The film covers Broadway shows from 1959 to the early 1980s and features interviews with Bea Arthur, Elizabeth Ashley, Alec Baldwin, Candy Brown, Carol Burnett, Glenn Close, André De Shields, Jane Fonda, Robert Goulet, Robert Guillaume, Cherry Jones, Baayork Lee, Donna McKechnie, Liza Minnelli, Robert Morse, Jerry Orbach, Robert Redford, Debbie Reynolds, Chita Rivera, Eva Marie Saint, Liev Schreiber, Elaine Stritch, Dick Van Dyke, Ben Vereen and Lesley Ann Warren.

Almost exactly two years later the man who made those films, Rick McKay, passed away suddenly. Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age was left unfinished and unreleased.

This weekend Great Performances on PBS will begin airing the documentary which was completed by friends and colleagues of McKay. [Check your local PBS listings for details.]

Two of the most important people who helped complete Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age were producers Jamie deRoy and Jane Klain. Last week I spoke by phone with both women to get the details on how they were able to finish McKay’s film and how they hope it brings to fruition everything McKay wanted the film to be.

What follows are excerpts from those conversations that have been edited for length and clarity.

How did you get involved with finishing Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age?

DeRoy: It sort of became this natural thing that we ended up doing to see that his wishes were carried out. Everybody had been asking for years about the film because the film had been going on for years.

Klain: Four of his producers and friends obviously realized what Rick would want is for the film to get out there. We all worked towards what Rick wanted. Since the first film was a theatrical release and it was so unlikely to get another, being on television was the ideal home for it. I know his first choice was PBS.

How far along had Rick gotten with the film before he passed away?

DeRoy: He had gotten pretty far, but it was not a finished film. It was way too long.

Klain: When Rick died I connected with a brilliant editor who would work on it pro bono, but that fell through. Another producer/director wanted to unravel it and make a different film and I said no. Rick was really a visionary. He had a unique way of storytelling. The way he edited was amazing.

He seemed to get almost everyone he ever wanted for these films. How did he do that?

DeRoy: Everybody that met him and he would interview would end up adoring him. He really charmed people. He loved the theater so much. He could talk to anybody.

Klain: He had somewhere between 100-150 interviews with these legends. Some were one to one-and-a-half hours, some were five hours.

Rick told me how thrilled he was to have found footage of Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli performing together in the original production of Chicago when Gwen Verdon had to miss several performances.*

Klain: Candy Brown was a Fosse dancer. I had seen footage she had taken with her 8mm camera. I’m very good at tracking down people. They became such close friends. She let him have the footage – amongst it was footage with Chita and Liza which Liza had not seen before. Rick’s film has John Kander talking about it and Liza talking about it.

Rick was kind of a one-man band doing it all with his films, but the new film has 11 producers.

DeRoy: He pretty much was a one-man band. But listen, all of us were out there raising money and making introductions and helping. If I was in the room when he was doing an interview or showing the film I got acknowledged. If I wasn’t in the room, I wouldn’t have gotten acknowledged. Maybe it made a much better story.

Klain: If Rick had lived one of the big hurdles he was going to have to face was raising money for the post-production and all the licensing. That was a big deal for the first film. WNET 13 has done a lot of that. We’ve been in the decision making seat and PBS has been amazing.

Jamie I want to ask you a question I asked Rick five years ago. In an era where younger people don’t care about history because it was “before their time,” what would you tell them is the reason to care about Broadway and the people in this film?

DeRoy: It’s like the building blocks of everything. I’m always appalled at actors or singers who don’t know the history. When I was involved in the cabaret community and mentioned Margaret Whiting they would go, “who?” I don’t get it. It’s part of your learning process. These films could be shown in schools and you can learn a hell of a lot from it. We all learned by watching Ethel Merman. These were my idols. Even though they were before my time, so to speak, they are the ones who laid the groundwork for everyone to come up afterwards.

Jonathan Groff, who introduces the movie, wrote Rick a fan letter saying how much the film meant to him. Shortly before Rick died I took him to see Jonathan at the 92nd Street Y doing a show. They were talking afterwards about doing a follow-up interview because Jonathan was so young when he did his and he had some experiences since that first interview.

It’s just been a passion for all of us and it was certainly a passion of Rick’s. I’m only sorry he’s not here to see it come to life. And everybody can now enjoy it. Not only enjoy it, but learn from it. It’s all there and these films were meant to be seen.

*Liza Minnelli took on the role of Roxie Hart from August 8th to September 13th, 1975. There was announcement over the PA system that Gwen Verdon would be out at the performance. Audiences would grumble. The announcement continued to reveal that Minnelli was performing in her place. There were no press releases and no inserts in the Playbills.

Photo of Rick McKay courtesy WNET/PBS

The post How Rick McKay’s “Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age” Was Finished appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The play, which first appeared on Broadway in 1960, tells the story of two men in the thick of the Presidential primaries in 1960. One candidate is the Secretary of State who is a man of principle, but has recently been facing health issues that might make him less desirable as candidate. His main opponent is a senator whose single-minded pursuit of winning has its own flaws and is hounded by allegations of sexual scandals. The two men will stop at nothing to get their party’s nomination. Which, of course, gets ugly, nasty and becomes very public.

For this reading Morgan Freeman plays the outgoing president whose endorsement is vigorously courted by both candidates. Joining him in this reading are Elizabeth Ashley, Reed Birney, Matthew Broderick, Katie Finneran, Julie Halston, Stacy Keach, Robert Krulwich, John Malkovich, Zachary Quinto, Phylicia Rashad, Robert Sella, Lee Wilkof, Vanessa Williams and Whitney Winfield with Sean Close, Travoye Joyner, Jered McLenigan and TJ Wagner. The reading is directed by Michael Wilson, who helmed the 2012 revival.

Melvyn Douglas and Frank Lovejoy played the opposing candidates in the original production. Lee Tracy played the outgoing president. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards. Douglas was the only winner for Best Actor in a Play.

In 1964 a feature film was made of the play. Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson were the two candidates with Lee Tracy reprising his stage role.

The first Broadway revival of the play took place in 2000. Spalding Gray and Chris Noth faced off as the two candidates in this production. Elizabeth Ashley was part of this cast in the role of Mrs. Sue-Ellen Gamadge, Chairman of the Women’s Division. The outgoing president was played by Charles Durning.

Wilson’s 2012 revival starred John Larroquette and Eric McCormack as the two opposing candidates. The outgoing president was played by James Earl Jones.

Have you noticed that each year the play was produced (and for that matter the film was released) was a presidential election year? Do you think there’s any coincidence that this is true of the first reading as part of Spotlight on Plays?

The Best Man will be available through October 17th at 10:45 PM EDT/7:45 PM PDT.

Tickets require a minimum donation of $5 are available through TodayTix. Of course, as this is a fundraiser for The Actors Fund, if you can afford to pay more, there are options for that when purchasing your tickets. For tickets go here.

Photo of Morgan Freeman courtesy his Facebook page.

Updated with the final date to stream the reading

The post Spotlight on Plays: The Best Man appeared first on Cultural Attaché.