Bathtubs Over Broadway

An absolute gem. These arcane industrial musicals aren't particularly compelling, but the stories behind them are fetching, lovingly told, and peppered with sweet reveals that sneak up on you and steal your heart. The finale features a life lesson that is inspiring and pitch perfect.

Way back in the seventies the business school mantra was "nothing happens until a sale is made". So how does American ingenuity foster ever greater sales? Turns out there was a unique thing designed to do just that. The Industrial Musical Theater. The biggest juggernauts of industry signed on to a new way in the years post WW II. They hired some of Broadway's best song and theater talent to make a kind of double secret type of sales motivation in the form of Broadway show productions just to fire up the guys and gals in the trenches selling a wide variety of wares. These shows were just for sales meetings and often the budgets were much greater than the Broadway hits of the day. To provide a souvenir that kept motivating afterwards the biggest productions pressed record albums chock full of all of the creative jingles which made up the productions. Largely lost to time and obscurity it took a unique, off-kilter, person to act as a archaeological excavator. That would be long-time comedy writer Steve Young. Young spent several decades exclusively writing for The David Letterman Show. Dave's oft used record collection segments became Young's exclusive territory. Young would find obscure, often unintentionally hilarious, records to feature on the segment. It opened up a world Young never knew existed. Like a moth to a flame Young became obsessed with the genre of the Industrial Musical. This film sheds a spotlight on this singular sales tool which combined Broadway musical productions with overtly clever sales pitches. Now, this film isn't for everyone. Few will find a deep interest I think it's safe to say in the utterly over-the-top method of selling more bath fixtures by way of a slick song and dance number. Or will they? I surprised myself by watching it all. It turns out a lot happens before a sale is made and to insure that final result American ingenuity went to a bit of strange and wonderful creativity. There may even be a message buried in the film as to why America innovated and led the world for a pivotal period and how we need to return to a new era of immense pride in what we make. The present day song and dance production at the end is quite up-lifting. I'm glad Steve Young was able to bring his passion on forgotten Americana to the written page and the screen. If it's worth doing it's worth singing about.

One needn't enter into viewing this documentary with any background knowledge of either musical theater or the corporate world to find oneself deeply moved by an exploration of the strange landscape where those two worlds meet. Initially, the film presents itself as a quirky investigation of the bizarre world of industrial musicals, played for laughs. By the end, it turns into something much sweeter and stranger, a testament to friendship, passion, and the human spirit. I laughed, cried, smiled, and wondered. The film is worth every minute of your time.

As a former would-be Broadway actor, I always SO wanted to get cast in an "industrial." I never made it, but at last I can participate, even if only from the audience.

This little film is a gem, and you'll learn more than you ever suspected you didn't know about this art form. It's great fun!

To some, the idea that there were whole musical productions that were practically enormous advertisements for companies seems absurd. Since I grew up listening to Stan Freberg, I already knew that musicals could sell products (take his "Omaha" musical, for instance, since it was basically a 15-minute radio ad for Butternut coffee). At any rate, Bathtubs Over Broadway (2018) explores these oddities that most people never realize existed up until only a decade or two ago. It's a little sad to see these ridiculous odes to corporate marketing go by the wayside...but it also makes sense as well.

If there's anything that Bathtubs Over Broadway gets across, it's that these musicals were serious business, even if the companies they were selling weren't. There were songs about bathrooms-repeated throughout its runtime-if that gives you an idea of the content. It is a little awe-inspiring to see famous names tied to these theatrical productions. One wonders how many legendary songwriters, producers, and actors got their start on the "advertising circuit" before breaking through to more significant (and more publically-available) roles.

While this documentary follows one of the most avid collectors of these musicals, it felt a little too long to be a full-length feature (albeit just barely, only clocking in at 87 minutes). Consequently, a number of the sequences felt repetitive as it drove home the point of how ridiculous these musicals were. It probably would have worked better as a documentary short, at least to keep it focused on the main idea (marketing musicals). Instead, it ballooned out of scope to include its own original song and dance number-which itself is a little cringe-worthy as well. In the end, I have a feeling this documentary might remain as obscure as the musicals it uncovered.

A curious look into the quirky world of "marketing musicals" that's just a bit too long, I give Bathtubs Over Broadway 3.0 stars out of 5.