One of my all time favorites.

Great Film overall

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I saw this movie last year and loved it. It was before it had distribution and i have watched happily as it went on its way to national theatrical runs and greatreviews. I had heard that the filmmaker had changed it since then, but Iassumed it was minor. I am in Chicago for a gig and when I read the greatreviews in the Chicago papers today I ran to see it again - almost a year later. Amazingly, the filmmaker Rick McKay was at the theatre again! In a wholedifferent part of the country, as he lives in NYC and I saw the film AND him in LA. He must be the moist passionate filmmaker ever to have made this film with 100 stars and taken six years. But, most important, the film is much, much different. it is absolutely brilliant. Moving and touching. There were people laughing and sobbing at the sametime around me. It is such a lost era and it seems even more profound a yearlater. Not to mention that at least five of the stars have died in this last year, making it more precious. The audience gave McKay a standing ovation and he regaled him with stories. I know I have friends who are going to kill me. They were so jealous when I saw an advance screening a year ago and it has been opening up in ciites all over the country but a lot of people still can't find it. SO , the good news is that McKay announced that the film comes out on DVD on November 9th. "Loaded withextras," he said. I am counting days.Nobody wanted to leave the theater. Everyone waited after in the lobby forMcKay and he told stories after to us. It was like we were trying to hang on to the last of this era and time in the film. I read a review on Ain't It Cool News that said this movie is a national treasure. They are right. And so is McKay. It would have all been gone were it not for this film. Thank you.

For the older crowd, "Broadway: The Golden Age" is like finding something at a flea market that you didn't know you needed and can't live without (a lot of the cast are in movies and television too). For younger theatre fans, this will be like a banquet with a lot of choices and the frustration of thinking that being at the front of the line might have been better in some unknown, mid-century way. As is true in the films "Chicago" and "The Kid Stays in the Picture", the audience shouldn't file out or head for the bathroom as the credits roll, because the legends go on to sing lines from songs alongside the credits. Mimi Hines is a latter-day wonder! (For those who remember Phil Ford and Mimi Hines from, what, Jack Paar or maybe Johnny Carson, or both..)

Rick McKay is an invaluable source when it comes to what theater is all about. His other documentary, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, was excellent. In this new work, instead of concentrating on a single performer, he explores the best years of Broadway and the commercial theater during the era when it was at its peak.The strength of the film is the intimacy one feels whenever the stars, being interviewed, speak directly to the camera, and thus to us. It's just as if these performers are telling us their secrets. There is an immediacy that no other documentary on the subject ever projected before.In a way it is a world that is no longer here. The fact is that not only it's almost prohibitive to go to the Broadway theater, but it's also about the quality of what's being shown these days. When ticket prices for musicals go over $100.00, producers can only bring to the stage only those shows that might prove to be money makers. Then, of course, there is no guarantee for commercial success.Sadly, most so called stars working in musicals these days have no voices to fill a theater. Since everything is amplified, it's as though one is listening to the cast album of the show, not to a live performance. These days producers will import a Hollywood star to do a musical for the name and possible revenue that will be generated, rather than for artistic merit.It was delightful to hear actors talking about their peers. How a Laurette Taylor, a Marlon Brando, a Kim Stanley, were admired for their talent as well as for the integrity they brought to each performance. Since theater happens whenever actors are on a stage, most of the last century's historical performances can't be appreciated because they weren't done in front of a camera.This film is a must see for theater enthusiasts.

Saw this film recently in a festival and thought, "Thank God for festivals, for where else would I ever see this film?!" But, the filmmaker did an interview with the audience afterwards and said that a distribution company has taken the film and it is going to open in theaters around the country this summer. What great news!This is a movie every young person should see who likes movies, tv or theater. It is so inspiring and it truly captures the brilliance of great actors, singers, writers and composers. I always thought the world would continue to create great creative geniuses who came to places like New York and made history, but it doesn't seem to be any more. Much like the people in this film, "I thought it would go on forever."But, this movie makes me feel optimistic again because any time you see something this powerful (and this is a powerful movie) I begin to believe again in the hope of great art, whether on stage or film or tv or maybe the next era is digital video. Who knows? But, run don't walk to see this movie if it opens anywhere near you!