All About Eve (1950), Rush: Time Stand Still (2016), Stage Door (1937), Every Little Step (2008), Comedian (2002), The Boy Friend (1971), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), Sally, Irene and Mary (1938) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Backstage movies.
Storyline: Eve (Anne Baxter) is waiting backstage to meet her idol, aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis). It seems innocent enough as Eve explains that she has seen Margo in EVERY performance of her current play. Only playwright/critic DeWitt (George Sanders) sees through Eve's evil plan, which is to take her parts and her fiancé, Bill Simpson (Gary Merrill). When the fiancé shows no interest, she tries for playwright Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), but DeWitt stops her. After she accepts her award, she decides to skip the after-party and goes to her room, where a young woman named Phoebe has sneaked into her room and fallen asleep. This is where the "Circle of Life" now comes to fruition as Eve will get played like she played Margo.
Plot Keywords: drama, classic, hollywood, black and white, theater, female lead, fame and fortune ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Rush grants filmmakers exclusive behind-the-scenes access and candid interviews as their final tour comes to a crescendo in Los Angeles.
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, rock, concert, band, live performance, guitarist ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Terry Randall, rich society beauty, has decided to see if she can break into the Broadway theatre scene without her family connections. She goes to live in a theatrical boarding house and finds her life caught up with those of the other inmates and the ever-present disappointment that theatrical hopefuls must live with. Her smart-mouth roommate, Jean, is approached by a powerful producer for more than just a role. And Terry's father has decided to give her career the shove by backing a production for her to star in, in which she's sure to flop. But his machinations hurt more than just Terry.—Kathy Li
Plot Keywords: comedy, drama, female lead, stage play, new york, 1930s, dreams ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Starting at midnight January 26, 1974, dancer and choreographer Michael Bennett held a twelve-hour taped get-together with twenty-two dancers talking about themselves, he not knowing exactly where it would lead. It would become the genesis for what has become one of the most influential Broadway musicals of all time, and a show which speaks to theatrical dancers' hearts: "A Chorus Line". In 2008, a Broadway revival of the show is being mounted, with many involved in the original production part of the creative team behind the revival. The issue for the revival's creative team is to make the show and the casting fresh, while respecting the original, where the characters, their stories and their related songs all came out of the 1974 dancers' stories, they who were cast in the original production. Although the names and the faces have changed from 1974, the dancers auditioning mirror many of the stories and issues faced by those original dancers. As such, they "really want this job" as it speaks to who they are and what they do and want to do for a living. It ends up being a difficult process for both sides as there end up being 3,000 dancers at the start of the eight month audition process.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: documentary, musical, broadway, behind the scenes, dance, musical theater, actor's life ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Fresh from the success of his sitcom, comedian Jerry Seinfeld decided to do the unimaginable: he completely retired his stand-up act, electing to start over again by developing entirely new material. "Comedian" follows Seinfeld through this process, as he rehearses in front of small comedy club audiences, meets with fellow comics and finally appears before a national audience.—Shannon Patrick Sullivan <shannon@mun.ca>
Plot Keywords: comedy, documentary, stand-up comedy, behind the scenes, humor, new york, career development ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The assistant stage manager of a small-time theatrical company (Polly Browne) is forced to understudy for the leading lady (Rita) at a matinée performance at which an illustrious Hollywood director (Cecil B. DeThrill) is in the audience scouting for actors to be in his latest "all-talking, all-dancing, all-singing" extravaganza. Polly also happens to fall in love with the leading man (Tony) and imagines several fabulous fantasy sequences in which the director is free to exercise his capacity for over-the-top visuals in this charming 1920's era flick.—Bliss Blood <soundex@sccsi.com>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, satire, parody, theatre, 1970s ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Steve Raleigh wants to produce a show on Broadway. He finds a backer, Herman Whipple and a leading lady, Sally Lee, however his wife Caroline Whipple forces Steve to use a known star, not a newcomer. Sally purchases a horse she used to train when her parents had a farm before the depression and with two ex-vaudevillians, Sonny Ledford and Peter Trott she trains it to win a race, providing the money Steve needs for his show.—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Plot Keywords: musical, drama, romance, comedy, dance, song and dance, backstage ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Manicurists Sally, Irene and Mary hope to be Broadway entertainers. When Mary inherits an old ferry boat, they turn it into a successful supper club.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, drama, 1930s, show business, friendship ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Ronny Bowers, a saxophonist in Benny Goodman's band, has won a talent contest and a ten week contract with a film studio. On his first evening he is supposed to go with the studio's star Mona Marshall to a movie premiere. But this lady doesn't want to go, so the bosses decide to use for Mona a double, Virginia. When Mona finds out next morning that happened, she insisted to fire her double and Ronny. Ronny finds work as a singing waiter in a drive-in, and is spotted by a director of the same studio, who wants him to lend his voice for an leading actor in a musical. After the first screening the actor is invited by Louella Parsons to sing in her program "Hollywood Hotel". He accepts, but he doesn't know that Ronny Bowers does not want to lend him his voice again. So everybody starts to play his little game to solve his own problems.—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, drama, classic, 1930s, hollywood ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Delilah Lee is the sar of husband Jeff Ames' Broadway show when she starts to suspect he has been exchanging more than contracts with the show's vampish backer. Alimony and amnesia become the order of the day.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, 1950s, show business, broadway, dance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A vaudeville star has to leave her daughter with her dead husband's stuffy Boston parents while she makes a living. But when the daughter shows some talent, the mother become a stage mother and pushes her daughter into becoming a Broadway star. The mother is a monster with a heart of gold, and after breaking up the daughter's love affair, finally sees the error of her ways.—Ed Lorusso
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, drama, theatre, backstage, show business, mother-daughter relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: 1937. A renowned stage singer leaves the theatre to become a gypsy after his voice weakens. Arthur Tracy (The Street Singer) and Lilli Palmer star in this romantic musical. Also stars Finlay Currie.
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, drama, 1930s, classic, hollywood ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In New York City, a surly, down-on-his-heels playwright meets a country girl who's giving up trying to act and returning home. He goes with her for inspiration when his agent convinces a stage star to take his next effort. When he returns to Broadway, his girl stays behind and starts seeing a local businessman.—WesternOne
Plot Keywords: musical, drama, comedy, romance, anthology, backstage, theater ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The road-show troupe of a top Broadway show go cross-country while taking the audience along on the on-stage scenes as well as what happens and is happening back stage of the production. The spectacular dancing ensembles and colorful costumes and pulchritude on-stage offers a contrasting background to the drabness of the backstage, where joy, sorrow, tragedies, deception, and romance are intertwined.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: musical, romance, comedy, love, hollywood, 1930s, black and white ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Hank and Queenie Mahoney, a vaudeville act, come to Broadway, where their friend Eddie Kerns needs them for his number in one of Francis Zanfield's shows. Eddie was in love with Hank, but when he meets Queenie, he falls in love to her, but she is courted by Jock Warriner, a member of the New Yorker high society. It takes a while till Queenie recognizes, that she is for Jock nothing more than a toy, and it also takes a while till Hank recognizes that Eddie is in love with Queenie.—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Plot Keywords: musical, romance, drama, classic, hollywood, golden age, backstage ...
Movie Details Click Here !