Facts About Broadway Shows
Broadway shows are massive productions full of song, dance and special effects that attract millions of theatergoers each year. The term "Broadway" refers to a collection of professional theaters in the Theater District of New York. There's a wide variety of interesting facts about Broadway shows.
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The Schedule
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Generally, shows with open-ended runs all operate on the same schedule. The shows have evening performances from Tuesday to Saturday. There also are matinee performances at 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Actors in these shows regard Sunday to Tuesday as their weekend break.
Runs
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Broadway plays have no set run times. Instead, the plays run as long as they are popular and are making enough money to keep any investors happy.
On Jan. 9, 2006, "The Phantom of the Opera" became the longest-running show, with 7,486 performances since 1988.
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Audience
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Every season, approximately 12.5 million people attend Broadway shows. The primary audience for Broadway is tourists.
Theaters
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There are 40 Broadway theaters, 39 of them in the theater district of New York. Each is one of the largest theaters in the nation, seating at least 500 people.
Awards
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Every June, Broadway actors and productions are honored at the Antoinette Perry Awards. These Tony awards are the most prestigious awards available for live theater, and their importance has risen since the introduction of TV, as famous celebrities often host the awards show.
Lighting
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The Broadway show "Beauty and the Beast" uses enough lighting instruments on set to light a small football stadium.
There are more than 350 lighting cues called by the stage manager each performance; this means that since opening night there have been more than 1.4 million lighting cues.
Production
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A lot of work is put in behind the scenes of Broadway shows. For "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway, each show involves 130 cast, crew and orchestra members.
Each production includes 230 costumes, 14 dressers, 120 automated cues, 22 scene changes, 281 candles, more than 500 pounds of dry ice, and 10 smoke and fog machines.
The production requires 27 articulated trucks to move the sets between each theater.
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References
- Photo Credit curtain call image by mrslevite from Fotolia.com
