Broadway refers to about 40 professional theaters in Manhattan, New York in the theater district located in Broadway and in Lincoln Center. Only London’s West End can compete with Broadway in terms of importance or revenue in the English speaking world. In 2010 Broadway ticket sales slightly exceeded $1 billion.
The first recognized theater in Broadway was on Nassau Street. It was opened in 1750 by the actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean. The theater held 280 people and played Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar’s Opera.
Other theaters gradually opened in the same area within the next few years. Many played ‘minstrel shows’ which were popular at the time.
The famous P.T Barnum took Broadway to the next level when he opened Niblo’s Garden in 1829 that could hold 3,000 people. Niblo’s Garden was at Broadway and Prince Street.
The location of the theater district moved in the mid-1800s with the cheaper real estate prices on offer. The center moved to Union Street and by the turn of the century it was Madison Square. It took another century for theaters to make an appearance in Times Square. During this time London’s West End drew bigger crowds and was still considered a more important center for dramatic pieces.
History was made in 1866 with the five-and-a-half hour production called The Black Crook. This was the first production to conform to modern musical standards of mixing song, dance and plot about every day people and situations. The Black Crook ran for a record-breaking 474 performances.
In 1881 the first vaudeville shows opened near Union Square. These shows starred professional actresses rather than prostitutes. At the same time transportation improved in New York. Electric light came to New York. This combined with the better reputation of Broadway (now that real actresses were used) more people (and more women) came to the shows. This is when ‘runs’ started to get longer and longer. Moreover, imported versions of Gilbert and Sullivan works helped to improve the popularity of Broadway.
In 1891 the show A Trip to Chinatown ran for 657 performances. This record lasted until Irene beat it in 1919.
Theater was the leading form of paid entertainment until the 1920s when the movie called The Jazz Singer was released. This was the start of the cinematic threat to theater dominance. It was The Roaring Twenties. The quality of the musical plot lines deteriorated but people were held in sway by a golden age of song writers such as Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter.
In 1927 Show Boat premiered in Broadway. This is perhaps the first modern musical to integrate plot, song and dialogue into a seamless whole, and as such was as important to the history of Broadway as The Black Crook.
During this time Eugene O’Neill started enjoying considerable success with plays such as The Hairy Ape which were intended as serious theater. O’Neill paved the way for the likes of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.
The Great Depression of the 30’s hit theater attendance numbers. The great bounce back came with Oklahoma! In 1943 which ran for an amazing 2,212 performances. It was at this time that Broadway finally surpassed London’s West End as the most important theater district in the English speaking world.
In the modern age of Broadway the length of a run is entirely determined by commercial success. The shows that make it to Broadway are those with enough financial backing; and those that keep going are not just the most artistically excellent, but those with the best advertising, the biggest stars and the best theaters. Generally speaking, musicals do better than non-musical or ‘straight’ plays. For many years Cats was the most successful Broadway production, but this was beaten in 2009 by Phantom of the Opera.
To take a snapshot look at the present offerings in Broadway the top 16 shows as credited by http://ppc.broadway.com/ include The Book of Mormon by the creators of South Park, The Lion King (a modern classic taken from an animated movie), Priscilla Queen of the Desert (taken from a low budget Australian gay flick of the 1990s), Mary Poppins, Chicago and Jesus Christ Superstar.
There has never been as much diversity and entertainment on offer in Broadway. The cinema might have won the battle for the masses’ attention but Broadway continues to bring live culture and entertainment to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and tourists every year.
Last night I watched the movie Good Hair, produced by Chris Rock, with a friend. Neither of us had watched it before and we really enjoyed it! It’s a documentary / comedy about African-American hair and the lengths women go to to take care of their hair, from weaves to dangerous chemical relaxers, such as sodium hydroxide.
My friend is African-American and has been going through the tedious and sometimes frustrating process of “going natural” with her hair. She grew sick of the expensive weaves and relaxers, feeling that the chemicals and constant interference were doing her more harm than good. Her hair stylist has been guiding her through the process, and she has been using products like Jamaican Castor Oil, Mira Hair Oil, and Sisterlocks during the process.
The movie made for a good discussion between my friend and I. I always knew she struggled with the amount of time (and money) she had to spend on her hair, but watching the documentary together helped me learn even more about the whole process.
My friends and family know that I love wine. They’ve known it for a while now and it has led to receiving more wine gifts than I can even count. It has also led to phone calls and emails whenever any of my friends or family see a wine they know I like on tv. It’s annyoing….why do they always think that I care?
As an example, last season on the tv show Burn Notice Fiona has a glass of Kosta Browne wine during an episode. Three phone calls. On the tv show Chuck last year they split a bottle of Mondavi….about 5 phone calls asking if that is even drinkable!
I can only imagine at this point how many offers I am going to get to go and see the premier of the new Sideways movie when it comes out in 2 years. If you don’t know, the main characters are going to Spain. That’s going to be great for the Spanish wine industry, but not great for those of us who already buy a lot of Spanish wine because it is cheap considering the high quality levels.
TV has always been (and even given the wider number of available channels these days) and will always be a window into our culture. Over the past few years wine has overtaken beer in total consumption within the United States and that change has been reflected on the small screen. Shows like Burn Notice have featured high end collectible wines like Kosta Browne, while other shows in movies and theatre have featured wines we can all actually afford.
Personally, I’m a member of a couple of wine clubs so I appreciate the change in culture. Yes, I like beer. Yes, I drink beer. That doesn’t mean that I find beer very interesting. Where does your beer come from? Where is the barely grown? What is hops? Personally, I don’t care.
Now tell me again why that wine vineyard is better than the others……
Although I a straight man, I do enjoy watching musicals. Among my favorite musicals is Avenue Q. This show was a broadway hit in the early 2000s and became one of the longest-running musicals in history. It opened in 2003 and after over 2,500 performances finally closed down in 2009. It had several songs which became well known in pop culture including “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist” and “The Internet Is For Porn.”
Personally, I saw Avenue Q in 2006 at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. I thought it was great, and I even downloaded some of the soundtrack on iTunes. Unfortunately, it didn’t really become a hit in Vegas, despite heavy promotion by Steve Wynn. Apparently musicals are not big hits in Vegas. Another musical that I always liked is Guys And Dolls. The main character, Nathan Detroit, was portrayed by Marlon Brando. That was back in his younger years. There’s a few other musicals that I would like to go see. One thing I like to do is use my vaporizer before I see a show. It helps me relax and enjoy the spectacle. I read some vaporizer reviews online and I wound up buying a pretty decent vape for my pre-musical partying. It’s possible that next musical I will go see is Hairspray. That was originally a movie made by John Waters in 1988. Speaking of which, John Waters definitely seems like he likes to use a vaporizer – that guy has 420 written all over him. Later on, Hairspray was remade in 2007 in a version starring John Travolta. John Travolta is definitely a man that knows how to dance.
I’m not sure if I can still see the Producers – I know it had an epic run on Broadway and elsewhere across the country. I’ll have to check if it’s still being performed. I kinda like Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. THey were part of the original Broadway cast.
I’ve been a movie fan now for as long as I can remember and in this time its not an unusual sight seeing characters smoking cigarettes on the big screen. Don’t get me wrong I don’t subscribe to this whole nanny state situation that calls for everything to be banned, i’m all for everyone makes their own choices! I just want to have a look at how far things have come in the last 70 years with regards to how smoking was percieved.
There was a time, that most of us probably won’t remember, when it was a perfectly normal thing to see actors actually endorsing cigarettes. Some of the biggest names in Hollywood put their name to certain brands, recognize any of these names from back in the day?
Frank Sinatra – On set with Sinatra and Chesterfield in the 1960s
Betty Grable in 1944
Ronald Regan Chesterfield Ad in 1952
Its amazing looking back at these images that made smoking look so cool, its no wonder, coupled with the lack of knowledge they had regarding the dangers, that so many people became hooked on cigarettes.
Things of course have changed today and although many movie stars still smoke today many are trying out alternatives such as the electronic cigarette. Celebrities spotted using e cigarettes in public include Lindsay Lohan, Nikki Reed, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Connolly from Entourage and musicians Ronnie Wood and Tom Petty. They have used all manner of brands such as Green Smoke electronc cigarettes and Vapestick.
As for appearing on the big screen, this seems a little slower. I can only remember seeing Johnny Depp using an e cigarette in ’The Tourist’. As can be seen he was pictured puffing away on the train in the company of Angelina Jolie.
With indoor and outdoor smoking bans, surely it is just a matter of time before more movies make use of electronic cigarettes.
