| 90 |
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Moving and invaluable.
|
| 90 |
Dallas Observer
Jean Oppenheimer
Pure joy to watch -- and an invaluable documentary record of a bygone era.
|
| 88 |
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
It's one for the time capsule.
|
| 88 |
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
The strength of McKay's film is not in identifying a cultural period, but in giving voice to so many great theater people. Their passion is infectious, their stories are priceless and their humor is boundless.
|
| 83 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
This free-flowing film certainly hits the high points as it flips around its talking-head celebrity sound bites at warp speed.
|
| 83 |
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
It's the sort of history you could nibble on for hours.
|
| 80 |
Variety
Scott Foundas
Rick McKay's exceptional new documentary Broadway: The Golden Age presents a veritable avalanche of interviews with some of the biggest names in the history of the American theater, preserving for posterity their wise words and disarming anecdotes.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
This is cinema as oral tradition. And one heck of a cheap-seat deal.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
Rachel Proctor May
Consisting of five years' worth of interviews illustrated by a mountain of archival footage, the film sails on the actors' consistent ability to spin a good yarn.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
An intriguing exploration of New York theater at the height of its glory.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
It's the videotaped equivalent of a primary research data dump. But to quote Bette Davis by way of Edward Albee: What a dump.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
A delightful "That's Entertainment" for the theater.
|
| 70 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Frank Scheck
The film will eventually be a must-own video item for theater buffs.
|
| 70 |
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Anyone who attended Broadway shows in the days when ticket prices were reasonable and the actors and singers performed without amplification will feel a rush of nostalgia as these troupers offer what amounts to a breezy compilation of after-dinner remarks.
|
| 70 |
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
If you love the theater, you've got to see the film.
|
| 70 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
In one of the film's most persuasive bits, Farley Granger talks about chucking a lucrative film career in order to tread the boards in New York. Maybe it's that kind of magnetic draw that makes an age golden.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
Ron Stringer
Performance after performance -- by Kim Stanley, Marlon Brando, Laurette Taylor . . . Never heard of her? That’s reason enough not to miss this movie.
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Kamal Al-Solaylee
It takes more than a fan to analyze the legacy of a period. But a fan is just what it takes to indulge in that legacy, which is exactly what Broadway: The Golden Age is all about.
|
| 60 |
Village Voice
Charles McNulty
More buff than historian, McKay chats with anyone who can tell him about the good old days, a vaguely defined period that sprawls from the mid '40s to the late '60s.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
What could easily have been a sentimental, fannish exercise in musty nostalgia is in fact a lovely tribute to an era of feverish creativity that seemed as though it would never end yet now lives only in memory.
|
| 50 |
Film Threat
Phil Hall
A well-intended but hopelessly ill-focused documentary which wants to be the "That's Entertainment!" for the New York theater but seems like a hodgepodge of anecdotes, factoids and moldy memories.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The movie is mostly a megadose of good-old-days nostalgia.
|
