Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Broadway

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

One of the leading destinations for live stage performances is Broadway.  The term Broadway, derived from the street in New York City, is not just a name. It's a rich history of notable theaters and a style of performance that has become synonymous with it.  But why did theater develop on that particular street in that particular city, what divides Broadway from off-Broaday, and how exactly does Broadway work as a business? Learn more about Broadway, its history, and how it functions as a business on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond at your local store. Find out more at heavenhilldistillery.com/hh-bottled-in-bond.php Sign up today at butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Visit BetterHelp.com/everywhere today to get 10% off your first month. Use the code EverythingEverywhere for a 20% discount on a subscription at Newspapers.com. Visit meminto.com and get 15% off with code EED15.  Listen to Expedition Unknown wherever you get your podcasts.  Get started with a $13 trial set for just $3 at harrys.com/EVERYTHING. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Ben Long & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the leading destinations for live-stage performances is Broadway. The term Broadway isn't just a name that refers to theater in New York. It also describes a theatrical performance style that's become synonymous with it. But why did theater develop on that particular street in that particular city? What divides Broadway from off-Broadway, and how exactly does Broadway work as a business? Learn more about Broadway, its history, and how it functions on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. if your perceptions about the past were wrong. ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Acting and live performances go way back in history. Theaters and plays were performed in ancient Greece at least 2,500 years ago, tradition that was later taken to Rome. Theater in the form of Chinese operas was performed at least 3,000 years ago, and dramatic Sanskrit plays were performed in India about 3,500 years ago. There were many different types of performances.

Sometimes they were ways of retelling historical stories. Some were musicals, some were comedies, and other times they were biting social commentary. The theater has existed in some form or another in most civilizations throughout recorded history. So it should come as no surprise that, theater came along when people started migrating to North America. When the Dutch founded the settlement of New Amsterdam, it was largely settled by devout Protestants who had no need for such frivolities as theater.

When the British later took over, they had a more relaxed attitude towards theater and entertainment. The primary leisure activity at the time was drinking alcohol. The first theatrical performance in New York may have taken place at one of the first coffee houses in the city, the King's Arms, which opened in 1696. It was located just south of the Trinity Church on Broadway, close to Wall Street. In 1732, a troop of actors from London came to New York and performed in an unoccupied second floor of a building at the intersection of Maiden Lane and Pearl Street. Their first performance, which is believed to be the first professional theatrical performance in the city, took place on December 6, 1732, and the play was called the Recruiting Officer.

And this wasn't really a theater per se. It was just some empty space in a building. The first professional theater in New York built for theatrical purposes is believed to have been the theater on Nassau Street built in 1750. It was a two-story wooden building that sat 280 people. Their first performance was Richard III, and they later performed the first musical, The Beggars Opera. During the Revolutionary War, the British who occupied New York

suspended all theatrical performances. After the war when the British left, New York briefly became the capital of the New United States. There are records of George Washington attending theater while he was president. The first theater that could be called a proper Broadway theater was the Park Theater built in 1798. It seated 2,000 people with different sections for different people of social classes. Prices range from 25 cents for the cheap seats up to $1 for the elite boxes. It was located across, from what is today's city hall park just off of Broadway.

Here, I should briefly describe what Broadway, the street, actually is. Broadway is the oldest north-south thoroughfare in the city of New York. It was built in what was formerly a trail used by Native Americans on the island. It extends for 13 miles in the city, starting in lower Manhattan and crossing into the Bronx. And it actually keeps going outside of New York City for quite a while, running alongside the Hudson River, eventually becoming New York State. Highway 9. The name Broadway comes from the Dutch word Breedeweig, which means Broad Street. Broadway is technically classified as a street in New York City, not an avenue, but it's not

labeled as such. It is not known as Broadway Street, just Broadway. For the purposes of this episode, it is one of, if not the most important street in New York, and where it intersects with 7th Avenue and 42nd Street, it forms Times Square, which is the heart of New York City. As New York rapidly grew in the 19th century, more theaters were built. The next major theater was the Bowery Theater built in 1826, which sat 3,500 people. The entertainment center of the city migrated from downtown to uptown around 1850, moving from the area around Union Square to Madison Square.

As the city grew, Broadway, the street became more important, and it was a natural magnet for buildings such as theaters that attracted large audiences. The association of the word Broadway with theater and not just the name of a street began after the Civil War. In 1866, what is considered to be the first modern musical was produced, The Black Crook. It first premiered at the 3,200-seat Niblo's Garden Theater on Broadway. Around this time, the first performances began to go on tour outside of New York. When they performed in other cities, they often used the phrase,

direct from Broadway in their promotions. Throughout the 19th century, theaters kept moving up Broadway until around the year 1900 when the center of activity became Times Square. Theaters started to become big business in New York. There were dozens of theaters located on or near Broadway. Broadway theaters began installing lights on their marquees to get the public's attention. Because colored bulbs burned out too quickly, they only used white lights. By 1904, the term Great White Way had appeared in the New York Times to describe the spectacle. Shows began to have extended runs, which would sometimes last for years. Previously, almost all performances had rather limited runs lasting for weeks or months.

The first Broadway show to have 1,000 performances was Lightning, which was first performed in 1918. The 1920s ushered in the first golden age of Broadway. The period was largely driven by competition from motion pitchers. Previously, live performances were the only entertainment game in town. Now, theaters had to compete against cinemas that were showing pre-recorded content that only had to be performed once. With pressure for movies, stage productions became more elaborate and expensive. Cheaper vaudeville productions eventually died out and were replaced by larger spectacles,

pop songs, and celebrities. The biggest name in these stage spectacles was probably Florin Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld produced a series of reviews from 190. 7 to 1931, known as Ziegfeld's Follies. The Ziggfeld Follies didn't have a plot or a storyline. Many of the biggest celebrities of the day would appear on stage for limited runs, such as WC. Fields, Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Josephine Baker, and Fanny Bryce. The show was also famous for its numerous beautiful chorus girls.

They would often wear elaborate costumes combined with dance routines. Productions like the Ziegfeld Follies were not the only type of stage performance, however. There were shows like Showboat and Hamilton, which were more standard musicals or plays. 1930 saw the establishment of the Broadway League. The Broadway League began as a group of theater owners trying to combat ticket scalping, but it soon grew into a full trade association for the Broadway theater industry. By 1938, it became the industry group that negotiated with unions that worked on Broadway productions, including Actors' Equity, which was founded in 1913.

The Great Depression and the Second World War did serious harm to Broadway, but it managed to survive. The post-war era saw another golden age of Broadway. Many of the classic musicals you're probably familiar with came out in the 1940s and 1950s. This period is widely considered to have begun with the release of Oklahoma in 1943. And there were several musicals from Rogers and Hammerstein, which were all hits during this period, including Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and the Sound of Music. This period also saw the production of plays written by the likes of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.

The 1960s saw the start of the decline in Broadway productions, which had to do with the rise of television and the decline of the theater district around Times Square. By the 1970s, Times Square was considered to be a dirty and unsafe neighborhood that you would not want to bring families to. In the early 1980s, there was concern that many Broadway theaters would be sold to real estate developers and torn down. However, a revitalization program in the theater district and Times Square cleaned up the neighborhood,

which helped usher in a resurgence in Broadway with productions like Cats, Miss Saigon, and Phantom of the Opera. In the 21st century, one of the big trends has been to create productions based on movies or recording artists, and these shows tend to be popular with tourists to New York who are already familiar with the work. Today, Broadway productions have become a major industry. For starters, a Broadway show has a very particular meaning. I've been using the term rather generically, but there is a very specific definition of what Broadway means. A Broadway show is any show that performs at one of 41 theaters in New York City,

all of which are located in Midtown Manhattan. All of the theaters can see at least 500 people, but none of them can seat more than 2,000. If you are not one of the 41 theaters listed, then you are an off-brought. Broadway production. And this is kind of similar to London's West End, which is the London Theatre District, which has 39 specific theaters. In the 2022-2020 theater season, Broadway performances had a total revenue of $1.577 billion. That represented a total attendance of 12.2 million

people, which means that the average ticket price for a Broadway performance was $12.43. Generally speaking, a Broadway show will cost less to produce than an average Hollywood movie. The average production cost of a Broadway musical can run from $10 to $20 million, and a play can run between $3 to $5 million. However, there's a lot of variance in those numbers. A one-person play can have an extremely simple set, few costume changes, and a small crew. On the other extreme, shows with extremely elaborate sets and large cast can cost much, much more. The most expensive Broadway shown history is believed to have been Spider-Man turn off the dark, which cost $75 million to produce.

Despite setting the single week record for ticket sales, it ultimately closed after a run of about 18 months, having taken massive losses. Some successful Broadway productions will create a touring production in addition to the production in New York. For example, at the time I am recording this podcast, a production of Hamilton is being run on Broadway, another one is being run in London's West End, and there are two different touring productions. However, there have been as many as six different touring versions, and there were also runs in Hamburg, Germany, Chicago, and Australia. The Broadway League, which I previously mentioned, is also the organization behind the Tony Awards.

The Tony Awards are officially known as the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theater. Antoinette Perry was an actress who lived from 1888 to 1946 and was the co-founder, of the American Theater Wing. Her nickname was Tony, and the nickname became attached to the awards. The awards were first given out in 1947 and have been given out subsequently every year. For a show to be eligible for the major awards, it has to have been a new production or a new revival that opened during that year's theater season and appeared at one of the 41 Broadway theaters. The cutoff date is usually somewhere in April. Even though some stage productions, on for years, they are only eligible for a Tony Award in the year that they were opened.

However, if a new show has been revived, then they are eligible for the Best Revival category for a Play or Musical. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller won Best Play in 1949, and then subsequently won Best Revival in 1984, 1999, and 2012. The show with the most Tony Award nominations was Hamilton, which received 16 nominations and 13 categories in 2016 and ended up winning 11. The most awards ever won by a production was for the producers which won 12 awards in 2001. The actor with the most competitive Tony Award wins is Audra McDonald, who has won six Tony Awards.

While in a general sense, Broadway shows can be appreciated almost anywhere in the world. Technically, if you want to go see a Broadway show, there is only one place where you can go see it. In New York City. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Ben Long and Cameron Kiefer. Today's review comes from listener, Not Tom Selleck on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, The Best. I recently discovered this podcast, and I'm hooked, digging into the back catalog

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