Coming to theatres today, Monday, November 4:
LEONARD SOLOWAY’S BROADWAY
Director:
Jeff Wolk
World Premiere:
Cleveland 2019
Select Festivals:
NewFest, LGBT fests in Chicago, Dayton, Miami
About:
On the long career of the nonagenarian Broadway producer.
Leonard Soloway is not a household name, but, behind the scenes, he’s been responsible for enriching the American stage in a career spanning more than seven decades. Director Jeff Wolk, who appears in the film as a producer and investor in Soloway’s 2016 venture, TAPPIN’ THRU LIFE, follows Soloway over several years with this project starring song-and-dance man Maurice Hines, while also providing copious biographical background. Soloway is a lively, often funny presence, happily taking a stroll down memory lane, recounting how he came to Broadway and sharing anecdote after anecdote about various productions and talent, including some intriguing bits about his openness around homosexuality at a time when it was still taboo. Interspersed with this history, Wolk chronicles the increasingly impossible task of both mounting a production in the present day and keeping it going. The film falters in its very dry, old-fashioned narration and excessive score, and could have trimmed some of the countless anecdotes from past collaborators and friends, which lend the film a disjointed feel.
