Sardi's is the traditional restaurant the cast goes to after opening night.
The last four shows to be "longest on Broadway" have been Grease, A Chorus Line, Cats, and Phantom of the Opera (I think there is one in the middle I am forgetting)
Sitting on line at the TKTS booth will get cheaper (sometimes up to half-off) seats.
orchestra seats are expensive (more than USD 75.00).
Tourists - non Native New Yorkers - make up more than half the audience.
Many of the Musicals on Broadway now are imports from the West End of London.
One of the theatres in the District is named after the brother of the man who shot Abraham Lincoln.
It is not unusual now for a musical to not make it to Broadway because a financial Backer - person putting money up for the show - loses confidence in a play.
A show is done "out of town" - someplace in America before it comes to Broadway to work out the kinks in script and choreography.
Hope this a start.
----------
"Looking for another adventure already?"
2006 - Faire Gypsy, Faire Game - winner
2007 - Immortal Jeopardy -
Times Square was once called Longacre Square and was quite a sordid place, mostly where people went to buy and sell horses and/or sex. It was renamed in 1904 when the New York Times built their new headquarters there (at 1 Times Square, which I think is currently vacant -- the Times moved to 43rd Street and, just recently, to a new HQ on 8th and 40th St, I think). That new year was the first time the ball was dropped. This was all made possible by the subway opening, also in 1904. Times Square has been a major transit hub ever since.
One of the first Times Square theater owners was Oscar Hammerstein, grandfather to the man of the same name who teamed with Rogers to write such musicals as "The Sound of Music."
The early shows were vaudeville or variety shows, and many of the first big movie stars -- the Marx Brothers, Fred Astaire, Louise Brooks, Charlie Chaplin -- began in the vaudeville shows.
Several of Sondheim's musicals have been big flops.
"Beauty and the Beast" just closed, but there was a time recently when there were 4 Disney musicals on Broadway. ("The Lion King," "Tarzan," and "Mary Poppins" being the others.)
There's apparently a "Spiderman" musical in the works with music by Bono and direction by "The Lion King" director, Julie Taymor. This could be really terrible or really awesome.
This is just what comes to mind. I've got a lot of Broadway trivia about specific shows, too, if you want some of that.
---
If you want more, I highly recommend the PBS documentary "Broadway: The American Musical," which is available on DVD, or the book Ghosts of 42nd Street.
----------
~Erin
New York City Municipal Liaison
Maybe not famous, but at least ubiquitous
The ten longest running shows on Broadway as of early July 2007 are:
1. The Phantom of the Opera; 8, 105 (Open)
2. Cats; 7,485
3. Les Miserables; 6,680 (closed in 2003; revival currently playing)
4. A Chorus Line; 6,137 (closed in 1990; revival currently playing)
5. Oh! Calcutta (1976 Revival); 5,959
6. Beauty and the Beast; 5,433 (closed in July 2007)
7. Rent; 4,653 (open)
8. Chicago (1996 Revival); 4,430 (open)
9. Miss Saigon; 4,092
10. The Lion King; 4,015 (open)
New shows coming to Broadway soon are "A Catered Affair," set to begin previews in March 2008; and "Young Frankenstein," previews starting October 11, and tickets selling for as much as $450 dollars, eep! (But with a cast like Roger Bart and Megan Mullally, it's understandable!)
As a previous poster mentioned, several of Sondheim's musicals have been flops, "Merrily We Roll Along" (sixteen performances!) being the most famous. Also, Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn't had a hit since "Sunset Boulevard," in 1993.
--There is a sequel to "Phantom Of The Opera" in the works. It will either be really terrible or really good. Production is going slow because Lloyd Webber's cat jumped onto his electronic keyboard and deleted the entire score, God bless his furry hide.
--There was a musical version of Truman Capote's novel "Breakfast At Tiffany's" in 1966. It lasted four performances. The book was written by Edward Albee, and so soon after the success of "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf," too.
--There was a musical of "Le Petit Prince" in the early 1980's, starring Anthony Rapp later of "Rent" fame as the Prince. It lasted sixteen previews and closed before opening night.
Other unsuccessful musicals: "High Fidelity" (Book? Great! Movie? Good! Musical? Not so much.); "Lennon" (Which looked interesting enough, but kind of confusing and pompous); "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (What was Twyla Tharp thinking?! What was Bob Dylan thinking?!)
----------
-----------------
Et in Arcadia Ego.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
-Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
-Dr. Johnson
"There's apparently a "Spiderman" musical in the works with music by Bono and direction by "The Lion King" director, Julie Taymor. This could be really terrible or really awesome."
I am totally with you on this one. Julie Taymor is amazing, but I don't think I want to see someone singing and dancing in a
Spiderman costume.
----------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So, no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."
~Captain Mal "Serenity"
There is this robe that is passed on from show to show among the people who play the small parts on Broadway, particularly the dancers. These people who have whole careers always in the background are known as "gypsies". Anyhow, it is a great honor to have the robe passed on to you when the show where the current robe-holder worked has closed. Each person who holds the robe must add to it something from their show.
The gypsy who earns the robe for each new show is the ensemble member with the most Broadway ensemble credits. The tradition is it is given on opening night - the entire cast gathers together in a circle, and the gypsy who had previously had the robe comes to "bestow" the robe on the gypsy for the show. The name is announced, and the lucky guy or girl puts the robe on, and then travels around the circle (can't remember if it's clockwise or counter-) three times, and each company member touches the robe for good luck on opening night. The gypsy then visits each dressing room to bestow extra luck!
A new robe is created each season (so by the end, the robe will be completely covered by patches/sections of all the shows that opened that particular season.)
Can any of you tell me what an audition for a major Broadway musical is like? Would just anybody be able to walk in? Would it be advertised somewhere? What sort of things would the person have to do at the audition?
That depends on the audition. For most major Broadway auditions, you either need to be Equity or have an agent. Some shows like RENT and Spring Awakening - that cast for either young or new, raw, upcoming talent - hold periodic open calls where anyone can audition. After the initial cattle call, there's a pretty rigorous callback process. Those cattle calls are usually for replacements, though, not original cast or workshop cast members.
I don't know about Equity auditions, but at the first open auditions you're usually required to bring in a monologue or sing 16-32 bars of a song of your choice - but it probably varies from show to show.
Also, check over at the musicals.net forums... tons of people over there have gone to Broadway audtions.
Hope that helped! :)
----------
...<3 juli.
haikus are easy
but sometimes they don't make sense
refrigerator.
Just a little note on what constitutes a Broadway theater. There's a certain geographic area (don't know what that is) and then within that area it depends on the size- 500 seats is the lower limit. So for example the New Victory Theater is on 42nd Street right in the heart of Times Square but because it's 499 seats it's an off-Broadway house. The theaters right next door (Pirate Queen) and across the street (Mary Poppins ) are Broadway theaters because they have 500+ seats.
Actor's Equity is the union for actors and stage managers and they are more strict and serious about rule enforcement and so on with NY in general and Broadway specifically. The commercial producers of Broadway are the reason that Equity came into being in the first place. There is also a stage hand's union- IATSE the same folks who run the film projectors in the movie theaters, a musician's union, a director/choreographer union and a designer's union.
50,479 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 08 09
Broadway as in the NY theater district, Broadway as in the NY street, or Broadway as in musical theatre in general? Or some other Broadway?
----------NaNoWriMo 2007: The Company, Displaced (50,428/50,000)
1,757 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 08 17
srry about that, I meant the NY theatre district
100,226 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 09 08
Sardi's is the traditional restaurant the cast goes to after opening night.
The last four shows to be "longest on Broadway" have been Grease, A Chorus Line, Cats, and Phantom of the Opera (I think there is one in the middle I am forgetting)
Sitting on line at the TKTS booth will get cheaper (sometimes up to half-off) seats.
orchestra seats are expensive (more than USD 75.00).
Tourists - non Native New Yorkers - make up more than half the audience.
Many of the Musicals on Broadway now are imports from the West End of London.
One of the theatres in the District is named after the brother of the man who shot Abraham Lincoln.
It is not unusual now for a musical to not make it to Broadway because a financial Backer - person putting money up for the show - loses confidence in a play.
A show is done "out of town" - someplace in America before it comes to Broadway to work out the kinks in script and choreography.
Hope this a start.
----------"Looking for another adventure already?"
2006 - Faire Gypsy, Faire Game - winner
2007 - Immortal Jeopardy -
85,065 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 12 04
Times Square was once called Longacre Square and was quite a sordid place, mostly where people went to buy and sell horses and/or sex. It was renamed in 1904 when the New York Times built their new headquarters there (at 1 Times Square, which I think is currently vacant -- the Times moved to 43rd Street and, just recently, to a new HQ on 8th and 40th St, I think). That new year was the first time the ball was dropped. This was all made possible by the subway opening, also in 1904. Times Square has been a major transit hub ever since.
One of the first Times Square theater owners was Oscar Hammerstein, grandfather to the man of the same name who teamed with Rogers to write such musicals as "The Sound of Music."
The early shows were vaudeville or variety shows, and many of the first big movie stars -- the Marx Brothers, Fred Astaire, Louise Brooks, Charlie Chaplin -- began in the vaudeville shows.
Several of Sondheim's musicals have been big flops.
"Beauty and the Beast" just closed, but there was a time recently when there were 4 Disney musicals on Broadway. ("The Lion King," "Tarzan," and "Mary Poppins" being the others.)
There's apparently a "Spiderman" musical in the works with music by Bono and direction by "The Lion King" director, Julie Taymor. This could be really terrible or really awesome.
This is just what comes to mind. I've got a lot of Broadway trivia about specific shows, too, if you want some of that.
---
If you want more, I highly recommend the PBS documentary "Broadway: The American Musical," which is available on DVD, or the book Ghosts of 42nd Street.
----------~Erin
New York City Municipal Liaison
Maybe not famous, but at least ubiquitous
1,757 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 13 14
Thnx so much guys, I have a lot to work with now, can I message you if I need any specific info on a show?
13,834 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 13 56
The ten longest running shows on Broadway as of early July 2007 are:
1. The Phantom of the Opera; 8, 105 (Open)
2. Cats; 7,485
3. Les Miserables; 6,680 (closed in 2003; revival currently playing)
4. A Chorus Line; 6,137 (closed in 1990; revival currently playing)
5. Oh! Calcutta (1976 Revival); 5,959
6. Beauty and the Beast; 5,433 (closed in July 2007)
7. Rent; 4,653 (open)
8. Chicago (1996 Revival); 4,430 (open)
9. Miss Saigon; 4,092
10. The Lion King; 4,015 (open)
New shows coming to Broadway soon are "A Catered Affair," set to begin previews in March 2008; and "Young Frankenstein," previews starting October 11, and tickets selling for as much as $450 dollars, eep! (But with a cast like Roger Bart and Megan Mullally, it's understandable!)
As a previous poster mentioned, several of Sondheim's musicals have been flops, "Merrily We Roll Along" (sixteen performances!) being the most famous. Also, Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn't had a hit since "Sunset Boulevard," in 1993.
--There is a sequel to "Phantom Of The Opera" in the works. It will either be really terrible or really good. Production is going slow because Lloyd Webber's cat jumped onto his electronic keyboard and deleted the entire score, God bless his furry hide.
--There was a musical version of Truman Capote's novel "Breakfast At Tiffany's" in 1966. It lasted four performances. The book was written by Edward Albee, and so soon after the success of "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf," too.
--There was a musical of "Le Petit Prince" in the early 1980's, starring Anthony Rapp later of "Rent" fame as the Prince. It lasted sixteen previews and closed before opening night.
Other unsuccessful musicals: "High Fidelity" (Book? Great! Movie? Good! Musical? Not so much.); "Lennon" (Which looked interesting enough, but kind of confusing and pompous); "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (What was Twyla Tharp thinking?! What was Bob Dylan thinking?!)
---------------------------
Et in Arcadia Ego.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
-Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
-Dr. Johnson
18,094 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 14 17
"There's apparently a "Spiderman" musical in the works with music by Bono and direction by "The Lion King" director, Julie Taymor. This could be really terrible or really awesome."
I am totally with you on this one. Julie Taymor is amazing, but I don't think I want to see someone singing and dancing in a
----------Spiderman costume.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So, no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."
~Captain Mal "Serenity"
60,053 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2007 - 04 55
Actually, I'll argue that the most impressive Sondheim flop was Anyone Can Whistle, which ran for nine performances.
And Tarzan also closed. (Thank GOD.) Cyrano with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner is coming to the theatre Tarzan was playing in (the Richard Rodgers).
The main thing that makes a theatre a Broadway theatre as opposed to off-Broadway or off-off-Broadway is the size.
I'll be back later - I have to go to class. But I'll be back with more. I'm at theatre school in New York, so... yeah.
52,048 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2007 - 20 20
Disney currently has The Little Mermaid in the works and it's set to preview in December.
Broadway theatres are named after famous, dead playwrights/composers/lyricists.
15,600 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2007 - 13 56
The Tony Awards website has excellent Tonys trivia:
http://www.tonyawards.com
50,218 / 50,000
Oct 23, 2007 - 06 36
There is this robe that is passed on from show to show among the people who play the small parts on Broadway, particularly the dancers. These people who have whole careers always in the background are known as "gypsies". Anyhow, it is a great honor to have the robe passed on to you when the show where the current robe-holder worked has closed. Each person who holds the robe must add to it something from their show.
----------Reveal options by living them.
2,144 / 50,000
Oct 23, 2007 - 06 49
The gypsy who earns the robe for each new show is the ensemble member with the most Broadway ensemble credits. The tradition is it is given on opening night - the entire cast gathers together in a circle, and the gypsy who had previously had the robe comes to "bestow" the robe on the gypsy for the show. The name is announced, and the lucky guy or girl puts the robe on, and then travels around the circle (can't remember if it's clockwise or counter-) three times, and each company member touches the robe for good luck on opening night. The gypsy then visits each dressing room to bestow extra luck!
A new robe is created each season (so by the end, the robe will be completely covered by patches/sections of all the shows that opened that particular season.)
50,064 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2007 - 22 15
Can any of you tell me what an audition for a major Broadway musical is like? Would just anybody be able to walk in? Would it be advertised somewhere? What sort of things would the person have to do at the audition?
10,073 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2007 - 22 49
That depends on the audition. For most major Broadway auditions, you either need to be Equity or have an agent. Some shows like RENT and Spring Awakening - that cast for either young or new, raw, upcoming talent - hold periodic open calls where anyone can audition. After the initial cattle call, there's a pretty rigorous callback process. Those cattle calls are usually for replacements, though, not original cast or workshop cast members.
I don't know about Equity auditions, but at the first open auditions you're usually required to bring in a monologue or sing 16-32 bars of a song of your choice - but it probably varies from show to show.
Also, check over at the musicals.net forums... tons of people over there have gone to Broadway audtions.
Hope that helped! :)
----------...<3 juli.
haikus are easy
but sometimes they don't make sense
refrigerator.
51,297 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2007 - 00 18
Just a little note on what constitutes a Broadway theater. There's a certain geographic area (don't know what that is) and then within that area it depends on the size- 500 seats is the lower limit. So for example the New Victory Theater is on 42nd Street right in the heart of Times Square but because it's 499 seats it's an off-Broadway house. The theaters right next door (Pirate Queen) and across the street (Mary Poppins ) are Broadway theaters because they have 500+ seats.
Actor's Equity is the union for actors and stage managers and they are more strict and serious about rule enforcement and so on with NY in general and Broadway specifically. The commercial producers of Broadway are the reason that Equity came into being in the first place. There is also a stage hand's union- IATSE the same folks who run the film projectors in the movie theaters, a musician's union, a director/choreographer union and a designer's union.