Moon Over Broadway

A cross between Noises Off and Faust, this delectable little documentary by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker chronicles the fraught 1995 journey of the troubled farce Moon over Buffalo to Broadway via Boston. I admit I liked Ken Ludwig's green-room door slammer better than most critics did. But the filmmakers have succeeded in making it look almost perversely unfunny here. Which sets a mood of taut, tiptoeing backstage desperation as director Tom Moore tries to steer a diplomatic course between the shoals of megastar Carol Burnett's salvation-by-shtick approach and the deep water of playwright Ludwig's distress, while such trademark Burnett bits as Shirley Temple impersonation find their way into his limping, 1950s-set farce. The best character is co-producer Rocco Landesman, who demonstrates the nerves double dipped in drollery and steel that must be necessary in his business. Told during the New York previews that a dead body has been found draped between the roofs of the O'Neill and Walter Kerr Theatres, he replies, "It's not Tom Moore, is it?" At the Avon April 17-23.

-- Carolyn Clay