This month's column features documentary filmmaker Rick McKay and actress Donna Lynne Champlin.

Rick McKay's "Broadway: The Golden Age by the Legends Who Were There" offers a history of the Great White Way, as told through interviews with over 100 talents—literally, from A (George Abbott) to Z (Karen Ziemba)—and is to stage what "That's Entertainment!" was to MGM movie musicals. One participant is Carol Burnett, who followed her Broadway success in Once Upon a Mattress with TV stardom. Now, Burnett's turned her autobiography, "One More Time," into a new play, Hollywood Arms, which she wrote with her daughter, the late Carrie Hamilton. Opening Oct. 31 at the Cort, Burnett is played by Donna Lynne Champlin.

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After editing his documentary to two hours, Rick McKay plans to use the remaining footage for a television series that profiles Broadway talents: "Think of '[Inside the] Actors Studio,' minus an unctuous host." Many people spoke to him for over an hour, and a lot of choice material didn't make the cut. The project began when it was suggested that McKay make a short film about an artist who'd done a mural featuring Broadway legends. When that wasn't green-lighted, a friend proposed a film that featured some of the stars depicted in the mural. As he began filming, McKay would ask: "Was Broadway really as great as has been claimed?" He says, "Without exception, all of them said, 'You have no idea!'" So, McKay's spent the last five years making a film "about a piece of history that has never been truly documented."

Camera equipment in tow, McKay has tracked down his subjects in several places. "I found Jeremy Irons on a bog behind his cottage—next to his castle in Ireland." Irons' agent gave directions to McKay, who was in England at the time. "It was a two-hour drive from the airport in Cork. I thought I was lost. I knocked on a door and heard, 'Mister Mack-high?'"

On many occasions, McKay's thought, "Some divine God is guiding an insane documentarian, who is trying to preserve this history." One of the questions he asked was "What was it like when you first came to New York?" He says, "Carol Burnett talks about coming here with no money, and breaking down in tears the first night, but refusing to go home. Barbara Cook recalls getting up at 7 AM just to walk the streets —'I can't believe I'm here! No matter how tough things get, I'll never go back.' Robert Goulet remembers living in a room that cost seven dollars a day, and stealing silverware from Horn and Hardart [the Automat]. Shirley MacLaine would go to Horn and Hardart and use lemons, water and sugar to make lemonade. I think those stories are inspiring for young people."

The documentary is divided into chapters, one of which deals with the legendary Laurette Taylor. "Uta Hagen talks about her and gasps. She says she saw Outward Bound [with Taylor] ten times. I said, 'Was she . . .?,' and before I could finish, Hagen replied, 'She was everything you have heard—and more!' Marian Seldes praises her. Kaye Ballard says, 'I saw [Taylor] and thought: "She's like anybody." It took me a while, but I learned it takes a lifetime to be good enough to be like anybody.' Charles Durning talks about her screen test. They didn't hire her, because they didn't think she could act. I found the screen test, and am praying I can get the rights to use it."

Tenacity has helped McKay on more than one occasion. "Angela Lansbury said, at the end of the interview, 'I'm sorry. I think I turned this down once.' I said, 'No, Miss Lansbury, you turned it down four times.' She spoke an hour-and-a-half about her passion for theatre, and her deep pain about not doing Mame on the screen: 'I've never done anything to top that.'"

McKay had written to Stephen Sondheim, but received no reply. At a party at Barbara Cook's home he saw Sondheim "standing in a corner, surrounded by his posse. I realized he's standing in front of the maid's entrance to the kitchen. I've known Barbara for years. I went into the kitchen and opened that door. 'Oh, Mister Sondheim. . .' He claimed to know nothing of the film. Finally, he asked me to write him a letter and promised to answer. He did and said he could only give me a few minutes. We did an hour and 20 minutes. He talked about being on the road and having to come into New York by a certain deadline. 'Why do you think all those great shows have weak second acts? They didn't have time. Newer shows can preview forever.'"

There have been fund-raising parties at the home of Jamie de Roy, who's a co-producer (with Al Tapper) of "Broadway: The Golden Age," and McKay has used numerous other ways to finance the film. "One day, I looked around my apartment, saw the piano in the corner, and thought: 'I could sell that.' I made some calls. I was offered $300, but finally someone said they'd pay $1,700. As it was being moved, a neighbor said, 'Oh, I'm sorry.' I said, 'I'm not. This will get me through a month of shooting.' That was about three years ago."

He recalls Julie Harris talking about the first time she saw Ethel Waters, with whom she'd later appear in Member of the Wedding. "Julie was 14 when she saw Ethel Waters in Mamba's Daughters, in which she played a slave who meets her daughter for the first time, and the daughter's white, because her father was the slave owner. An emotional Julie says, 'I never saw anything like it in my life. It changed my life.'"

According to McKay, a lot of the participants became very excited in talking about theatre. "Charles Nelson Reilly said that the night before [the interview] he had watched Julie in Member of the Wedding, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in The Four Poster, Larry Olivier in The Entertainer and Laurette Taylor in Glass Menagerie. He said, 'They're clearer than my tape of 'All About Eve,' because they're up here,' and he touched his head. 'That's what you must tell people—that they will never forget what happens to them in the theatre.'"

At one time, says McKay, "Real artists all came to Broadway. Alec Baldwin speaks about how today's young actors would rather not work than work on the stage. He asks them, 'Why don't you do a play in between movies?' He claims they'd rather go to the gym." While time didn't permit discussing everyone in the film, a few came readily to McKay's mind. "Bobby Morse is so funny, passionate and sincere. Chita Rivera and Elaine Stritch both talk about standing in the wings and watching Ethel Merman. [Rivera was in the chorus of Call Me Madam, in which Stritch understudied the star.] Stephen Sondheim recalls how he and Leonard Bernstein had to play the score for West Side Story at people's houses [in hopes of finding backers]—and no one would give them a penny. Jerry Herman says there was applause during the overture for Mame because the whole country knew its hit songs before opening night. Audra McDonald believes that there are more shows being done now than ever."

One section is on touring. "Kim Hunter says it was a different life [back then]. 'You toured because it was your responsibility. It's not New York that keeps theatre alive. It's tours that go to all the small towns. Then, those people come to New York to see theatre.' And she talks about Streetcar: 'The most terrifying, wonderful work I've ever done in my life.'" Continued...