Moon over Broadway

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Moon over Broadway ★★★ 1998

Filmmakers (and spouses) Pennebaker and Hegedus follow the Broadway-bound comedy “Moon over Buffalo” in its evolution from pen to premiere—a lot like “Waiting for Guffman,” but for real. Along the way we see how a bunch of professionals try to fine-tune a very average script into a funny comedy, and all the rewrites, conflicts, and jealousies that entails. As the celebrity of the cast, Burnett is at first resented (this isn't TV and she hasn't been on Broadway in 30 years), but winds up the life of the party, injecting most of the humor, and shows herself to be the real trouper among them. All in all an interestingly tense, and sometimes funny, behind-the-scenes look—with the biggest disappointment being the play itself, which did manage to run for nine months, probably thanks to Burnett. 92m/C VHS, DVD . Carol Burnett, Philip Bosco; D: D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus; C: D.A. Pennebaker, James Desmond.