Bathtubs Over Broadway

Steve Young, David Letterman’s ghostwriter on the Late Show, developed a wonderful obsession for what he calls show business’ “hidden, mysterious world”: the company musicals McDonald’s, Ford and Xerox, etc., had produced in the sixties and seventies “solely for in-house screening”. Professional musicals singing the praises of copiers, air conditioners and new generations of toilets.

Young delves into these works’ history, tracking down composers and discovering long-lost treasures in attics and cellars along the way. Composers responsible for Fiddler on the Roof and other defining American musicals once earned their keep making company musicals. In fact, that’s how they cut their teeth. However, because these musicals were not intended for commercial release and the makers never spoke about them, they might have been lost. Young views them as an alternative cultural history of America.

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