What’s HOT on Broadway? |
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StubDog.com :: Event Information And Articles :: What’s HOT on Broadway?
Broadway, as the name implies, is a wide avenue in New York City, which runs the full length of Manhattan and continues into the Bronx. It is the oldest north-south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to the first New Amsterdam settlement. The name Broadway is the English literal translation of the Dutch name, Brede weg. A stretch of Broadway is famous as the pinnacle of the American theater industry: 43 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District in Manhattan, New York City. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.
New York did not have a significant theatre presence until about 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theater company at the Theatre on Nassau Street, which held about 280 people. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed, and in 1798, the 2,000-seat Park Theatre was built on Chatham Street (now called Park Row). The Bowery Theater opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, and especially so with the arrival of the Virginia Minstrels in the 1840s. Theater in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate prices. In 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theaters were near Madison Square. Theaters did not arrive in the Times Square area until the early 1900s, and the Broadway theaters did not consolidate there until a large number of theaters were built around the square in the 1920s and 1930s. Broadway's first "long-run" musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857. New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keene's "musical burletta" Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keene's troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, D.C. that Abraham Lincoln was shot. Charles Hoyt's A Trip to Chinatown (1891) became Broadway's long-run champion, holding the stage for 657 performances. This would not be surpassed until Irene in 1919. In 1896, theatre owners Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger formed the Theatrical Syndicate, which controlled almost every legitimate theatre in the U.S. for the next sixteen years. However, smaller vaudeville and variety houses proliferated, and Off-Broadway was well established by the end of the 19th century. Today’s Broadway sales approximately billion dollars worth of tickets yearly and is one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in NYC and all US.
The American Theatre Wing's annual Antoinette Perry Awards For Excellence In Theatre—the Tony Awards to you—have been spotlight the cream of the theatrical crop since 1947, a yearly event that is itself a show-stopping culmination of each Broadway season. The winners of each year's Tony Awards are the absolute pinnacle of Broadway. At last the waiting is over, and after all the excitement of the most glamorous night on Broadway the winners of the 2009 Tony Awards have been announced. Billy Elliot, The Musical danced away with top theater honors on Sunday, winning 10 Tony Awards out of 15 nominations for a Broadway season that defied a recession with record ticket sales.
What’s hot in 2009/10 season? A host of Hollywood stars will light up Broadway stages in 2009. The celebrity-studded fall season begins in September with A Steady Rain, starring 007 actors Daniel Craig and the X-Men’s Hugh Jackman. Soon after, Hamlet will open with Jude Law. And following that is Sienna Miller’s Broadway debut in After Miss Julie; Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman in Oleanna; and James Spader in Race. Billy is still the name on everybody's lips. Don't miss the heart-warming tale of triumph over adversity of one young boy's dream to dance at the Imperial Theater. The newly renovated Henry Miller's Theatre returns with a blast from the past - the late '50s, dominated by the Elvis-inspired Conrad Birdie, who's been drafted into the Army. Performances of Bye Bye Birdie begin on the 10th September. The acclaimed Off Broadway production of Fela! will transfer to the Eugene O'Neill Theater with the first preview scheduled for the 19th October and opening night for the 23rd November. Directed by Bill T. Jones Fela! explores the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Others not to be missed are Burn the Floor, a dance spectacular created by world-renowned dancer Gilkison - Opening on the 2nd August. Carrie Fisher entertains with stories of her life and times as a Hollywood legend in her autobiographical show; Wishful Drinking. Previews from the 22 September. A music-loving mixed-race couple struggles to survive during the early Civil Rights era in Memphis which previews at the Sam S. Shubert Theater on the 23 September. The Royal Family, A comedy of manners opens at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on the 8th October.
