Much like the documentary Obit, Bathtubs Over Broadway is a documentary about an incredibly niche topic that I nevertheless kept thinking about from time to time years after watching it. While Obit was a robust dedication to the art of obituary writing, Bathtubs Over Broadway is an ode to a lost form of musical theatre and a tale about the joys of collecting and getting involved in a subculture that has its own big names and hallmarks. Steve Young is the perfect person to guide us through this journey both as the world's foremost expert on industrial musicals and a man you wouldn't suspect to be so openly passionate about a seemingly ridiculous artform. His appreciation and respect for names that had lied dormant for decades is the real heart of this doc; each time he visits a composer or actress who was involved in a favorite show of his you feel his elation at being near someone who doesn't even know how important their work was to him. It's a brisk runtime that takes you through the major points of the history of industrial musicals but more than anything it's a love letter to the people who worked so hard year after year to create the best spectacles of musical theatre that no one was allowed to see.
Much like the documentary Obit, Bathtubs Over Broadway is a documentary about an incredibly niche topic that I nevertheless kept thinking about from time to time years after watching it. While Obit was a robust dedication to the art of obituary writing, Bathtubs Over Broadway is an ode to a lost form of musical theatre and a tale about the joys of collecting and getting involved in a subculture that has its own big names and hallmarks. Steve Young is the perfect person to guide us through this journey both as the world's foremost expert on industrial musicals and a man you wouldn't suspect to be so openly passionate about a seemingly ridiculous artform. His appreciation and respect for names that had lied dormant for decades is the real heart of this doc; each time he visits a composer or actress who was involved in a favorite show of his you feel his elation at being near someone who doesn't even know how important their work was to him. It's a brisk runtime that takes you through the major points of the history of industrial musicals but more than anything it's a love letter to the people who worked so hard year after year to create the best spectacles of musical theatre that no one was allowed to see.
