolls; Silk Stockings; Damn Yankees; Rumple; Bye, Bye Birdie; Sly Fox.

BIOGRAPHIES

Rick McKay
Rick McKay is an award-winning producer/director/writer who lives in New York City. For five seasons he was a segment producer on WNET13’s “City Arts,” the most honored, locally produced show in television history, which won over 30 Emmy awards. Rick also produced the first story commissioned for the critically successful national series “Egg: the arts show,” garnering another two Emmy nominations as well as helping to create the opening segment of the last two recent national Tony Awards broadcast. Rick won three of the industry’s prestigious Telly awards for his television work; is an independent producer for the immensely successful series “Biography” on the Arts and Entertainment network, and has produced for HBO and United Artists.

Rick is also the sole owner and proprietor of Second Act Productions, Inc., the production company that produced the feature film Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There as well as Birds of a Feather, a documentary of his adventures searching for drag queens for the legendary director Mike Nichols to help him make his hit film Birdcage.

Rick was honored at the Sundance Film Festival last year by PBS network and inducted into the PBS Producers Academy, as one of their “best and brightest documentary producer/directors” for his continuing independent film and television work. Rick is also an award-winning print journalist with numerous magazine and newspaper articles to his credit. His story “Birds of a Feather” won him the Cable Car Award in San Francisco for “Outstanding Journalist” for feature reporting.

His wealth of experience in film, television, live entertainment, and journalism has made Rick McKay one of the most prolific and well-rounded indie producer/director/writers working in the industry today.

Albert M. Tapper, Producer
Chairman of ACT II Companies Inc, a private investment company that acquires, operates and invests in matured companies and startup enterprises. Mr. Tapper has also made venture capital investments in financial institutions, medical and sports products, as well as investments in the music, theatre, television and film industries.
He is also a writer, composer and lyricist having written two off-Broadway musicals. He wrote his first musical while still in college. Since then he has written special material for regional productions and has produced two albums of his own songs Mr. Tapper composed the ballet The Seduction of Bethsheeba" whose premiere performance at Mechanics Hall was presented by the Central Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. His second off-Broadway show, "ImPerfect Chemistry", for which Mr. Tapper wrote the story and composed the music opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre in August of 2000, as well as his new review and cast recording, “From Where I Stand.” Mr. Tapper has also created and written two books on humor, which were published by Andrews McMeel and Company. The books are titled, "A Guy Goes Into a Bar" and "A Minister, a Priest And a Rabbi." He has written a non-musical play, "Conversations with Max" which is in development. He is currently at work on a new satirical musical review, "Rascals, Cads, and Scalliwags". Mr. Tapper is a member of the Dramatists' Guild of America and a member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers).

Georgia Frontiere, Executive Producer
As owner of the Saint Louis Rams Football team, Georgia Frontiere is one of the National Football League's most respected executives. Her role with the team and organization notwithstanding, Georgia also has been a pillar in the St. Louis community. Her philanthropy was punctuated in 1997, when Georgia and Vice Chairman Stan Kroenke created the St. Louis Rams Foundation. The Foundation has donated more than $600,000 to charities in the St. Louis region, targeting a variety of groups whose emphasis is on youth, education, and the arts.
Georgia is an accomplished soprano having recently joined Bill Hayes and Richard Fredricks for an ” Evening with Lerner and Lowe “ with the St. Louis Symphony. She has performed several concerts with the Beverly Hills Pops Orchestra, and was twice a featured soloist at the Easter Sunrise Services at the Hollywood Bowl. Her love for music and opera influenced her to become a member of the Golden Horseshoe of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and is a member of the Founders of The Los Angeles Music Center Opera board. She helped to launch the Sedona Cultural Park in Sedona, Az., where the performing Arts Pavilion was named in her honor.
Her dedication to the advancement of youth is underscored by her commitment of $1 million to the Fulfillment Fund, an organization which sponsors more than 2,000 high school students who are selected for having college potential, but whose financial opportunities are limited. As a Board member of the St. Louis Symphony, Frontiere has helped build alliances between sports and cultural arts in St. Louis. The American Heart Association made Georgia one of the recipients of The Missourian Award in 2001; the award is presented to Missouri native sons or daughters who have made outstanding contributions in business, civic, or the arts.

Jamie deRoy, Co-Producer
Jamie deRoy is an award winning producer, host and performer. Producing credits include The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged), the documentary Broadway The Golden Age, CityArts , Jamie deRoy & friends variety shows, CDs and cable TV show. She has just released her fifth CD Animal Tracks from the Jamie deRoy & friends series. Two of her previous CDs, Jamie deRoy & friends: The Child in Me and 'Tis the Season have won the MAC Award for "Recording of the Year." Jamie is responsible for creating the MAC/ASCAP Songwriters Showcases.

Anne L Bernstein, Co-Producer
Anne L Bernstein is a New York based theater and film producer. She is on the board of director on The Acting Company, Musical Monday Theater Lab and MJT Productions. She is the American Representative of The Peter Wolff Theatre Trust (London). Among the over 20 shows she has been involved with are: Amateur Night at The Big Heart, Grace and Glorie, Marlene, Pirates of Penzance, As Bees in Honey Drown, June Moon, Hedda Gabler and Tea at Five. She has recently produced the documentary Broadway: The Golden Age and is associate producer of the film A Tale of Two Pizzas.

Tom Paul, Sound Design and Mixing
Broadway: The Golden Age, The Fog of War, Born into Brothels, The Man of the Year, God is Brazilian, Orefu, Paris, Bravo Profiles: Roger Ebert, Mr. Smith, Copacabana, Lisa Pickard if Famous, The Yards, Claire Dolan, Little Odessa, Eat Drink Man Woman, White Man’s Burden, The Wedding Banquet, Laws of Gravity, Pushing Hands, Trust.

Nicole London, Production Manager
Nicole London has over seven years of producing experience in public affairs television. She has worked on the award-winning PBS program “To the Contrary” and has worked in all capacities, ranging from archival research to sound engineer at New York City’s Museum of Television and Radio. Ms. London is also an accomplished camera person and non-linear editor.