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41 unusual facts about Broadway Theatre


Audience

In The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a Broadway theatre musical based on Charles Dickens's last, unfinished work, the audience must vote for whom they think the murderer is, as well as the real identity of the detective and the couple who end up together.

Berkley, Virginia

Peggy Hopkins Joyce (May 26, 1893–June 12, 1957), often-married Broadway actress and New York City socialite, was born in Berkley.

Carolyn George

She started her professional dance career in 1952 in Broadway musicals and joined New York City Ballet (NYCB) on its European tour that year in George Balanchine's Swan Lake.

David Rapkin

Rapkin has designed sound on Broadway for Steaming by Nell Dunn, On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson, The Curse Of An Aching Heart by William Alfred, The Wake Of Jamie Foster by Beth Henley and Off-Broadway for Playwrights Horizons and The Phoenix Theater.

Dick Kleiner

Kleiner wrote about Broadway for fifteen years, then switched to covering Hollywood in 1964.

Dorothy Otnow Lewis

In 2004 Lewis alleged that British playwright Bryony Lavery's hit Broadway play Frozen, particularly the character of 'Agnetha', a psychiatrist sent to evaluate a serial killer, was based on thematic similarities with her book Guilty by Reason of Insanity and verbatim extracts from a New Yorker article about her by Malcolm Gladwell.

Ed Grimley

Ed Grimley made a brief onstage appearance, triangle in hand, in the 2006 Broadway show Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.

Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars

As an exploitation film tie in, Universal had the feature's title changed to Mars Attacks the World, and a week after the Welles broadcast, opened it at a Broadway theater as a major premiere event.

Franklyn MacCormack

In contrast to the primary sports-and-talk formats of WBBM and WGN, MacCormack read romantic and sentimental poetry and played classical, big band and Broadway music.

Gordon Clapp

On Broadway, he most recently appeared in the revival of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross, where he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play.

Harley Venton

While still appearing on Guiding Light he was also a standby for the roles of Lloyd Barnett and Doc Porter in the original Broadway production of Crimes Of The Heart.

Harry Reser

Reser remained active in music for the rest of his life, leading TV studio orchestras and playing with Broadway theatre orchestras.

Holly Cruikshank

She is known for her role as Brenda in the Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp musical Movin' Out, and has also danced lead roles in two other Tony-award winning Broadway musicals: Fosse and Contact.

I Guess I'll Miss the Man

The song has appeared in the musical Pippin since its original Broadway introduction in 1972 (as it was partially financed by Motown at the time), and is sung by the show's character Catherine.

Imogen Carpenter

Imogen Carpenter, born Mary Imogene Carpenter on February 2, 1912 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, died March 24, 1993 in Los Angeles California, was a musician, composer, music lecturer, and Broadway actress.

Ismael Cruz Córdova

Ismael Enrique Cruz Cordova (born April 7, 1987, Puerto Rico), known by his stage name Ismael Cruz Córdova is a Broadway, television, stage and film actor who gained national attention playing Mando on Sesame Street.

Jeffrey King

The character was introduced in 2013 and the role was originated by Disney and Broadway star, Corbin Bleu.

Jennifer Nettles

In an interview on Fox News with Martha MacCullum, Nettles expressed interest in appearing in a Broadway play, stating in particular that she would like to play the role of Elphaba in Wicked.

John Murray Anderson

He made his Broadway debut wearing three hats, as writer, director, and producer of The Greenwich Village Follies in 1919.

Kenneth Thorpe Rowe

According to an article in Michigan Today, Rowe helped Arthur Miller in making his first steps in Broadway by connecting him with people Rowe knew personally in the theater world.

Lauren Lucas

Lucas also contributed to the Broadway adaptation of the film Urban Cowboy, and one of her cuts for the play was nominated for a Tony award.

Max Stafford-Clark

He returned to work and directed the production of The Overwhelming on Broadway in October 2007, as well as continuing to direct for Out of Joint.

Monster Mini Golf

Patrick was the founder of a sound/lighting/theatrical production company that provided sound and lighting for numerous Broadway theater productions and large concert tours.

MS Liberty of the Seas

Features include 3D Movies, Passenger service kiosks, DreamWorks experience, Cupcake Cupboard, Royal Babies, Tot's Nursery, An over-sized outdoor video screen in the main pool area, and the addition of Broadway show "Saturday Night Fever: The Musical", Royal Babies and Tot's Nursery are part of a program by Royal Caribbean to improve service to guests traveling with small children.

Munkustrap

Michael Gruber, an alumnus of the Broadway production, was chosen to play Munkustrap in the 1998 Cats movie.

Nobiz Like Shobiz

The horse was given the name Nobiz Like Shobiz by his show business owner Elizabeth J. Valando whose late husband Tommy Valando was a Broadway theatre producer and owner of an important music publishing business.

Remy Zaken

Remy Zaken, born May 9, 1989 in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American stage and television actress, best known as one of the youngest cast members in the Original Broadway production of Spring Awakening at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, playing the role of Thea.

Ricardo Barretto

He also produced and directed a Neil Simon Broadway comedy with major TV talent, and was part of the team that developed the first sitcom project in Brazil, directed by Debbie Allen.

Robert Shaw Chorale

During its existence the Robert Shaw Chorale became arguably the best-known and most widely-respected professional choral organization in the United States, with repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach to folk music and Broadway theatre tunes.

Rose McClendon

Rose McClendon born Rose Virginia Scott McClendon, (August 27, 1884 – July 12, 1936) was a leading African-American Broadway actress of the 1920s.

Summer Shaw

Summer considered asking him to stay,before a heart-to-heart with Sarah,who asked her "what if you landed a part in a Broadway show?" "I'd ask him to come with me" "For him to drop everything to follow your dreams, when you wouldn't let him follow his?"

Tamanend

In 1794, Ann Julia Hatton's tremendously popular "Tammany: The Indian Chief" premiered on Broadway.

Terazije Theatre

Theatre on Terazije (Serbian: Позориште на Теразијама / Pozorište na Terazijama) is a Broadway-style theatre in the Terazije area of Belgrade, Serbia.

The Passions of Girls Aloud

Walsh then went to New York City to practice with a Broadway vocal coach, as well as a coach who helps her act through facial expressions and body language.

Theodor Mommsen

Fellow Nobel Laureate (1925) Bernard Shaw cited Mommsen's interpretation of the last First Consul of the Republic, Julius Caesar, as one of the inspirations for his 1898 (1905 on Broadway) play, Caesar and Cleopatra.

Thomas Coram

The book was adapted into a play by Helen Edmundson, which had its world premiere at the Royal National Theatre in London in November 2005 and recently had a brief run on Broadway.

Tim Greening

In 2006, he reviewed a Britney Spears concert and declared it to have been more "like a big budget Broadway musical than a traditional pop concert."

Tony Meredith

Meredith has been behind the scenes as appearing in films, TV shows and Broadway, including feature film performances in Dance with Me, The Thomas Crown Affair, Let It Be Me and The Last Days of Disco.

United Airlines Flight 624

Among the passengers were Broadway theatre impresario Earl Carroll and his girlfriend, actress Beryl Wallace; Henry L. Jackson, men's fashion editor of Collier's Weekly magazine and co-founder of Esquire Magazine; and Venita Varden Oakie, the former wife of actor Jack Oakie.

William C. Conner

In a 1981 decision later reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a case brought by Harpo Marx's widow Susan Fleming, Conner ruled that the producers of A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine had improperly used the Marx Brothers characters in their Broadway theatre production and that the publicity rights of the comedians, even after their deaths, overrode the First Amendment claims of the show's creators.

Zombie Broadway

It tells the story of a zombie outbreak in New York City that can only be quelled by the song and dance of the Broadway stage.


A Grand Night for Singing

After 41 previews, the Broadway production, directed by Walter Bobbie (who wrote the minimal book linking the tunes) and choreographed by Pamela Sousa, with vocal arrangements by Fred Wells and orchestrations by Michael Gibson and Jonathan Tunick, opened on November 17, 1993 at the Criterion Center Stage Right, where it ran for 52 performances.

Angela Bettis

In addition to her work in film, Bettis also starred in two Broadway productions: The Father in 1996 with Frank Langella, and as Abigail Williams in a 1996 production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible alongside Liam Neeson and Laura Linney.

Arnold Moss

He played Prospero in Margaret Webster's 1945 production of Shakespeare's The Tempest for a combined total of 124 performances, the longest run of the play in Broadway history.

Christopher, Jr.

It was featured on Broadway in October 7, 1895 at the Empire Theater, and starred Maude Adams.

Corey Reynolds

Corey Reynolds (born July 3, 1974) is an American musical theatre, television, and film actor known for originating the role of Seaweed in the Broadway adaptation of Hairspray, and for the TNT crime show The Closer.

Cristin Milioti

Cristin Milioti (born August 16, 1985) is an American actress known for her work in Broadway theatre productions such as That Face, Stunning and the Tony-winning Once.

Donald O'Connor

O'Connor appeared in the short-lived Bring Back Birdie on Broadway in 1981, and continued to make film and television appearances into the 1990s, including the Robin Williams film Toys as the president of a toy-making company.

Edward Buzzell

He appeared on Broadway, and was hired to star in the 1929 film version of George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones with Alice Day.

Erminie

The Broadway, New York production was extraordinarily successful, opening at the Casino Theatre on 10 May 1886 and running for 571 performances.

Florence Mills

Mills became well-known as a result of her role in the successful Broadway musical Shuffle Along (1921) at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre (barely on Broadway), one of the events credited with beginning the Harlem Renaissance, as well acclaimed reviews in London, Paris, Ostend, Liverpool, and other European venues.

Fola La Follette

She appeared on Broadway in such plays as Leo Ditrichstein's Bluffs (1908), Percy MacKaye's The Scarecrow (1911) and the Broadway production of her husband's Tradition.

Frances Scott Fitzgerald

Her show Onward and Upward with the Arts was considered for a Broadway run by director David Merrick.

Franklin J. Schaffner

Schaffner earned two more Emmy awards for his work on the 1955 TV adaptation of the Broadway play, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, shown on the anthology series Ford Star Jubilee.

Gavin Lee

Gavin Lee (born 15 October 1971) is an English actor who starred as Bert on Broadway in the musical Mary Poppins.

Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts

In 2005 the Academy was selected by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization to be the first high school in the United States to perform the long-running Broadway Musical Cats.

Helen Lawson

Lawson is described as having been a very successful Broadway star for many years (Lawson is said to be based on the real-life Broadway actress Ethel Merman).

Here's Love

The Broadway production, directed by Stuart Ostrow and choreographed by Michael Kidd, opened on October 3, 1963 at the Shubert Theatre, and closed on July 25, 1964 after 334 performances and 2 previews.

Howard Rollins

In 1974, he moved to New York where he went on to appear in the Broadway productions of We Interrupt This Program..., in 1975, The Mighty Gents in 1978, and G. R. Point in 1979.

Hugo Winterhalter

At Kapp he recorded a handful of albums including The Best of '64 and its follow-up, The Big Hits of 1965, before leaving the label to work on Broadway.

It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues

It subsequently opened in New York at the New Victory Theater in March 1999 for a limited run, and then transferred to Broadway.

John Pascal

His works included collaboration on the book for the Broadway musical George M!, which was also released on NBC, and on scripts for the ABC Daytime soap opera The Young Marrieds.

Lovely to Look At

Lovely to Look At, an adaptation of the Broadway musical Roberta, is a 1952 MGM musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

Meg Giry

Elisa Heinsohn (opening cast), Catherine Ulissey, Tener Brown, Geralyn Del Corso, Jennifer Dawn Stillings, Joelle Gates, Heather McFadden, and Kara Klein in Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.

Moroni Olsen

After having worked on Broadway he made his film debut in a 1935 adaptation of The Three Musketeers.

Northwest Vocal Project

They perform a wide variety of styles within a cappella music, including traditional barbershop, jazz, Broadway, and light classical.

Ralph Carter

Carter is best known for his work as a child and teenager, both in the Broadway musical Raisin (based on the Lorraine Hansberry drama A Raisin in the Sun) and as the character Michael Evans, the youngest member of the Evans family, on the 1970s sitcom Good Times.

Ray Fulmer

Fulmer first began on Broadway with a role in Auntie Mame, co-starring with a number of different actresses in the lead role, including Rosalind Russell, Greer Garson, Beatrice Lillie and Eve Arden.

Raymond Bailey

He appeared in four Broadway plays, as Howard Haines in Last Stop (1944), playing an unknown man in The Bat (1953), A.J. Alexander in Sing Till Tomorrow (1953), and Captain Randolph Southard in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1954–1955), which starred Henry Fonda.

Samuel E. Wright

Wright was nominated for a Tony Award in 1984 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance in The Tap Dance Kid, and again in 1998 for Best Featured Actor in a Musical as the original lead actor for Mufasa in The Lion King, the Broadway version of Disney's animated classic of the same name.

Shanelle Workman

When she was younger she appeared with fellow soap actress Eden Riegel in the Broadway production of Les Misérables.

Soul of Shaolin

Soul of Shaolin was a theatrical event presented on Broadway by Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment to coincide with the celebration of the Lunar New Year in January 2009.

Susan H. Schulman

In 1998, Schulman had just mounted a well-received Broadway revival of The Sound of Music when she was contacted by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who asked her to adapt a scaled-down production of Sunset Boulevard for a US tour starring Petula Clark.

The 49th Cousin

The work premiered on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre on October 26, 1960 and closed after 102 performances on January 21, 1961.

The Fighting Gamecocks Lead the Way

USC band director James Pritchard obtained a band arrangement of the Elmer Bernstein-penned song "Step to the Rear" from the Broadway musical How Now, Dow Jones in 1968 and the marching band played the song at the first game of the 1968 season.

The French, They Are a Funny Race

He did some work on Broadway, wrote the screenplay for an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's The Millionairess which Katharine Hepburn, who had performed in the play in New York, wanted to get produced, and then came to France where, because he was fluent in French, he was able to write and direct the screenplay for this adaptation of Pierre Daninos popular novel.

The Last Warning

It was adapted from the 1922 Broadway melodrama mystery The Last Warning written by Thomas F. Fallon based on the story The House of Fear by Wadsworth Camp, the father of the writer Madeleine L'Engle.

The Mary Tyler Moore Hour

Moore announced plans to return in a new sitcom in the fall of 1980, but instead turned to Broadway, where she starred in a revival of Whose Life Is It Anyway? (winning a special 1980 Tony Award for her performance of a role originally played by Tom Conti), and then went back to Hollywood, where she played the emotionally crippled mother in the acclaimed film Ordinary People, directed by Robert Redford.

They Just Had to Get Married

The screenplay was written by Gladys Lehman, H.M. Walker, and an uncredited Preston Sturges, based on the Broadway play A Pair of Silk Stockings (1914) by Cyril Harcourt.

To Love You More

Lea Michele performed the song in season 4 finale of the hit TV series Glee as her character Rachel Berry had her final callback for the Broadway revival of Funny Girl.

Tommy Rall

On Broadway he danced to considerable acclaim as "Johnny" in Marc Blitzstein and Joseph Stein's 1959 musical Juno (based on Sean O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock).

Uptown... It's Hot!

It's Hot! was a 1986 Broadway play created, directed, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines.

WBQH

In addition, on Sunday afternoons at 1:00 p.m., Matinee at One played a complete Broadway show soundtrack with an explanation of the plot.

William Pierson

Pierson, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York originally played the role of Marko in the original Broadway production of Stalag 17, and was tapped by director Billy Wilder for the role in the 1953 motion picture production.

WLS-FM

WENR-FM then began simulcasting WLS, and later adopted its own separate programming formats (which included classical and Broadway theatre show tunes) for part of the day.