Hacker Cinema
Bathtubs Over Broadway
2018 · Film · documentary · 87 min
Directed by Dava Whisenant
When he started as a comedy writer for the Late Show with David Letterman, Steve Young had few interests and not many friends outside of his day job. But while gathering material for a segment on the show, Steve stumbled onto a few vintage record albums that would change his life forever.
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3 comments on Hacker News
If you’re interested in the strange world of industrial musicals, I highly recommend the documentary Bathtubs over Broadway. They touch on the work of Michael Brown as well as other composers. [0]
The associated book is great too, and the author, Steve Young[1], is very responsive to questions by email.
One sad thing I have learned is that there was a lot of cynicism about industrial shows back in the day. The makers of those shows were often looked down upon and ostracised by composers and artists working on Broadway musicals, even though the level of craft and talent involved was often incredibly high, and there was a lot of overlap in the talent pool.
[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtubs_Over_Broadway
[1]: https://www.steveyoungworld.com/industrial-musicals/
There is a whole genre of of industrial musical shows consisting of composers and actors. They perform at company conventions. In 2018 a collector of industrial musical records made an amusing documentary on the subject called "Bathtubs over Broadway".
https://www.bathtubsoverbroadway.com/
The documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway suggests that those productions got positive reponses from employees, but that probably had to do with good production values (some of the shows cost more than actual Broadway runs) and it being an expenses-paid day trip for everybody.