TV REVIEW : ‘Broadway’ Documents Street, Not Just Theater

“Broadway: The Great White Way” (at 5 and 9 p.m. today on the Arts & Entertainment cable network) is an impressionistic documentary about the New York street itself, not just the commercial theater district that is clustered around one small section of that street.

In fact, the script claims that Broadway is “the longest street in the world,” running 150 miles from the southern tip of Manhattan to Albany. Yet it’s doubtful that the film makers really believe this, for their own coverage of the street stops far short of Albany, leaving Manhattan only for an early fantasy sequence about Rip Van Winkle.

That sequence, using actors, is too cute by half. So is a narration by Jimmy Breslin; we hear his voice but we see him typing rather than looking into the camera, and he makes some far-fetched assertions about the importance of Broadway.

The show is on firmer ground when it photographs the real denizens of Broadway going about their daily rounds. Some of these are show people: centenarian director George Abbott, Lena Horne, Joseph Papp auditioning a chorine. We even see part of a topless peep show.

But we also see a manufacturer of belts, shoulder pads and zippers--and one of the workers in his factory. An old couple who met at Roseland dance hall reminisce, and Allen Ginsberg chants. A Spanish-language deejay talks about the many Dominicans who fled Trujillo and wound up on upper Broadway, and a real estate developer talks about the penthouse solarium in his $345,000 condos. It’s a painless way to give your regards to old Broadway--without having to go to New York. Charles Pattinson directed for executive producers Nigel Finch and Anthony Wall.