Features

On Broadway

by Matt Kizer

Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay (September 15, 1889 – May 22, 1948)

Festus Claudius “Claude” McKay (September 15, 1889 – May 22, 1948)

About me young careless feet
Linger along the garish street;
Above, a hundred shouting signs
Shed down their bright fantastic glow
Upon the merry crowd and lines
Of moving carriages below.
Oh wonderful is Broadway — only
My heart, my heart is lonely.

Desire naked, linked with Passion,
Goes trutting by in brazen fashion;
From playhouse, cabaret and inn
The rainbow lights of Broadway blaze
All gay without, all glad within;
As in a dream I stand and gaze
At Broadway, shining Broadway — only
My heart, my heart is lonely.

Quotable

by Matt Kizer

    • Orson_WellesI want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the theater meaning:  when it becomes a social act.

      – Orson Welles

    • 460px-Walter_Winchell_1960Broadway is a main artery of New York life – the hardened artery.

      – Walter Winchell

Quotable

by Matt Kizer

  • robert_wilson-croppedTo me, what is important in the theater is that we don’t want to make a conclusion. We don’t want to make a statement, don’t want to say what something is. We want to ask, ‘What is it?’

    – Robert Wilson

  • Tallulah_Bankhead_1941If you really want to help the American theater, don’t be an actress, dahling. Be an audience.

    – Tallulah Bankhead

Poetry

by Matt Kizer

Early Times Square

New York Haiku

“Excited tourists
stop and stare, awed by Times Square –
forget they have feet.”

Madeleine Begun Kane

 

And Yet Another

“I am willing to give you a show,
But are these all the rôles that you know?”
The manager cried.
And the actor replied,
“Sirrah! No, sir; I know ‘Cyrano’!”

Carolyn Wells

 

 

Broadway Snark

by Matt Kizer

Poster for Abie's Irish Rose

Poster for Abie's Irish Rose
Poster for Abie’s Irish Rose
Abie’s Irish Rose was a Broadway comedy by Anne Nichols.  It enjoyed a special combination of fame and notoriety that few shows manage to reach.  The show was about an Irish Catholic girl and a young Jewish man.   They get married over the objections of both of their families, with a lot of drama.

 It opened on May 23, 1922, and ran for 2327 performances, closing over five years later.     At the time, that was the longest run in Broadway history.

It must have been a great show.

 

But not according to the critics.

Robert Benchley
Robert Benchley
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Andronicus Roll-Ups

by Matt Kizer

Illustration of the death of Chiron and Demetrius from Act 5, Scene 2; from The Works of Mr. William Shakespeare, edited by Nicholas Rowe (1709)

Illustration of the death of Chiron and Demetrius from Act 5, Scene 2; from The Works of Mr. William Shakespeare, edited by Nicholas Rowe (1709)

[I was] on stage in “The Beard of Avon,” a farce.  I was playing the role of the boy player, Geoffrey dunderbread.  It was a short scene from a rehearsal of Titus.    My mouth was shoved full of fruit roll ups, which was to be my tongue [soon to be cut out] (I wanted steak, but whatever).

 
I waited on stage, by myself, on my knees, mouth full of fruit roll ups, unable to talk, for approximately 4-6 minutes on opening night, due to [another] actor missing an entrance that started the scene.  

 

Never have my ears been so hot.

 

 – Eric St. Cyr,  with Yellow Taxi Productions, New Hampshire

 

Subways are for Sleeping

by Matt Kizer

"7 out of 7 are ecstatically unanimous about Subways are for Sleeping." Howard Taubman: "One of the few great musical comedies of the last thirty years, one of the best of our time. It lends lustre to this or any other Broadway season." Walter Kerr: "What a show! What a hit! What a solid hit! If you want to be overjoyed, spend an evening with 'Subways are for Sleeping.' A triumph." John chapman "No doubt about it. 'Subways are for Sleeping' is the best musical of the century. Consider yourself lucky if you can buy or steal a ticket for 'Subways are for Sleeping' over the next few years." John McClain: "A fabulous musical. I love it. Sooner or later, everyone will have to see 'Subways are for Sleeping'." Richard Watts: "A knockout, from start to finish. The musical you've been waiting for. It deserves to run for a decade." Norman Nadel: "A whopping hit. Run, don't walk to the St. James Theatre. It's in that rare class of great musicals. Quite simply, it has everything." Robert Coleman: "A great musical All the ingredients are there. As fine a piece of work as our stage can be asked to give us."

It was January of 1962.   The Broadway production of Subways are for Sleeping at the St. James Theatre was getting weak reviews.   Ticket revenues were low, and in need of some magic.

Producer David Merrick had a trick up his sleeve that he had been saving for several years.    He spent some time making some interesting arrangements, and then prepared the following advertisement for every major New York newspaper.  

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