Bullets Over Broadway

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.

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Bullets Over Broadway

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 Wiest winning for her performance, the second time Allen directed her to an Academy Award. The film is considered one of Allen's best works.

Plot

Bullets Over Broadway

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.

Production

Bullets Over Broadway

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

Bullets Over Broadway

<table><thead><tr><th>Award</th><th>Category</th><th>Nominee(s)</th><th>Result</th><th>Ref.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Academy Awards</td><td>Best Director</td><td>Woody Allen</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Best Supporting Actor</td><td>Chazz Palminteri</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Jennifer Tilly</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen</td><td>Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Best Art Direction</td><td>Art Direction: Santo Loquasto; Set Decoration: Susan Bode</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Best Costume Design</td><td>Jeffrey Kurland</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>American Comedy Awards</td><td>Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture</td><td>Chazz Palminteri</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture</td><td>Jennifer Tilly</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Tracey Ullman</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Artios Awards</td><td>Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film Casting – Comedy</td><td>Juliet Taylor</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Boston Society of Film Critics Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Tracey Ullman</td><td>3rd Place</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>2nd Place</td></tr><tr><td>British Academy Film Awards</td><td>Best Screenplay – Original</td><td>Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>British Comedy Awards</td><td>Best Comedy Film</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Chicago Film Critics Association Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actor</td><td>Chazz Palminteri</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Chlotrudis Awards</td><td>Best Movie</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Golden Globe Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture</td><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Guldbagge Awards</td><td>Best Foreign Film</td><td>Woody Allen</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Independent Spirit Awards</td><td>Best Feature</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Best Supporting Male</td><td>Chazz Palminteri</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Best Supporting Female</td><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Best Screenplay</td><td>Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>National Board of Review Awards</td><td>Top Ten Films</td><td>4th Place</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>National Society of Film Critics Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>New York Film Critics Circle Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Sant Jordi Awards</td><td>Best Foreign Actor</td><td>Chazz Palminteri (also for A Bronx Tale and The Usual Suspects)</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Screen Actors Guild Awards</td><td>Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role</td><td>Chazz Palminteri</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role</td><td>Dianne Wiest</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Society of Texas Film Critics Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards</td><td>Best Supporting Actress</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Writers Guild of America Awards</td><td>Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen</td><td>Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

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

Bullets Over Broadway

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.