The Museum of Broadway in New York: The Story Behind the Travel Photos
- Feb 18
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 23
It's time for the NYC Traveler to tour NYC. As much as we travel and as much as we like to travel, New York is our favorite city. And one of the reasons is the easy access to the live theatre genre known as Broadway.
The NYC Traveler at the Museum of Broadway, New York
Two thoughts continually ran through my head as I strode into what would be manna from heaven for live theatre fans. 1, that I could not be a museum curator (that is the thought that is always going through my head when I visit a museum). And 2, How fortunate that I live in New York, that I have such access to a marvelous, unique experience. An experience that people travel from all over the world to see. An experience that I can see almost every week if I wanted to (if I sacrificed other expenses, mind you).
We know that live theatre did not begin in New York City. Live theatre was not invented here. But, if I may be so bold and arrogant, I can state this: like so many other aspects of life and culture, live theatre is most certainly perfected here. Even as new shows are conceived, developed and produced elsewhere, it is in this small area of Manhattan that is the center of live theatre. It is a word that is a street name, a concept, a location, a dream: Broadway.
Broadway is not one theatre: it is a collection of theaters that is located within the Theater District of Manhattan. Although there is a street called Broadway, most of the theaters are located on the side streets. The Theater district is roughly from West 41st Street to 65th Street. After West 53rd Street, there aren't that many theaters. Lincoln Center counts as one of the Broadway theaters and that is at West 65th Street.
There are many artists that aspire to be Broadway performers. There are others who dream of being in the industry: writers, technicians, stage managers, choreographers, dramaturgs, directors, costume designers, set designers, lighting directors, carpenters, etc. If they do not live in New York or the nearby area, it's a goal to try to get here, to work here, to live here.
Those of us who live in New York can take it for granted that Broadway shows are accessible to us and there are those New Yorkers who have never seen a show and who do not care to ever see one. Therefore, they can never understand someone who lives far from New York, or even far from a live theater venue at all and who might dream of being a performer, of seeing a professional show.
Across the United States (and around the world, but I will limit my personal musings to my own country), I have met people who dream of either seeing a Broadway show or performing in one. They take lessons from the time they can walk or talk, stay on social media studying other performers, entering contests, auditioning for every show in school, sending out photos and reels. They may have seen one show in New York in their lifetime and hang onto our every word when we say we have seen more than that. They humble me. They teach me to appreciate the fortunate chance circumstance that not only caused me to be born here but to have parents that loved Broadway and the cultural arts in general.
Like other performing arts genres, Broadway has evolved since the first theater was established in New York in 1750. Of course, Shakespeare was front and center (and he still is, he has not gone out of style). Shakespeare, operas, vaudeville, minstrel shows and other shows were all presented to various economic classes of New Yorkers until someone got the idea of presenting a story with a plot and/or connecting the plot with music.
The location of many of the theaters was further downtown. It's hard to imagine, but real estate up near where the Theater District is now was actually cheaper and that's how some of the theaters came to move to where it is now. Believe it or not, this was all in the mid 1800s. Development in technology and better finances for New Yorkers meant that plays could run later in the day (more transportation and better facilities) and New York's nightlife started to evolved around entertainment such as Broadway.
Like many other performing arts, people thought that live theater would be finished if another genre came along. But film and television did not kill Broadway. Nor did popular music, with artists going on tour. Nor did the sub-genre of shows in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. If anything, Broadway draws those artists to perform in plays and musicals.
In fact, Hollywood and the emergence of popular music began on the East Coast because that's where the actors and song writers were: on Broadway. And when silent films became talkies, Broadway stars became hot commodities. Tin Pan Alley, a little further downtown was the name for the areas where songwriters were, trying to sell their music to people who would promote them simply by singing them, mostly in vaudeville shows (sort of a live radio). People would hear them, buy the sheet music and then sing them at home, at parties, etc. Those songs were also sung on Broadway and in early Hollywood films.
Let's go back to that small town kid who wants to be a star. The journey is not as bleak as the old films may project. While true Broadway is most definitely in Manhattan, the road leading to that road can be anywhere: a school stage, a local theater, that time-honored sub-genre of stock, colleges, even theme parks and cruise lines. All of them look to Broadway to set the standard: acting, singing, dancing, even the musicians in the pit, production values, sets, lighting, costumes. If you want to make it as a stage performer, whether you make it to an actual Broadway stage or not, the level, the quality is the same: it has to be good enough as if you were on Broadway.
And for those of us in the audience? We don't expect anything less and we don't accept anything less. We see a show outside of New York and we immediately have a level in our heads. We appreciate attempts. And while we are snobs about our expectations, we are also realistic. Genuine heartfelt attempts are appreciated. We'll mentally give notes and critiques but we enjoy seeing developing artists. We're snobbish enough to think: we can always saw we knew this artist way back when. It's like seeing a kid in Little League. We'll remember them when.
And when does this arrogant, snobbish training take place? While we are kids. We don't even know we're being schooled to think this way. We had no idea that our music teachers, our dance instructors, our English teachers, our librarians were patrons of Broadway theater. We didn't know that the church musician may have moonlighted as a cabaret pianist, your Saturday dance teacher had an audition earlier in the week, your violin tutor was in the pit on Broadway once upon a time. New York metropolitan area children are exposed to Broadway one way or another, subtly.
We see commercials on TV, placards on the buses and subways, billboards in our neighborhoods, ads on social media. But many of us were taken there, too. If not our parents, then we might have gone with a school trip. Savvy New Yorkers know that the chance of seeing a Broadway show in peace on Wednesday afternoon might be reduced, as you'll share the theater with dozens of students. And that's OK. Unless our parents lived on millionaire row, that was us once upon a time.
We can relate to movies (some based on Broadway shows) that showed New Yorkers trying to make it in show biz because we all know or knew someone like that. Yamil Borges, as Morales or Gene Anthony Ray as Leroy and Irene Cara as Coco resonated with us in A Chorus Line (the film, 1985) and Fame (1980), respectively because they were two local New Yorkers trying to make it on Broadway in those movies. And for better or worse, the scene with Anne Baxter as Eve meeting her subsequent comeuppance, Barbara Bates as Phoebe in All About Eve said it all: I don't care if I ever get home (back to Brooklyn). Phoebe was going to make it on Broadway, just like Eve did, even if she stole it, as Eve tried to do from Bette Davis as Margo.
I was 9 years old when I saw my first Broadway show. At the time, my father had to sit beside me and explain a few of the plot points or what was happening in the play, but he had no doubt that I would be able to follow it in general and enjoy it. My siblings each followed with similar experiences and as adults, we appreciated the financial sacrifice it took for our parents to take us together occasionally to see a show. Most of the shows we saw individually as birthday gifts. We had no idea the magnitude and the significance of seeing a Broadway show.
Of course, as I got older, I appreciated the privilege of living in the NYC metro area, literally a train ride away from one of the most famous areas in the world. As I ventured in the world of the arts and as I have been fortunate to have worked with artists in that world, I came to appreciate the hundreds of people who work to create a show. The most poignant interview I saw did not come from a superstar who won a Tony award, but from the humble usher at one of the theaters who was so glad to get back to work after the Covid-19 pandemic. That person honestly believed they were part of the Broadway experience and they were feeling badly about the people who had been denied to see a show, those from out of town who saved up their precious dollars just so see a Broadway show for maybe only once in their life. They felt honored to be part of that person's dream. I was humbled. Instead of being arrogant (humph, I can see a show anytime I want), I need to be grateful (wow, I honestly can use a discount I may have or decide at the last minute that I can see a show anytime I want).
The Museum of Broadway does a magnificent job of telling the story of the Broadway genre and wisely divided its presentation in two major areas: in a timeline historical, chronological presentation and categorically (all of the aspects of a show). Seeing the timeline Broadway decade by decade helps one to see the genre in perspective to history, in general, particularly American history. And seeing the categories from writer to the stage door security guard, helps one to understand that while you may see a performer onstage, it truly takes a village to raise up a show.
This museum should be a required course for everyone who wants to be connected to a Broadway show.
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