JUST A BROADWAY BABY Documentary Selected for New York Flash Film Festival

On PAR Productions and Producers Patrick Riviere and Shane Adams have finished their short documentary film, Just a Broadway Baby: Mary Ellen Ashley after five years of filming, archival research, securing permissions, delays due to the pandemic and ultimately, finding the right editor for the project: Laird Ogden.

The film has just become an "official selection" for The New York Flash Film Festival and has been submitted to over 50 film festivals worldwide and is also planning screenings in Provincetown and New York City.

The film follows the career and life of Mary Ellen Ashley (formerly Mary Ellen Glass) who made her Broadway debut at the age of five in An Innocent Voyage. She would follow that with a role that was created just for her in the original Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun with Ethel Merman.

Ashley grew up with the show and would go on to play all of the younger Oakley sisters and stay with the production for the entire run. But Broadway was not her only success. She was on radio, early Television, films, Las Vegas, her own club act and a plethora of Regional Theater playing the most beloved leading ladies numerous times: Dolly Levi, Mame Dennis, Mama Rose...the list goes on.

She would return to Broadway in the original production of Yentl starring Tovah Feldshuh. For eight decades she has graced the stage and screen and is preparing to co-star in a two-hander produced by Theater for the New City.

Primary filming took place in North Truro, MA and the official trailer for the film can be viewed by visiting justabroadwaybabymea.com

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