I’m not ashamed to admit it: a song celebrating the privacy afforded to you by a well-maintained bathroom made me tear up. That’s a sentence I never dreamed I’d type just a few weeks ago, but I live in a post-Bathtubs Over Broadway world now. My heart is open, and I now appreciate not only the power of bathroom privacy, but the art that it inspired. Such is the power of Bathtubs Over Broadway. Now that the critically-acclaimed indie doc is streaming on Netflix, you can experience the weird lost wonders that Bathtubs Over Broadway excavates and displays for the entire world to see.

Bathtubs Over Broadway does what the best documentaries do: it immerses you in a fully realized world that you never knew existed. It’s a world of bizarre musicals, brilliant songsmiths, and beautiful stage productions that you only got to experience if you worked for a massive corporation from the ’60s to the roughly the late ’80s. If not, you never knew that radio-ready ditties were written about bland objects like silicone rubber, spark plugs, oil, and–of course–bathrooms.

This world was discovered by comedy writer Steve Young, the unassuming, mild-mannered, middle-aged man that becomes the highly unlikely high-profile champion of this lost subculture during the doc. While working as a writer for both Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show up until Letterman’s retirement in 2015, Young came across a number of strange records while rifling through record bins looking for odd artifacts for Dave to mock during desk segments.

The records were marked as not for commercial use or broadcast, as they were souvenirs from closed-off events only meant for a select few. Those warnings were like a dare, and Steve Young dared.

For decades and decades, giant corporations like Citgo, Ford, Miller, Walmart, and so many more put on elaborate Broadway-level musical productions to entertain salespeople and staff at corporate retreat. Referred to as industrials in the biz, these elaborate shows–complete with choreography, characters, and sets–were meant to boost morale and strengthen brand loyalty amongst employees. They also gave careers to hundreds of singers, dancers, actors, and writers who, as you discover over the course of Bathtubs Over Broadway, really could have been major players in the musical world had the dice fallen a different way. They’re all that talented.

Some of them actually did break through to the mainstream, most notably Chita Rivera, Martin Short and Florence Henderson, all interviewed in the doc. Other notable names dropped throughout the doc include Bob Fosse, Ed McMahon, Valerie Harper, and Bob Newhart (sidenote plea to the internet: I need to see that Bob Newhart industrial, desperately!). Even the writers behind iconic musicals like Fiddler on the Roof, Chicago, Cabaret, and more all got their start doing songs about unglamorous products like dogfood.

But the doc doesn’t just point at these kooky songs and snicker like Letterman did on The Late Show. The doc dives in deep, surprisingly deep, as Young not only searches for these rare records and videos but for the people that actually made them happen decades ago. The look of surprise and joy on these old faces when they learn their forgotten work actually hasn’t been forgotten is moving. That’s why you’ll cry over a song about a bathroom by the end of the film.

I don’t think it’s too lofty praise to say that Bathtubs Over Broadway is more than just a fun doc. It’s not hyperbole to say that this film is a celebration of the wonders humanity can achieve, whether the entire world or just a hundred people from sales are taking notice. Seeing these craftspeople take a subject as bland as light bulbs and create a piece of art that sticks with you via a melody or voice, it’s a joyous testament to art. Bathtubs Over Broadway gives all those voices a microphone again, and it’s wonderful to hear what they have to say and sing.

Stream Bathtubs Over Broadway on Netflix