You can make a movie about paint drying if your protagonist is passionate about watching paint dry. No, BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY isn’t about paint drying. However, it’s about a comedy writer who discovers he’s highly passionate about industrial musicals, which not many people care about.
The writer and lead actor is one of David Letterman’s leads, Steve Young. He’s at a point where regular comedy bits aren’t funny anymore because he has seen them all. Yet, he stumbles upon a sub-culture of industrial musicals that were mildly popular in the 1950s – 1970s. Leading companies like Johnson & Johnson, Mcdonald’s, and General Electric held them at private conferences, and the budgets of these productions were larger than hit Broadway shows.
It is magical to watch Steve Young, a New York cynic who has lost his passion, discover it again in BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY. His quest to find hidden records from the forgotten era is entertaining and educational. While watching the film, I learned about these industrial musicals and even got one or two stuck in my head.
In other words, BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY is a surprisingly heartwarming documentary “worth a stack of records to the moon.”
It’s available to stream on Netflix.
