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Documentary sheds light on Broadway’s dark era

Film tribute to those who guided post-’70s revival

By Jami Ganz, New York Daily News
Published: August 27, 2021, 6:05am

NEW YORK — We’ve seen the lights go dark on Broadway, but 2020 isn’t the first time New York’s theater district nearly shuttered.

Oren Jacoby’s new documentary, “On Broadway,” which opened Friday in New York, delves into the 1970s’ near-demise of the Great White Way and the unconventional minds behind its revival, among them Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jonathan Larson.

“This was not an easy film to make,” the Oscar-nominated “Sister Rose’s Passion” director told the Daily News. “But what kept me going was this real understanding that people think of the arts in our society as something extra.”

While certainly “an economic engine,” he said the arts are not a “luxury” but “part of the vital lifeblood of any thriving society. It’s what connects us. It’s what gives us something to talk about. It’s what gives us things to hope for, to motivate us to want to make the world better.”

As a result of the pandemic, the documentary has taken on a new significance for two-time Tony winner Christine Baranski, who is featured with other Broadway veterans including Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Tommy Tune and George C. Wolfe.

“It was meant to be a history of the revival of Broadway after the city was so bankrupt and in such a state of disarray and Midtown and Times Square was just a dangerous place. And it was a very touching and fascinating documentary,” said Baranski, 69.

Calling Broadway “the beating heart of New York,” she added: “But it’s even more so now because it’s being released after having this year and a half where the lights have been dark on Broadway. … So one of the things I think will be very moving is, you know, I don’t think we’ll ever take it for granted again.”

The film stems from a New Year’s Day party Jacoby attended with his wife a few years ago, where he met Pat Schoenfeld, widow of the longtime Schubert Organization chairman, Gerald Schoenfeld.

Without enough archival footage to support the film Pat wanted to make about her late husband, Jacoby suggested instead focusing it on the man having “had his finger on the pulse of” Broadway’s near-closure. Schoenfeld, he said, “helped save New York City” by, along with the Nederlander Organization, altering the approach to theater.

The Broadway revolution also ushered in a flood of opulent productions that didn’t always evoke the soulfulness of the theatrical craft.

“At this point, you know, we’re dying for everything to get back,” said the “Good Fight” star, adding that those larger-than-life shows “take up a lot of real estate” and happen to have a bit of a “Disneyland” quality.

But, said the “Gilded Age” star, Broadway also needs to house and foster the craft of new playwrights “as they reflect what’s going on in the world and we have to nurture them. We have to bring them into the light and not just for limited runs off-Broadway.”

The film focuses also on the 2018-19 season of shows, during which Jacoby said, “It looked like, ‘Oh my gosh, things are coming back. Broadway’s coming back. Let’s celebrate. … Broadway can show us how to reinvent ourselves.’ ”

And then the pandemic hit. But he’s confident the Broadway we knew before 2020 will return.

“I think it has to,” he said, noting that now, it’s “even more vital for us to celebrate what’s great about our city and be confident that we’ll get back to that. This is a hiccup. … We just have to be firm and plow ahead.”

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