Revealing and illuminating and inspiriting glimpse into the life of the theater. Revealing enough, in fact, to make you marvel that anyone would voluntarily elect to go into it. Chris Hegedus's and D.A. Pennebaker's scrappy backstage documentary is more or less the straight version of Waiting for Guffman, a visual diary of the six-month gestation of a Ken Ludwig farce (screamingly unfunny, to go by the bits and pieces), from its optimistic first press conference through rehearsals, publicity interviews, Boston test run, extensive re-writes, and Broadway premiere. One of the major dilemmas: the producers hire Carol Burnett to ensure ticket sales and then the director and the playwright are required to mold the show to the star rather than the other way around. Even those most resistant to the comedienne's strident charms, however, will have to salute her trouperishness when a technical foul-up with a winch postpones the upcoming act, and she gamely agrees to come out on stage during the delay to field questions from the audience as on her old television show. But then again, there could hardly be a greater display of trouperishness than in her -- and everyone else's -- willingness in the first place to allow the prowling camera to look on during the creative process. Well, collaborative process, at any rate, however often it may also prove to be creative. With Philip Bosco. (1998) — Duncan Shepherd
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