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THIS WEEK, WENDELL PICKS A MOVIE: “ShowBusiness”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MOVIE REVIEW
“ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway” Grade: B+
Documentary. Directed by Dori Berinstein. Rated PG for language and some sexual references. At Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema. 1 hour, 42 minutes.
The verdict: Bright lights, big drama. A delectable trip down Broadway.
Hindsight is 20-20 irony in Dori Berinstein’s new documentary about the 2003-2004 Broadway season. Take that choice moment when a pair of unknown musical-theater writers greet Boy George as he sneaks a cig outside the stage door of Rosie O’Donnell’s $10 million bomb, “Taboo.”
One of the young composers is star-struck by the flamboyant ’80s personality. Boy George, done up in ridiculous drag for his performance as club creature Leigh Bowery, is polite but slightly tuned out, so he barely notices when his fans mention they have their own little Broadway show playing down the street.
That would be “Avenue Q,” the naughty “Sesame Street” sendup that scored a Tony Award for best musical, even as “Taboo” went up in flames without a single Tony but with all the bitterness, backbiting and controversy that typify the Rosie touch.
For “ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway,” Berinstein couldn’t have picked a juicier or more important year to follow with a camera. Besides “Taboo” and “Avenue Q,” the film also chronicles with admirable objectivity the expensive commercial hit “Wicked” and Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s lovely but static “Caroline, or Change.”
While the “Wicked” producers boast about their $1 million-a-week box office during the brutal cold of winter, you can see them literally get fatter and fatter. And even the critics predict the “Wizard of Oz” back story will be a shoo-in for best musical, a la “Hairspray” and “The Producers.”
But the victory of the quirky puppet show “Avenue Q” over the jaw-dropping spectacle “Wicked” was a watershed moment that paved the way for unlikely hits such as “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and this year’s sexually explicit “Spring Awakening,” which won the Tony for best musical.
“ShowBusiness” had no agenda but to record a straight-up account of the drama-within-the-drama, and the piece is a valentine to theater geeks everywhere.
Insiders will eat it up, even if there’s not a whole lot of new information, and savor such revelatory moments as Kristin Chenoweth saying she wants to be green like her “Wicked” co-star Idina Menzel — or Alan Cumming explaining to a fortuneteller who Sean “P. Diddy” Combs is. “Did he die?” the clueless clairvoyant says of the “Raisin in the Sun” lead actor, suggesting that not everyone follows showbiz like showbiz people do.
The camera catches it all: Director George C. Wolfe getting snippy with a child actor during a “Caroline” rehearsal. Boy George saying he had to restrain himself from punching out New York Post theater writer Michael Riedel, whom we get to see in perpetual gadfly mode. “Caroline” star Tonya Pinkins staging a comeback after losing custody of her children. “Taboo” star Euan Morton sporting a Scottish flag under his kilt on Tony night — and looking beaten-up and teary after the show closes prematurely.
But at the end of the day, the billion-dollar Broadway industry wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans if it weren’t for the fans. Live theater inspires the same magic, intensity and fanaticism as sports.
It may be hard to muster much excitement over “Wicked” producers Marc Platt and David Stone’s showing up at a CD signing to announce how their numbers “just keep climbing and climbing.” But there’s something about the red-faced blond boy choking back tears as he queues up to get autographs from the “Wicked” cast that you just can’t shake. Now that’s an indelible image. That’s what it’s all about, kid. That’s show business.
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