BROADWAY

The 77th Tony Awards were announced last night.  From Lincoln Center and hosted by Ariana DeBose.  The winners....and most memorable moments.  We were in the middle of Broadway a month ago, and would have gone to see a couple of them had we known in advance these results.  I'll mention only one show, Merrily We Roll Along.

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  Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
• First premiered on Broadway in 1981, directed by Hal Prince.  Totally flopped, and closed after only 16 performances.
• Returned in 2023, starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez.  Won four Tonys, with both Radcliffe and victorious in their slot.

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  This the song from the show:  Merrily We Roll Along.
• Of course, there is the more traditional nursery song, also called Merrily We Roll Along, written in 1935 by Charlie Tobias, Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor.  Was used as the theme song of Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes.
• A film adaptation of this latest Broadway show is in development.

You will be shocked to learn when Broadway first opened:

• The first theater on Broadway opened in 1750, before we became a country.
• However, the Revolutionary War and related problems suspended activity until 1798.
• First Broadway musical was The Elves in 1857.
• By the way, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, but in the Peterson House, Washington, DC.

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  In New York City, elder brother Edwin, was a Broadway actor. 
• The second musical, The Black Crook, opened in 1866, was 5.5 hours long and ran for 474 performances.

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  Edwin Booth opened his own theater on 23rd Street and 6th Avenue in 1869, not to be confused with the second Booth Theater on 222 W. 45th Street, which was named for Edwin, and still operates today.
• Gilbert and Sullivan operetta hits began in 1878.

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  Lillian Russell performed in the first vaudeville theater one block east of Union Square in 1881.
• During this period, prostitution hindered attendance, plus transportation was poor and lack of street lighting made night travel dangerous.
• John Phillip Sousa's El Capitan played in 1896.
• Babes in Toyland in 1903 and Naughty Marietta in 1910.

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  Around this time, it was found that colored lights burned out too quickly, so white bulbs were used.  Thus Broadway was nicknamed The Great White Way.

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  By the end of the 20's, motion pictures mounted a challenge.  The Jazz Singer in 1927 had synchronized sound.  Watch this whole Al Jolson film.
• Time for the Roaring Twenties.
• George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml musicals became popular.
• Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat premiered in 1927.  At least half a dozen revivals since then.

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  There was a silent Show Boat (this is the whole) film in 1929, and a second in 1936, starring Irene Dunne, Alan Jones and  Paul Robeson.  Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it a 100% rating.
• The most popular was the 1951 color Show Boat, with Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel and Ava Gardner.  Only 83% from Rotten Tomatoes.
• Florenz Ziegfeld productions were popular.

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  In the early 1930's, Lightin' became the first to reach 1,000 performances.
• The Great Depression was a down period for Broadway.
• While World War II curtailed performances, Oklahoma! arrived in 1943 and ran for 2,212 performances.  
• To this day, musicals form the core of Broadway.
• There was a decline in the 1960s into the 1970s, partly due to a worsening of the area.
• But there was a resurgence in the early 1980s and the area was preserved.
• Broadway closed on 12March2020, and reopened in September of 2021.

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  Theater goers had to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination.  Masks were required.

• First to return was Springsteen on Broadway at the St. James Theatre for a 236-show run.

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  On 9January2006 The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater became the longest-running musical with 7,486, overtaking Cats, finally closing on 16April2023 after celebrating its 35th anniversary and a total of 13,981 performances.
• TKTS located in Times Square (plus Lower Manhattan and Lincoln Center) have discounts of 20% to 50%.  There is now a competitor across the street at the Times Square booth.  Of course, there are online options.

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  There are now 41 Broadway theaters, most around Times Square, but only three on Broadway street.
• Before the pandemic, total attendance in one year was close to 15 million, with grosses of nearly $2 billion.
• With a few exceptions, there are evening performances from Tuesday through Saturday, afternoon matinées on Wednesday and Saturday at 2PM, and 3PM on Sundays.  Monday is mostly dark.

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  Prices?
• In 1980 the price was less than $20/seat (actually, equivalent to $67 today).
• The average today is $128.
• There is a Museum of Broadway on West 45th Street.

I end with A Beautiful Noise, for this is the only musical we saw on our recent stop in New York City, and will close at the end of this month.  Here is opening night, and the shocker at the end was Neil Diamond himself singing Sweet Caroline.  He retired six years ago, suffering from Parkinson's and is, like me, 83 years old.

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