Broadway: The Golden Age, By The Legends Who Were There (2003)

The Golden Age of the Broadway theater is usually considered the post WWII period through the 1960s. Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, William Inge and Edward Albee were in their prime. The Actors Studio was turning out actors like Brando, Kim Stanley, Paul Newman and Geraldine Page. Theater was affordable and not elitist and every actor dreamed of going to Broadway to act on the stage, not Hollywood. Then somewhere along the way in the late 60s and early 70s, things changed. This spellbinding documentary by Rick McKay is de rigeur for anyone remotely interested in the American theater. McKay has amassed an astounding group of actors who lived and worked on the Broadway stage during this period and give an oral history of what it was like to be in the theater during that era. It's funny, fascinating and poignant and you want it to go on forever. This is pure magic, great stuff. The list of interviewees is too massive to list all of them but it includes (in alphabetical order) Elizabeth Ashley, Alec Baldwin, Carol Burnett, Carol Channing, Barbara Cook, Hume Cronyn, Arlene Dahl, Charles Durning, Nanette Fabray, Ben Gazzara, Farley Granger, Tammy Grimes, Uta Hagen, Julie Harris, June Havoc, Celeste Holm, Kim Hunter, Jeremy Irons, Derek Jacobi, Martin Landau, Frank Langella, Angela Lansbury, Carol Lawrence, Michele Lee, Shirley MacLaine, Karl Malden, Ann Miller, Robert Morse, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Newman, Janis Paige, Jane Powell, John Raitt, Diana Rigg, Chita Rivera, Gena Rowlands, Eva Marie Saint, Stephen Sondheim, Maureen Stapleton, Elaine Stritch, Gwen Verdon, Eli Wallach, Gretchen Wyler and Fay Wray.