Bullets Over Broadway

Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Main otherTemplate:Template otherTemplate:Main other Bullets Over Broadway is a 1994 American black comedy crime film directed by Woody Allen, written by Allen and Douglas McGrath, and starring an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly. Set in 1920s New York City, the film centers on a struggling playwright who is urged to cast the talentless girlfriend of a notorious mobster in his newest play in order to get it produced.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Allen for Best Director, Allen and McGrath for Best Original Screenplay, Palminteri for Best Supporting Actor, and both Tilly and Wiest for Best Supporting Actress, with the latter winning for her performance, the second time Allen directed her to an Academy Award. Considered one of his best works, Bullets Over Broadway is the most recent film directed by Allen with a shared writing credit.

Plot

In 1928, David Shayne is an idealistic young playwright newly arrived on Broadway from Pittsburgh. Desperate to gain financing for his play, God of Our Fathers, he is persuaded by producer Julian Marx to cast actress Olive Neal, the girlfriend of gangster Nick Valenti, in a minor role.

Compensating for his frustration with the demanding and talentless Olive, David is thrilled to cast alcoholic faded star Helen Sinclair in the lead role, along with the dieting British thespian Warner Purcell. Rehearsals are soon thrown into chaos when Olive shows up escorted by Cheech, a mob henchman, who insists on watching rehearsals.

Eventually Cheech starts giving notes on the script to David, who is initially angered by the intrusion but quickly realizes the ideas are excellent. Cheech, who barely learned to read before burning down his school, has a natural talent for playwriting, but is not interested in taking any credit. The cast members herald the revised script as genius, disparaging his initial draft as dull and pompous.

Buoyed by their imminent success, David and the actors succumb to their vices. His partner, Ellen, catches him cheating on her with Helen. Warner indulges in overeating and begins an affair with Olive, which he attempts to break off when Cheech threatens his life. Growing increasingly frustrated with Olive's poor acting, Cheech tries to have her fired from the production. After David reminds him he cannot get rid of Olive, Cheech murders her and dumps her body in a river.

Olive's murder is widely assumed to be part of an inter-gang conflict, but David immediately senses the truth and argues with Cheech. Regretting his mistakes, David is dismayed to learn that Ellen is leaving him for his hedonistic Marxist friend Sheldon Flender.

On opening night, Valenti accuses Cheech of Olive's murder, which he denies. Henchmen Rocco and Aldo chase Cheech backstage while the play is being performed, shooting him. With his dying words, Cheech gives David a new final line for the play. The play is a critical and commercial success, but David skips the after-party to confront Flender. He confesses his lack of talent and proposes marriage to Ellen, who accepts his newfound desire to leave high society and move back to Pittsburgh.

Soundtrack

• "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)" – Written by Dan Russo, Ernie Erdman and Gus Kahn – Performed by Al Jolson with the Vitaphone Orchestra
• "Crazy Rhythm" – Lyrics by Irving Caesar – Music by Joseph Meyer (songwriter) & Roger Wolfe Kahn
• "You've Got to See Mamma Every Night or You Can't See Mamma at All" – Lyrics by Billy Rose – Music by Con Conrad
• "Make Believe" – Music by Jerome Kern – Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II – Performed by The Three Deuces Musicians
• "That Jungle Jamboree" – Written by Andy Razaf, Harry Brooks & Fats Waller – Performed by Duke Ellington
• "Lazy River" – Written by Hoagy Carmichael & Sidney Arodin – Performed by New Leviathan Oriental Fox Trot Orchestra
• "Nagasaki" – Music by Harry Warren – Lyrics by Mort Dixon
• "Let's Misbehave" – By Cole Porter – Performed by Irving Aaronson and his Commanders
• "You Took Advantage of Me" – Music by Richard Rodgers – Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
• "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)" – Written by Harry M. Woods
• "Ma! He's Making Eyes at Me" – Lyrics by Sidney Clare – Music by Con Conrad – Performed by Eddie Cantor with Henri Rene and His Orchestra
• "Thou Swell" – Music by Richard Rodgers – Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
• "At the Jazz Band Ball" – Written by Nick LaRocca & Larry Shields – Performed by Bix Beiderbecke
• "Poor Butterfly" – Music by Raymond Hubbell – Lyrics by John Golden – Performed by Red Nichols and His Five Pennies
• "That Certain Feeling" – Music by George Gershwin – Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
• "Who" – Music by Jerome Kern – Lyrics by Otto A. Harbach & Oscar Hammerstein II – Performed by George Olsen

Production

The film's locales include the duplex co-op on the 22nd floor of 5 Tudor City Place in Manhattan.

The film's title may have been an homage to a lengthy sketch of the same title from the 1950s television show Caesar's Hour; one of Allen's first jobs in television was writing for Sid Caesar specials after the initial run of the show.

The film featured the last screen appearance of Benay Venuta. Allen cast her in a cameo role as a well-wishing wealthy theatre patron. She died of lung cancer in September 1995.

Reception

Critical response

Bullets Over Broadway received a positive response from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A gleefully entertaining backstage comedy, Bullets Over Broadway features some of Woody Allen's sharpest, most inspired late-period writing and direction."

Janet Maslin of The New York Times described the film as "a bright, energetic, sometimes side-splitting comedy with vital matters on its mind, precisely the kind of sharp-edged farce [Allen] has always done best." Todd McCarthy of Variety similarly called it "a backstage comedy bolstered by healthy shots of prohibition gangster melodrama and romantic entanglements" and wrote, "In its mixing of showbiz and gangsters, this is a nice companion piece to Allen's Broadway Danny Rose, and about as amusing." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised, "Bullets Over Broadway shares a kinship with a more serious film by Allen, Crimes and Misdemeanors, in which a man committed murder and was able, somehow, to almost justify it. Now here is the comic side of the same coin. The movie is very funny and, in the way it follows its logic wherever it leads, surprisingly tough."

The film grossed $13.4 million in the United States and Canada and $24.1 million internationally for a worldwide total of $37.5 million.

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Template:Ref heading
Academy Awards	Best Director	Woody Allen	Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Actor	Chazz Palminteri	Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Actress	Jennifer Tilly	Template:Nom
		Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
	Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen	Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath	Template:Nom
	Best Art Direction	Art Direction: Santo Loquasto; Set Decoration: Susan Bode	Template:Nom
	Best Costume Design	Jeffrey Kurland	Template:Nom
American Comedy Awards	Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture	Chazz Palminteri	Template:Nom
	Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture	Jennifer Tilly	Template:Nom
		Tracey Ullman	Template:Nom
		Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
Artios Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film Casting – Comedy	Juliet Taylor	Template:Won
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Tracey Ullman	Template:Draw
		Dianne Wiest	Template:Draw
British Academy Film Awards	Best Screenplay – Original	Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath	Template:Nom
British Comedy Awards	Best Comedy Film		Template:Won
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Chazz Palminteri	Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Actress	Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
Chlotrudis Awards	Best Movie		Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Actress	Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Template:Won
Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture	Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
Guldbagge Awards	Best Foreign Film	Woody Allen	Template:Nom
Independent Spirit Awards	Best Feature		Template:Nom
	Best Supporting Male	Chazz Palminteri	Template:Won
	Best Supporting Female	Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
	Best Screenplay	Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath	Template:Nom
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Template:Won
National Board of Review Awards	Top Ten Films		Template:Draw
National Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Template:Won
Sant Jordi Awards	Best Foreign Actor	Chazz Palminteri (also for A Bronx Tale and The Usual Suspects)	Template:Won
Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role	Chazz Palminteri	Template:Nom
	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role	Dianne Wiest	Template:Won
Society of Texas Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Template:Won
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Template:Won
Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen	Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath	Template:Nom

Year-end lists

• 4th – National Board of Review
• 4th – Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News
• 4th – Sean P. Means, The Salt Lake Tribune
• 5th – Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News
• 8th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
• 8th – Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
• 8th – John Hurley, Staten Island Advance
• 10th – Yardena Arar, Los Angeles Daily News
• 11th – Janet Maslin, The New York Times
• Top 9 (not ranked) – Dan Webster, The Spokesman-Review
• Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Bob Ross, The Tampa Tribune
• Top 10 (not ranked) – Dennis King, Tulsa World
• Top 10 (not ranked) – Howie Movshovitz, The Denver Post
• Top 5 runners-up (not ranked) – Scott Schuldt, The Oklahoman
• Honorable mentions – Mike Clark, USA Today
• Honorable mention – Duane Dudek, Milwaukee Sentinel
• Honorable mention – Michael MacCambridge, Austin American-Statesman
• Guilty pleasure – Douglas Armstrong, The Milwaukee Journal

Stage musical

Allen adapted the film as a stage jukebox musical, titled Bullets Over Broadway the Musical. The musical is directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, produced by Julian Schlossberg and Allen's younger sister Letty Aronson, with a score from the American songbook using songs from the 1920s and 1930s. The new musical premiered on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on April 10, 2014. A staged reading was held in June 2013. The cast features Zach Braff as David Shayne, Brooks Ashmanskas, Betsy Wolfe, Lenny Wolpe, and Vincent Pastore. Marin Mazzie stars as Helen Sinclair, and Karen Ziemba appears as Eden Brent. Musical supervisor Glen Kelly has adapted and written additional lyrics for songs including "Tain't Nobody's Bus'ness", "Running Wild", "Let's Misbehave", and "I Found a New Baby". The musical closed on August 24, 2014, after 156 performances and 33 previews.

External links

• Template:First word/ Template:Trim at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• Template:First word.htm Template:PAGENAMEBASE at Box Office MojoTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• Template:First word Template:PAGENAMEBASE at Rotten TomatoesTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:Main other
• Where's Woody? in Boston Review: article discussing the Nietzschean influences in Bullets Over Broadway