Broadway (Broadway), originally meaning "wide street", refers to the New York City to Battery Park as a starting point, from south to north across Manhattan Island, the total length of 25 kilometers of a long street. Broadway Street on both sides of the distribution of dozens of theaters, in Broadway Street from 44th Street to 53rd Street theater known as Broadway, and Broadway Street 41st Street and 56th Street theater is known as off-Broadway, Broadway within the staging of the classic, popular, commercial plays, off-Broadway performances are a number of experimental, there is no reputation, low-budget plays, but this distinction is increasingly faded in recent years, and then appeared!
Off-Broadway is a genre of experimental, popular, and commercialized plays, but this distinction has become more and more diluted in recent years, leading to the emergence of Off-Broadway, which has become more innovative and avant-garde in its outlook.
Broadway is the name of a street in New York's Manhattan district, a section of which has always been a center of commercial theatrical entertainment in the United States, making the term Broadway synonymous with American theatrical activity. There is no street in the world as fantastical as Broadway. Today Broadway is synonymous with the modern art of song and dance and American entertainment. Every year, there are millions of tourists from all over the world to New York to enjoy the Broadway cabaret. Broadway Boulevard is directly translated into English as "Broad Street". This avenue as early as 1811 in New York City before the city planning has existed, its center is in the 42nd Street "Times Square" near the surrounding cluster of dozens of theaters.
Broadway History
The history of Broadway dates back to the early 19th century. At that time, Broadway Boulevard was already a center of activity for the dramatic arts in the United States. The Park Theater, founded in 1810, was the original Broadway theater in New York City, and the second theater, The Broadway, appeared on Broadway in 1821. The style of Broadway theater during this period was greatly influenced by the Victorian Style of Europe at the time. With the influx of immigrants and diverse cultures, the emergence of Native American playwrights and actors was stimulated by this realization, and since most of the plays were adapted from novels or literary works, the first copyright law came into being in 1856 due to the controversy over the reprinting of works or adaptations of plays.
With the end of World War I, Broadway theater culture began to flourish in the 1920s, and by the end of the 1920s it was at its peak, with as many as 80 theaters in 1925. But that boom was capped by the economic crisis of the early 1930s.
As history and culture have evolved again, Broadway has become more than just a north-south road through New York's Manhattan, it's also synonymous with theaters and theatre-going.
"Broadway" actually has three meanings: the first is geographic, referring to the 36 theaters within 12 blocks of New York City's Times Square neighborhood; the second is the performances that take place in the Broadway area; and the third is the Broadway industry as a whole, which also includes shows that take place outside of New York City. The third level is the Broadway industry as a whole, which also includes theaters outside of New York City that primarily perform Broadway productions. Overall, Broadway is the pinnacle of the Western theater industry, representing the highest level of artistic and commercial achievement in the theater and theater industry.
The current term "Broadway District" refers to the area stretching from the Nederlander Theater on West 41st Street in Manhattan north to the Broadway Theater on West 53rd Street. Broadway Theater on West 53rd Street, while the only other theaters on Broadway are the Marquis, the Palace, the Winter Garden, and the Broadway. In fact, all of the theaters along Broadway are also located in the Broadway District.
Content and Characteristics
"Broadway" is a more elegant musical theater, Broadway show content is based on the classic plays, the actors and actresses are subject to the needs of the plot, with the group's body language and excellent musical chants to express the theme of the evening. The tone of Broadway performances is black. Exaggeration, humor, fun, naturalness, ease and liveliness are the consistent performance style of Broadway.
In the early 1900s, New Yorkers built theaters on both sides of Broadway, and colorful stage shows soon became the attraction of this rapidly growing metropolis. Today, Broadway shows have become synonymous with New York's major stage performances, which are no longer confined to Broadway Street, but some even tour the world." New York "owes a great deal to Broadway" for being the center of the world's arts and a pioneer in entertainment. Broadway is much like the Hollywood of the film industry, with strong commercial color and entertainment, millions of dollars in production costs, luxurious and dazzling stage, superstars with extraordinary feats, and easy-to-understand plots, which have constructed the skeleton of its musicals' longevity.
Every job on Broadway has its own cast and crew association, and the only way to qualify to work on Broadway is to be a member. Even if you are just a lighting technician, you have to fight to join the lighting workers' association. So the actors who are trying to survive on Broadway, after much polishing, even if they're not starring, they're going to be great characters when they go out; there's just so much competition here." It's this competition that has kept generations of Broadway artists exploring, keeping Broadway elegant and healthy, and giving new life to the ancient art of musical theater.
The art of Broadway song and dance is characterized by easy-to-understand, entertaining; the stage set is opulent, coupled with a variety of modern scientific and technological means, with the sound, lighting, making the stage performance unpredictable. On-stage actors sing and dance, the audience is drunk; the atmosphere is warm, so that the actors and the audience's exchanges become one. It is highly ornamental and entertaining. Actors dressed in colorful and gorgeous costumes in the beautiful and beautiful music enthusiastic, hearty dance, so that the audience personally feel the American culture and music.
Broadway does not have any artistic box, and do not mind if the play has been engaged elsewhere, it only believes in a guideline, that is, any art as long as the audience can get a new visual challenge of things, without restraints, to use. Famous stage productions such as Cats and The Phantom of the Opera were first originated in London's West End and then became popular on Broadway. This is because the Broadway producers bought them over and refined the results, reflecting a spirit of never refusing to copy.
Today, Broadway opera has become one of the pillars of New York City's cultural industry. Its performance form combines dance, music, and drama in one, and some of the plays are a blend of art and public taste in one, with strong ornamental and entertainment; watching Broadway opera has become an indispensable program for everyone who comes to New York City to visit, visit, and travel. In terms of the proportion of the current audience, the foreigners who come to the show are more than the Americans. Now, the number of spectators to 3% per year, the audience, 60% of the people from outside New York; many people come to New York City, one of the purposes is to come to enjoy the Broadway opera, otherwise it is "no return".
Famous People
Broadway art has made an invaluable contribution to the promotion of American theater, cabaret and performing arts. Many of Hollywood's biggest stars started out as Broadway stage performers and went on to become movie stars. The famous Hollywood musical feature film "Sound of music" (Sound of music) heroine Julia? Julia Andrews, the star of the famous Hollywood musical feature film Sound of Music, began her career as a performer in the Broadway musical of the same name, was discovered by the director and went on to become a screen icon of the 1960s in the United States. Now over 60, Andrews is still playing the lead role in the musical Victor and Victoria. Born into a famous British acting family, Natasha Richardson is a triple threat star active in British film, television and Broadway in the United States. After studying at the Central School of Drama, she went on to star in a number of influential plays, films and TV series such as Maid in Manhattan, Hostage and A Midsummer Night's Dream. She was awarded the TONY Award, Broadway's highest award, for her brilliant performance in the classic stage show Cabaret. In addition, Hollywood stars are also honored to be able to sing on the Broadway stage, such examples are the famous Hollywood stars Clarice? Glynn, Porgy? Jr.
Broadway is also famous for its great musicians, most notably Andrew Lloyd, Jr. The most famous was Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lloyd Webber. Andrew was born in London, England and grew up loving music. Many of his Broadway musicals are heirlooms, including "Cats" (Cats), "Chicago" (Chicago), "The Phantom of the Opera" (The Cats", "Chicago", "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Phantom of the Opera" are the most famous. Weber in addition to creating music for musicals, but also to many famous film scores, writing music; such as a few years ago by Madonna starred in the depiction of the life of the wife of the Argentine President Perón's film "Evita" music is created by Weber. Weber not only created a large number of musical masterpieces, but also accomplished many great singers. Among them was Weber's ex-wife, Sarah Brightman. Brightman. The Phantom of the Opera is said to have been written by Weber for his second wife, Sara. Sara has become one of the world's leading singers thanks to her Broadway performances, and is one of the best singers to straddle the line between classical and modern pop music.
Famous Plays
There are dozens of Broadway shows, including "Les Miserables," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Phantom of the Opera," "Miss Saigon," and "The Phantom of the Opera," among others, "Miss Saigon", "The King and I" and so on the most outstanding plays. The plays that are staged there are often performed for 7-8 years, 10 years or more.
Taking "Cats" as an example, from the beginning of the show in October 1982 to the end of the show in June 2000, the show was staged for as long as 18 years. Statistics from 1997 show that the show brought money to New York City with the tagline "From now to ever". "Cats" play 7,397 performances, sold 30 million tickets, box office revenue of about 380 million U.S. dollars, and drive the neighborhood community related industries (restaurants, bars, gift industry, etc.) economic growth of 3 billion U.S. dollars. The Broadway region as a whole grosses about $1.2 billion annually. The price of each theater ticket is not expensive by the income standards of people in the United States. It's even cheaper if you go to the box office (TKTS) in Times Square to buy the remaining tickets for the day.
Notable Broadway shows in recent years include "The Lion King" (1998 Tony Award winner for Best Musical), "Phantom of the Opera," "Cats," "Les Misérables," "Miss Saigon," and "Titanic" (1997 Tony Award winner for Best Musical), which became a sensation because of the movie of the same name.
"Miss Saigon" is a Vietnamese version of the Italian opera "Madama Butterfly," which tells the story of a young Saigonese girl who is abandoned by an American soldier. As the lead actor, Wang Luoyong naturally recommends the show. But the play does have dazzling visual effects, such as the helicopters that take off from the stage at the end of the play, dazzling the audience. The play's plot is colloquial and touching, and even if you don't speak English you can understand how the plot unfolds. The heroine's outcast-like grief and the bond with her son are easy to relate to.
Broadway Scope
There are three main types of companies and businesses on Broadway: the first are theater operators, the second are producers, and the third are show brokers. Theater operators generally own or lease our theaters on a long-term basis and are responsible for the day-to-day work and other technical elements of the theater. Producers refer to the companies that develop and create Broadway shows. They are responsible for acquiring all legal rights to the creative works, including intellectual property rights, raising funds and overseeing the development process to ensure the success of the show. Program brokers are the middlemen between producers and theater operators.
Broadway is one of the most famous streets in the world, 240 kilometers long and the longest. The most famous section of Broadway is called "White Avenue", which is only 1,000 meters long, but is the concentration of New York City's major theaters. It was named "White Avenue" because, before neon lights, all the lights were white and lit up the night as if it were daytime.
Broadway Awards
The American Theatre Wing established the Tony Awards in 1946 in the name of the famous American actress and director Antoinette Pere, equivalent to the Oscars of the film industry, and awards 19 to Broadway plays each year, including Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Musical Score, and Best Director of a Musical, Best General Score of a Musical, Best Lyrics of a Musical, Best Choreographer of a Musical, Best Actor or Actress in a Musical, Best Choreographer, Best Lighting Designer, Best Supporting Actor or Actress in a Musical, Best Re-enactment of a Play, and a Special Award. Currently, under the leadership of the American Alliance of Theatres and Performers and the American Theatre Wing, the awards are nominated by a nominating committee of 12 theatre critics and scholars, and voted on by more than 600 members of the Organization of Theatre Artists, with the winners receiving only a gold medal and no prize money.
Influence and reference
The meaning of the word "Broadway" today is not confined to the street or to a concentration of theaters, but is used to refer to the quintessence of American dramatic art. The mark of true success as an actor is to have your name on a neon sign advertising a theater on Broadway. Broadway also coined terms such as "standing in the spotlight," which means to be the center of public attention, to be a celebrity. If your name was in the paper or you were the subject of conversation, people said you were "in the spotlight". "Broadway is a place of trials and tribulations that attracts thousands of people from all over the world every day, where laughter, tears, pride, and disillusionment can be found everywhere. You may be an overnight success, or you may have become a "millionaire" or a "pauper". Perhaps this is the magic of Broadway, which can only be fully realized by being there.
Theaters on both sides of Broadway in Manhattan, New York, are the center of American theatrical performances, making Broadway synonymous with American theater. Any play that has a successful run in one of the Broadway theaters becomes famous throughout the United States and the English-speaking world, and even throughout the Western world, and is then performed in that theater everywhere. Out of the same reasoning, most of the plays that are successful all over the United States also move to Broadway, and then push through the fame of Broadway to other places.
Musicals, as one of the fastest-growing artistic achievements of the last century, do have a lot of experience that we should emphasize, learn from, and borrow from in terms of their creative concepts, production methods, and marketing strategies. Musicals, as the name suggests, are "plays with music". But in fact, it also incorporates a lot of elements from other arts. Insofar as music is concerned, there are both American and popular music, traditional orchestras, electro-acoustic, jazz and various kinds of mixed bands; and the same applies to dance vocabulary, as ballet, tap, disco and modern dance can all be incorporated into it. The musical "The Lion King" is an animated movie launched by the Disney Company of the United States in 1994. After the great success of the show, Disney produced a Broadway musical of the same name in 1997. This play from the image modeling to the comprehensive use of artistic means, can be described as ingenuity. Shadows, puppets, acrobatics, stilts and other forms of art, as long as it is conducive to the expression of the dramatic scenes of the "Lion" play, any form can be used for my use. Therefore, the majestic momentum of the African savannah and the thrilling scenes of wild animals running wildly after being frightened are shown on the stage, which are no less thrilling than those in the movie. In addition to the integration of various art forms, musicals constitute a complete artistic whole with music, dance, dramatic performance, stage art, lighting, sound and other integrated aspects of stage art. In the several musicals we watched, almost all of them left us with this impression. Not only do the actors' performances and singing captivate you, but every aspect of the show blossoms into a dazzling light. Musicals have a more comprehensive sense of beauty than traditional stage plays, and the impact, shock and infectious power it gives to the audience visually and aurally make people feel the infinite charm of musicals.
If we compare early musical works with contemporary works, we will find that from the subject matter to the content, as well as the use of art forms, all reflect a modern awareness of advancing with the times and seeking new changes. This modern consciousness is a creative concept, and the second is the technical means.
Broadway musicals often make you feel that it is a play, a method, there is no uniform pattern. Each play by the subject matter to determine the style and style, and always find the best combination. The organic combination of artistry, spectacle, and entertainment is what creates the principles that musicals follow. Modern Millie" is a modern urban theme of the musical, the creators cleverly the play people knocking on the computer keyboard movement, very aptly evolved into a wonderful tap dance. MAMMA MIA is a romantic love story that takes place on a Greek island, and accordingly, its music and dance are passionate and unrestrained, full of romantic feelings and modernity. This kind of content is close to contemporary life, and the form is close to the general audience's consciousness, which is the most lacking in Chinese traditional art.
Broadway musicals are also good at using sound, light, electricity and other modern technical means to create colorful stage effects. The orchestra of a musical is not big, more than thirty people, less than ten people, but it is more expressive and infectious than the traditional orchestra, because it brings the sound processing technology of modern recording studios into the theater. Due to the use of modern technology, Broadway musicals often give you the impression of being accompanied by a large orchestra. Modern stage technology is also used in musicals to achieve certain artistic effects. For example, there is a hidden hydraulic platform on the stage of MAMMA MIA. At the end of the play, the platform slowly rises up and extends to the sea in the canopy, and a pair of lovers stand on the platform and walk towards the sea. The moon, the sea, and the lovers create a picturesque stage. In Aida, too, there is a magical visualization of the swimming pool scene, where the actors look as if they are floating in the pool, when in fact they are suspended in the air.
It's impossible to think about the Broadway phenomenon without talking about its ticket-pushing and publicity techniques. Tickets for Broadway plays are, to put it mildly, expensive, and two hundred dollars a pop is not uncommon. However, Broadway's ticketing method is really flexible, seven or eight will be treated as a group ticket, can be discounted. In the afternoon, there is a special place in front of Times Square that sells the remaining tickets of the day, and you can usually get a discount. So you can often see long lines for cheap tickets here. In terms of publicity, Broadway is very skillful in the design and presentation of advertisements. Some of the ads even a few years before the opening of the show will be killed out, spread all over the world, known to all, some secretly planning, extremely creative positive and negative hype, ruffling your nerves, activate your curiosity, there is a forced you have no negotiable way, such as to the "New York Times" page of the money up front by the advertising company, as for the theater producers to the advertising company how much money, depending on the publicity to the stage show to bring the attendance rate depends on. How much the theater producer pays the ad agency depends on how much publicity the play brings in. Forced to do this, the ad agency had to think of a way to get the audience's attention and pay for it voluntarily, by using "superb" ads that were out of this world. Like The Phantom of the Opera's stirring tagline: "If you only see one musical in your life, The Phantom of the Opera is the only one you'll ever choose. It's naturally easy to introduce audiences to the theater.
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway refers to theatrical activity outside of New York's commercial theater centers, mostly by troupes performing in theaters or rented old halls and basements from 41st to 56th Streets. It had emerged as an avant-garde as early as the early 20th century, characterized primarily by lower-cost theatrical experimentation and opportunities for Broadway-unappreciated theatergoers to perform. Two early well-known Off-Broadway theaters were founded in New York's Greenwich Village. One was the Washington Square Theatre, founded in 1914 to perform plays of artistic merit that had been neglected by commercial theaters, which later evolved into the Collegial Theatre in 1919, and which played a large role in raising the standard of American drama; the second was the Provincetown Playhouse, founded in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1915 by some members of the Washington Square Theatre, with the aim of "to give American playwrights an opportunity to express themselves freely," moved to Greenwich Village in 1916, and remained active for more than a decade, especially known for first performing the plays of E. O'Neill.
During the Depression of the 1930s, Off-Broadway was a venue for staging workers' plays and plays with left-wing political ideas, with M. Gorelick's Collective Theatre being the best-known troupe. After World War II, Off-Broadway not only staged new plays, but also revived plays that had failed on Broadway, and had the courage to boldly explore in direction, performance and performance style, thus forming a powerful Off-Broadway movement. in the 1960s, Off-Broadway staged more than 80 plays each year, including classical, serious, comedic, experimental, and burlesque theater works of various genres. But Off-Broadway also became increasingly commercialized after the 1960s, and the cost of performances continued to rise. Some young playwrights took to Greenwich Village cafes, bars, penthouses, and churches to stage more innovative experimental plays at a fraction of the cost.