people. I am standing on the corner of W 47th street and Broadway, standing in front of a Starbucks. I should probably find a hotel.. I pull my phone out of my pocket and pull up google maps. I find the Night Time Square right down the road just past 7th Ave is only about $88 a night, so I grip the straps of my backpack and start walking. I walk past the Phantom of Broadway store and take a quick peek inside and notice all of the broadway shirts and other things, I make a mental note to stop…
This report determined that 85% of actors in these theatres were white, 9% were African American, 2% were Latino, 3% were Asian American, and 1% was recorded as other. Nine years later diversity has increased. The AAPAC report for the 2014 to 2015 year reports 70% of actors in Broadway and non-profit theaters were white, 17% were African American, 3% were Latino, 9% were Asian American, and 1% were other (Bandhu). While…
The Manhattan Theatre Club is an extremely prestigious acting company that works both on and off Broadway in New York City. In my interview conducted over the phone with the Assistant Education Director, Amy Harris, I was able to gather a substantial amount of information about the company, like how it functions and how to get a job with the company. The Manhattan Theatre Club started as an Off-Off Broadway company and since 1970 has grown into one of the most acclaimed theatre organizations in…
the modern, which I refer to as the theatre price paradox, where the intended audience (the common man) does not attend plays originally written for their empowerment and benefit due to a lack of financial resources. This paradox still exists in contemporary times, as the high costs of tickets to today’s major Broadway shows make access difficult for most people. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway musical, Hamilton, stands as a prime example of this theatre price paradox, as the show preaches…
along with the names of three of his friends who had died of AIDS, in the support group scene. Larson’s lifelong goal was to combine the Broadway tradition with contemporary pop music, a very difficult task at which many before him had failed. After seven years of workshops and re-writes, the show was scheduled to open in previews off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, on January 25, 1996. But Larson had been feeling ill. He’d been to two hospitals; one diagnosed him with food poisoning, the…
is the hottest musical to hit broadway in decades. It dominated the Tony awards and is completely sold out in every venue for the foreseeable future. This is an American story told in the American medium of the musical and features a diverse American cast. Hamilton is a nearly all black cast. Founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are played by black actors. These past few years have been celebrated as the best time for minority actors in Broadway history. “Tonys made…
Robin sings to King Arthur; “In any great adventure, if you don 't want to lose ... you won 't succeed on Broadway if you don 't have any Jews!" (PBS, Broadway Musicals). If you can look past the sweeping generalization, Sir Robin’s surprising lyric turns out to be very true about musicals. Historians have recognized that Jewish immigrant culture heavily influenced the content of musical theatre when it was popularized in America during the early twentieth century. But in turn, it was the…
what Tin Pan Alley was, and its importance in the rise of musical theatre composers. According to a story told by Harry Von Tilzer whose office was located on West 28th street, described that area as a place where pianos were being played could be heard clanging and banging like someone was beating a tin pan, so that where the name Tin Pan Alley arose from. Tin Pan Alley was very important in terms of the rise of musical theatre composers because composers realized that by exposing numerous…
April 29th 1996, Broadway’s Nederland theatre is sold out to capacity and the audience is gritting their teeth with excitement, but an overture is nowhere to be heard, the curtains are missing and the haphazardly placed lighting rigs have not yet dimmed. All at once, the stage erupts with cast members running in-between and out of the industrial themed set, a strum of a guitar is heard and a critically acclaimed overnight sensation is born in the image of Jonathon Larson. Adapted from the…
Stilgoe also wrote the musical's book together. The musical opened in London's West End in 1986, and on Broadway in 1988. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. It is the longest running show in Broadway history by a wide margin, and celebrated its 10,000th Broadway performance on 11 February 2012, the first production ever to do…