Yesterday, I talked about our interest in the lives of the people who came before us. The history. And therein, I mentioned Alexander Hamilton.
Of course, these days, and most days since August 5, 2015, when I hear “Hamilton,” I think of the widely successful musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda. That performance is still running on Broadway today. It is one of my all-time favorite plays, and when the original first aired on Disney Plus, I couldn’t get enough of it. The King George song, “You’ll Be Back,” was wonderful beyond words. Along with countless others.
Oh, the lights and sounds of Broadway. I’ve been to several great plays on the place once called “The Great White Way.” The Theatre District was one of the first streets in New York to be fully illuminated by white electric bulbs in the 1890s, thus giving Broadway the nickname. You don’t hear the phrase much these days for obvious reasons.
Each day, a myriad of amazing plays grace the theaters of Broadway. But perhaps they should have named it Longway. Broadway is the longest street in NYC. It runs for 33 whole miles. Of those, 18 miles are not even within New York City limits. It begins from Lower Manhattan at Bowling Green and runs north to the Bronx all the way to Albany. Not only is it long, it is old. Broadway is one of the oldest North-South thoroughfares in New York City.
Speaking of long, The Phantom of the Opera was the longest-running show. It opened in 1988 and continued running until 2023, when it recently closed, for good, on April 16. The second longest-running show is Chicago.
But, show me the money because Disney’s Lion King is Broadway’s biggest money-maker in Broadway’s history. In the 20 years it has run on Broadway, the show has grossed $1.4 billion. Roar, big kitty. That is an average of $2 million a week. Hakuna Matata, I’ll say. On a personal note. I cried when I saw the opening act of The Lion King. Cried and cried because I was so overwhelmed by the magnificence.
Okay. So, I mentioned the length of the street, but here is the deal. Broadway itself, is short on theaters. There are 41 Broadway Theaters in New York, but despite the title, only four theaters are actually located on Broadway Street. Those four are The Winter Garden, The Roundabout, The Marquis, and The Broadway Theatre.
So. What exactly is Broadway then? To qualify as a Broadway theater it has to meet these specs: “The theater must have 500 seats and must be located between 40th Street to 54th Street, and from West of 6th Avenue to East of Eighth Avenue, including Times Square. The rest of the theaters that house between 99 and 499 seats are called Off-Broadway.” So, 500 seats within bounds.
Truthfully, I’ve never noticed much about the theaters I’ve been in. I could not tell you the name of a single one. But I know the plays.
My favorite show, without a doubt, is Wicked.
I laughed the hardest at Avenue Q. And the best overall fun was had at The Book of Mormon.
We always try to get good seats too. Though, during our first trip to The Lion King, we had miserable seats. Nonetheless, many people do not know that there is no ‘I’ in Broadway. There’s more to it than the spelling of the word. If you go to a show, you will find rows A-H and J-Z. But there isn’t a row ‘I .’ Early on, too many people got disappointed when they realized their row ‘1’ was actually the letter “I.” So, to avoid further confusion, the row “I” was taken out of the Broadway alphabet.
So, a little trip to the Big Apple and the wonderful world of Broadway.
As George Benson sings: “I won’t quit til I’m a star on Broadway…”
A star attendee, in my case.
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Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
— Theodore Roosevelt
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There is room in the heart for all the affections, as there is room in heaven for all the stars.
— Victor Hugo
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For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
— Vincent Van Gogh
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The big lights of the big, big show
