Ex-actor Rick McKay took six years to film his oral history of the personalities who witnessed Broadway's golden age - roughly 1945 to 1967 - but his tenacity paid off as his illustrious cast look back at the creative period they all lived through.
His documentary is funny, tender, and tinged with a wistful sadness on the ghosts who haunt his cast's memories. As there are now 25 of the 87 interviewed still living, this increases the poignancy.
The cast reminisce on their first experience of New York, how they lived and auditioned while waiting for the big break, where they hung out and how New York and the theatre world changed around them.
In particular, his stars remember three actors whose performances still burn bright: Marlon Brando, Kim Stanley and Laurette Taylor as Amanda Wingfied in THE GLASS MENAGERIE.
Sadly, McKay didn't live to see his film sequel fully completed.
Shelf or charity shop? One for the shelf because, as well as his wonderful cast, McKay also has a dazzling treasure trove of archive material including an astonishing 1938 screen test that Laurette Taylor did for David Selznick; her natural line-readings would put Streep to shame but she wasn't employed as they felt she wasn't 'acting' as they thought it was. Standouts include Sondheim, Chita Rivera and Carol Lawrence on WEST SIDE STORY, Shirley Maclaine and Hal Prince on how she lived the cliché "understudy becoming a star" in THE PYJAMA GAME and memorable memories from Beatrice Arthur, Angela Lansbury, Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands, Maureen Stapleton, Uta Hagen, Frank Langella, Elaine Stritch, Kim Hunter, Julie Harris, Eva Marie Saint, Tommy Tune, Gwen Verdon, Carol Burnett, Carol Channing, and Barbara Cook among many others.
