The documentary Show Business: The Road to Broadway journeys behind the scenes of four Broadway productions mounted during the 2003-4 theatrical season that ultimately garnered nominations for Best Musical: Wicked, the Rosie O’Donnell/Boy George collaboration Taboo, Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change and the iconoclastic puppet review Avenue Q.

The film provides a glimpse into each stage of the theatrical process for these productions - from auditions to staging to rehearsals to previews to opening night to awards season. ShowBusiness’ gives a rare behind-the-scenes look at the agony and ecstasy of Broadway.

Anyone who loves the theater has to see it. Following the principle participants of all four shows, and in a neat, snarky twist, the critics and columnists who might possibly tear into these shows on opening night, the tone of the film is slightly too genteel in some regards (why no clarification on Taboo’s backstage drama, for instance, when it is actually brought up within the picture?), and Berinstein, a current producer of the musical version of Legally Blonde, seems too reverent to get at some of the scabs that need picking. (And why Alan Cumming is so prevalent here is beyond reason, besides being this film’s producer, he has no direct correlation to anything depicted). (Barnes & Noble)

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Bouncing between the productions in various stages of development, the filmmaker intersperses brief interviews with the producers, directors, writers and principal actors, as well as scabrous roundtable conversations about the spotlighted shows among the influential theater critics who have the power to close a show with a scathing review.

The diverse combination of perspectives provides interesting fodder, even though given the wealth of material gathered here, the treatment sometimes feels truncated and cursory, for example, composer Stephen Schwartz and star Idina Menzel are given plenty of attention on “Wicked”, but not nearly as much is lavished on co-star Kristin Chenoweth or the other creative forces behind the show.

Intriguingly, the near-legendary backstage turmoil behind “Taboo” is mentioned, but very little of that tension is evident in the rehearsal scenes or the interviews with producer Rosie O’Donnell, Boy George or stars Euan Morton and Raúl Esparza. Even though it is not remotely a warts-and-all type of film, there are refreshingly candid comments from O’ Donnell and Boy George about the unfair press coverage “Taboo” received from the New York Post’s smarmy Michael Riedel.

There are also moments that are surprisingly poignant like “Caroline, or Change” star Tonya Pinkins recounting her grief-filled back story and Morton near tears as he talks about his post-close struggles. Easily the most amusing scenes spotlight the young, precocious composers of “Avenue Q”, Jeff Marx and Bobby Perez, who seem to have accidentally backed into their show idea and ironically came out the season’s true victors. (Amazon)