On Broadway Opens in New York on August 20 and in Los Angeles on August 27 Followed by a National Rollout
Featuring interviews with Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, Hal Prince, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Tommy Tune, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen
Official Selection:
Doc NYC and Hamptons International Film Festival
As theater goers prepare for the return of Broadway after an unprecedented absence of eighteen months, Kino Lorber is proud to announce the Friday, August 20th release of Oscar-Award nominee Oren Jacoby’s documentary ON BROADWAY.
The feature is an enlightening and moving tribute to one of the most vibrant legacies of New York City, and the inside story of Broadway’s last self-reinvention.
It is told by an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, Hal Prince, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Tommy Tune, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen
Broadway was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 1970s with talk of tearing down theaters and replacing them with parking lots; the plays were considered obsolete and audiences severely declining.
The documentary explores how, thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and the sometimes-uneasy balance between art and commerce, an industry on the verge of extinction not only avoided collapse, but managed to reinvent itself and come back stronger.
Legends of the stage and screen take us behind the scenes of Broadway’s most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from “A Chorus Line” to “Angels in America”and “Hamilton,” offering a hurly-burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business.
Also featured are interviews with some of today’s most influential playwrights, directors, choreographers, performers and producers such as Alexandra Billings, David Henry Hwang, Oskar Eustis, Nicholas Hytner, Jack O’Brien, George C. Wolfe, Daniel Sullivan, Trevor Nunn, Julie Taymor, Sonia Friedman, Jeffrey Seller and Tony Kushner.
Various artists tell the stories of the remarkable changes they helped initiate or witnessed over the past 50 years, including the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic on the theater community.
In the process, they track the breakthrough works and artists which made Broadway into a venue where one can find everything, from the experimental and iconoclastic to the mainstream and commercial.
Director-Producer Oren Jacoby is the founder of Storyville Films, the production company behind the Oscar-nominated documentary RBG. His short Sister Rose’s Passion (HBO Films) was nominated for an Oscar. Other films include: Shadowman (Amazon Prime), My Italian Secret (Amazon Prime), and Constantine’s Sword. His stage adaptation of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play adaptation. Jacoby’s work has been recognized by the American Film Institute, the Sundance Institute, and the Alfred I. DuPont Awards.
Credits:
Directed by Oren Jacoby.
Executive Produced by Pat Schoenfeld, Stephanie P. MccLelland, No Guarantee Theatricals, John Breglio, Betsy West, Barbara H. Freitag and Riki Kane-Larimer.
Produced by Oren Jacoby, Holly Siegel.
Cinematography by Buddy Squires ASC, Bob Richman, Tom Hurwitz ASC.
Edited by Abhay Sofsky, Ted Raviv, Steven Wechsler.
A Kino Lorber release.
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