melodybroadway

I first saw Rick McKay's exceptional documentary "Broadway: The Golden Age" at a film festival last year and saw it again just last week at a film retreat in upstate New York. And I can't wait to see this again in theatres this year and buy the DVD! This film is a stunning testament to an all but forgotten era in American theatre and a love letter to New York City. For my parents who remember the Golden Age fondly, this film was a bittersweet trip down memory lane, and underscored for them how they cannot enjoy the same wonderful experience now, because prices are too high and the shows are "not what we are interested in seeing" as my father puts it. But anyone like myself, who wasn't a New York theatergoers during the Golden Age, seeing this film will leave them torn -- with a wistful feeling of having missed something truly great; but also dazzled and inspired by McKay's singular achievement of breathing life into what easily could have become another dry Ken Burns documentary. In McKay's capable hands, you feel as if you're bustling down the streets of Times Square with hundreds of other eager theatergoers, paying pennies for quality theatre tickets to groundbreaking shows; or rubbing elbows and eating cheese and crackers with the "legit" stars at Sardi's. And the stories these legends had to tell -- intercut with unbelievably rare and gorgeous performance footage -- brought tears to my eyes more than once, they were told with that much passion. I can't adequately express what it is to experience this film. See it for yourself.