1.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
2.
Musical theatre
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Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement, since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Musicals are performed around the world and they may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada, the three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its team, which includes a director. A musicals production is also characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties, lighting. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the production, for example. There is no fixed length for a musical, while it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length, most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. A book musical is usually built four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades, moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters, the material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels, plays, classic legends, historical events or films. On the other hand, many musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver
3.
Trade union
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The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with employers. The most common purpose of these associations or unions is maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment and this may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. Unions may organize a section of skilled workers, a cross-section of workers from various trades. The agreements negotiated by a union are binding on the rank and file members, originating in Great Britain, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions may be composed of workers, professionals, past workers, students. Trade union density, or the percentage of workers belonging to a union, is highest in the Nordic countries. The trade unions aim at nothing less than to prevent the reduction of wages below the level that is maintained in the various branches of industry. That is to say, they wish to prevent the price of labour-power from falling below its value, yet historian R. A. the other the aggressive-expansionist drive to unite all labouring men and women for a different order of things. The 18th century economist Adam Smith noted the imbalance in the rights of workers in regards to owners. In The Wealth of Nations, Book I, chapter 8, Smith wrote, We rarely hear, it has said, of the combination of masters. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate When workers combine, masters. As Smith noted, unions were illegal for many years in most countries, there were severe penalties for attempting to organize unions, up to and including execution. This pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour spontaneously organized in fits and starts throughout its beginnings, Trade unions and collective bargaining were outlawed from no later than the middle of the 14th century when the Ordinance of Labourers was enacted in the Kingdom of England. In 1799, the Combination Act was passed, which banned trade unions, although the unions were subject to often severe repression until 1824, they were already widespread in cities such as London. Sympathy for the plight of the workers brought repeal of the acts in 1824, by the 1810s, the first labour organizations to bring together workers of divergent occupations were formed. Possibly the first such union was the General Union of Trades, also known as the Philanthropic Society, the latter name was to hide the organizations real purpose in a time when trade unions were still illegal. The Association quickly enrolled approximately 150 unions, consisting mostly of textile related unions, but also including mechanics, blacksmiths, and various others
4.
Broadway (Manhattan)
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Broadway /ˈbrɔːdweɪ/ is a road in the U. S. state of New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in New York City, dating to the first New Amsterdam settlement, the name Broadway is the English language literal translation of the Dutch name, Brede weg. Broadway is known widely as the heart of the American theatre industry, Broadway was originally the Wickquasgeck Trail, carved into the brush of Manhattan by its Native American inhabitants. Wickquasgeck means birch-bark country in the Algonquian language and this trail originally snaked through swamps and rocks along the length of Manhattan Island. Upon the arrival of the Dutch, the trail became the main road through the island from Nieuw Amsterdam at the southern tip. The Dutch explorer and entrepreneur David Pietersz. de Vries gives the first mention of it in his journal for the year 1642, the Dutch named the road Heerestraat. Although current street signs are simply labeled as Broadway, in a 1776 map of New York City, in the mid-eighteenth century, part of Broadway in what is now lower Manhattan was known as Great George Street. An 1897 City Map shows a segment of Broadway as Kingsbridge Road in the vicinity of what is now the George Washington Bridge. In the 18th century, Broadway ended at the town north of Wall Street, where traffic continued up the East Side of the island via Eastern Post Road. The western Bloomingdale Road would be widened and paved during the 19th century, on February 14,1899, the name Broadway was extended to the entire Broadway/Bloomingdale/Boulevard road. Broadway once was a street for its entire length. The present status, in which it runs one-way southbound south of Columbus Circle, on 6 June 1954, Seventh Avenue became southbound and Eighth Avenue became northbound south of Broadway. On 3 June 1962, Broadway became one-way south of Canal Street, with Trinity Place, northbound traffic on Broadway now needs to take Amsterdam Avenue to 73rd Street, make a sharp turn on the very narrow 73rd and then right turn on Broadway. Otherwise, and effectively, the traffic on Broadway has been diverted into Amsterdam Avenue. In August 2008, two lanes from 42nd to 35th Streets were taken out of service and converted to public plazas. Additionally, bike lanes were added on Broadway from 42nd Street down to Union Square, the city decided that the experiment was successful and decided to make the change permanent in February 2010. Additionally, portions of Broadway in the Madison Square and Union Square have been dramatically narrowed, Broadway runs the length of Manhattan Island, roughly parallel to the North River, from Bowling Green at the south to Inwood at the northern tip of the island. South of Columbus Circle, it is a southbound street
5.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
6.
Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)
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It is commercial for much of its length. Sixth Avenues northern end is at Central Park South, adjacent to the Artists Gate traffic entrance to Central Park at Center Drive, historically, Sixth Avenue continued north of Central Park, but that segment was renamed Lenox Avenue in 1887 and co-named Malcolm X Boulevard in 1987. Sixth Avenue was laid out in the Commissioners Plan of 1811, as originally designed, Sixth Avenues southern terminus was at Carmine Street in Greenwich Village. In the early and mid 1800s it passed by the roadhouse and tavern Old Grapevine at the corner of 11th street. The IRT Sixth Avenue Line elevated railway was constructed on Sixth Avenue in 1878, darkening the street, proposals to extend the street south from Carmine Street, to allow easier access to lower Manhattan, were discussed by the citys Board of Aldermen as early as the mid-1860s. Construction of the resulted in considerable dislocation to existing residents. One historian said that ten people were displaced, most of them Italian immigrants who knew no other home in America. According to the WPA Guide to New York City, the resulted in blank side walls facing the uninspiring thoroughfare. Dozens of buildings, including the original Church of Our Lady of Pompeii, were demolished, by the mid-20th century, a coalition of commercial establishments and building owners along Sixth Avenue campaigned to have the El removed. The El was closed on December 4,1938 and came down in stages, beginning in Greenwich Village in 1938–39, demolition of the Sixth Avenue elevated railway, meanwhile, resulted in accelerated commercial development of the avenue in Midtown. Beginning in the 1960s, the avenue was rebuilt above 42nd Street as an all-but-uninterrupted avenue of corporate headquarters housed in glass slab towers of International Modernist style. On March 10,1957, Sixth Avenue was reconfigured to carry one-way traffic north of its intersection with Broadway in Herald Square, the rest of the avenue followed on November 10,1963. In the mid-1970s, the city spruced up the street, including the addition of patterned brick crosswalks, repainting of streetlamps, special lighting, rare throughout the rest of the city, was also installed. The avenues official name was changed to Avenue of the Americas in 1945 by the City Council, at the behest of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who signed the bill into law on October 2,1945. The intent was to honor Pan-American ideals and principles and the nations of Central and South America and it was felt at the time that the name would provide greater grandeur to a shabby street, and to promote trade with the Western Hemisphere. After the name change, round signs were attached to streetlights on the avenue, however, New Yorkers seldom used the avenues newer name, and the street has been labelled as both Avenue of the Americas and Sixth Avenue in recent years. Most of the old round signs with country emblems were gone by the late 1990s, R. Grace Building, International Center of Photography, Rockefeller Center — including the Time-Life Building, News Corp. Building, Exxon Building and McGraw-Hill Building, as well as Radio City Music Hall, the Steinway Hall of New York was moved to 1130 Sixth Avenue in October 2014
7.
Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)
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Eighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. While the avenue has different names at different points in Manhattan, north of Frederick Douglass Circle, it resumes its Eighth Avenue designation, but is also known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard. The avenue ends north of 155th Street, and merges into the Harlem River Drive, the New York City Subway IND Eighth Avenue Line runs under Eighth Avenue. MTA Regional Bus Operations primarily operates two bus routes on the avenue, the northbound M20 serves Eighth Avenue between Abingdon Square and Columbus Circle, while the M10 serves the length of Eighth Avenue north of 59th Street in its entirety. The southernmost section is solely as Eighth Avenue between Abingdon Square and Columbus Circle. This portion of Eighth Avenue has carried traffic one-way northbound since June 6,1954, in fact, New York Citys annual gay pride parade takes place along the Greenwich Village section of Eighth Avenue. As its name indicates, CPW forms the edge of Central Park. It also forms the boundary of the Upper West Side. It runs 51 blocks from Columbus Circle to Frederick Douglass Circle, Central Park Wests expensive housing rivals that of Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side. Most of these housing cooperatives were built around 1930, replacing late 19th century hotels with the same names, some, including The Century, The San Remo, and The Majestic, are twin towers. Other landmarks and institutions along its length include the New-York Historical Society, the area from 61st to 97th Streets is included in the Central Park West Historic District. The building located at 55 Central Park West is the infamous Spook Central from the movie Ghostbusters, the famed New York City restaurant Tavern on the Green is located off of Central Park West, at 66th Street, within the grounds of Central Park. In 1899, while exiting a streetcar, Henry Bliss was run over by a taxi at CPW and West 74th Street, becoming the first person to be run down and killed by a motor car in the Americas. North of Frederick Douglass Circle at 110th Street in Harlem, it is Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Frederick Douglass Boulevard eventually terminates near the Harlem River at the Harlem River Drive around West 159th Street. While Central Park West has its own system, address numbers on Frederick Douglass Boulevard continue from where they would be if Central Park West used the Eighth Avenue numbering system. Formerly described as being like Detroit in its urban blight, it is now gentrified, especially in the restaurants along its route and this gentrification is partly due to massive city investment. The share of whites jumped to 12.4 percent from 2.3 percent, median household income rose 28 percent, to $34,694. Notes New York Songlines, Eighth Avenue, a walking tour
8.
Times Square
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It stretches from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. One of the worlds busiest pedestrian areas, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District, Times Square is one of the worlds most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors annually. Approximately 330,000 people pass through Times Square daily, many of them tourists, the southern triangle of Times Square has no specific name, but the northernmost of the two triangles is called Father Duffy Square. Since 2008, the booth has been backed by a red, sloped, triangular set of stairs, which is used by people to sit, talk, eat. When Manhattan Island was first settled by the Dutch, three small streams united near what is now 10th Avenue and 40th street and these three streams formed the Great Kill. From there the Great Kill wound through the low-lying Reed Valley, known for fish and waterfowl, the name was retained in a tiny hamlet, Great Kill, that became a center for carriage-making, as the upland to the south and east became known as Longacre. Before and after the American Revolution, the area belonged to John Morin Scott, scotts manor house was at what is currently 43rd Street, surrounded by countryside used for farming and breeding horses. By 1872, the area had become the center of New Yorks horse carriage industry, the locality had not previously been given a name, and city authorities called it Longacre Square after Long Acre in London, where the horse and carriage trade was centered in that city. William Henry Vanderbilt owned and ran the American Horse Exchange there, in 1910 it became the Winter Garden Theatre. The first theater on the square, the Olympia, was built by cigar manufacturer, by the early 1890s this once sparsely settled stretch of Broadway was ablaze with electric light and thronged by crowds of middle- and upper-class theatre, restaurant and cafe patrons. In 1904, New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs persuaded Mayor George B, mcClellan, Jr. to construct a subway station there, and the area was renamed Times Square on April 8,1904. Just three weeks later, the first electrified advertisement appeared on the side of a bank at the corner of 46th Street, the north end later became Duffy Square, and the former Horse Exchange became the Winter Garden Theatre. The New York Times, according to Nolan, moved to spacious offices west of the square in 1913. The old Times Building was later named the Allied Chemical Building in 1963, now known simply as One Times Square, it is famed for the Times Square Ball drop on its roof every New Years Eve. In 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association, headed by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, chose the intersection of 42nd Street and Broadway to be the Eastern Terminus of the Lincoln Highway. This was the first road across the United States, which originally spanned 3,389 miles coast-to-coast through 13 states to its terminus in Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Times Square grew dramatically after World War I and it became a cultural hub full of theatres, music halls, and upscale hotels. Times Square quickly became New Yorks agora, a place to gather to await great tidings and to celebrate them, advertising also grew significantly in the 1920s, growing from $25 million to $85 million over the decade
9.
42nd Street (Manhattan)
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42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the district near that intersection. Washingtons attempt put him in danger of being captured, and his officers had to him to leave. The rout eventually subsided into an orderly retreat, john Jacob Astor purchased a 70 acres farm in 1803 that ran from 42nd Street to 46th Street west of Broadway to the Hudson River. The street was designated by the Commissioners Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan street grid as one of 15 east-west streets that would be 100 feet in width, the Depot, which opened in 1871, was replaced by Grand Central Terminal in 1913. In 1980, it was turned into a successful Broadway musical which ran until 1989, from the late 1950s until the late 1980s, 42nd Street, nicknamed The Deuce, was the cultural center of American grindhouse theaters, which spawned an entire subculture. While the street outside the theatres was populated with, phony drug salesman, unkies alone in their heroin/cocaine dreamworld. Predatory chickenhawks spying on underage trade looking for pickups, ranssexuals, hustlers, and closety gays with a fetishistic homo- or heterosexual itch to scratch. It was common to see porn stars whose films were playing at the adult houses promenade down the block, not when you stepped onto the Deuce. Being a freak there would get you money, attention, entertainment, or maybe a robbery and a beating. For much of the mid and late 20th century, the area of 42nd Street near Times Square was home to activities often considered unsavory, in the early 1990s, city government encouraged a clean-up of the Times Square area. In 1993, the Walt Disney Corporation bought the New Amsterdam Theatre and it is now the flagship for Disneys theatrical productions in New York. This area is now co-signed as New 42nd Street to signify this change, the IRT 42nd Street Shuttle runs under 42nd Street between Broadway/Seventh Avenue and Park Avenue. Each line stops at Times Square and Grand Central, the Flushing Line also stops at Fifth Avenue and its predecessor, the 42nd Street Crosstown Line streetcar, had used 42nd Street. The George M. Cohan song Give My Regards to Broadway includes the lyrics Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street / That I will soon be there. The Jim Croce song You Dont Mess Around with Jim includes the lyrics 42nd street got Big Jim Walker, the Billy Joel song Miami 2017 includes the lyrics Wed seen it all the time on 42nd Street. Ghosts of 42nd Street, A History of Americas Most Infamous Block, New York, HarperCollins Books, ISBN 0-688-17089-7. A detailed history that focuses primarily on the Times Square Theater District from the beginning of the 20th century through its successful restoration, down 42nd Street, Sex, money, culture and politics at the crossroads of the world
10.
Rent (musical)
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Rent is a rock musical with music, lyrics and book by Jonathan Larson, loosely based on Giacomo Puccinis opera La Bohème. The musical was first seen in a production at New York Theatre Workshop in 1993. This same Off-Broadway theatre was also the initial home following its official 1996 opening. The shows creator, Jonathan Larson, died suddenly of a dissection, believed to have been caused by undiagnosed Marfan syndrome. The show won a Pulitzer Prize, and the production was a hit, the musical moved to Broadways larger Nederlander Theatre on April 29,1996. On Broadway, Rent gained critical acclaim and won a Tony Award for Best Musical among other awards, the Broadway production closed on September 7,2008 after a 12-year run of 5,123 performances. On February 14,2016, the musical Wicked surpassed Rents number of performances with a 2pm matinee, the production grossed over $280 million. The success of the led to several national tours and numerous foreign productions. In 2005, it was adapted into a picture featuring most of the original cast members. In 1989, Jonathan Larson, a 29-year-old composer, began collaborating with Aronson on this project, and he also came up with the shows ultimate title. In 1991, he asked Aronson if he could use Aronsons original concept, Larson had ambitious expectations for Rent, his ultimate dream was to write a rock opera to bring musical theater to the MTV generation. Aronson and Larson made an agreement that if the show went to Broadway, Aronson would share in the proceeds, Jonathan Larson focused on composing Rent in the early 1990s, waiting tables at the Moondance Diner to support himself. Over the course of years, Larson wrote hundreds of songs and made drastic changes to the show. In the fall of 1992, Larson approached James Nicola, artistic director of New York Theatre Workshop, with a tape, Larson continued to work on Rent, gradually reworking its flaws and staging more workshop productions. Larson would not live to see Rents success, he died from an aortic aneurysm in the early morning of January 25,1996. The first preview of Rent was canceled and instead, friends, the show premiered as planned and quickly gained popularity fueled by enthusiastic reviews and the recent death of its composer. It proved extremely successful during its run, selling out all its shows at the 150-seat New York Theater Workshop. Due to such overwhelming popularity and a need for a larger theater, Larsons inspiration for Rents content came from several different sources
11.
Spring Awakening (musical)
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Spring Awakening is a rock musical with music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. It is based on the German play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, set in late-19th-century Germany, the musical tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of teenage sexuality. In the musical, alternative rock is employed as part of the folk-infused rock score and its cast included Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, Skylar Astin, Carla Bianco and John Gallagher, Jr. while its creative team comprised director Michael Mayer and choreographer Bill T. Jones. The original Broadway production won 8 Tony Awards, including Tonys for Best Musical, Direction, Book, Score, the production also garnered 4 Drama Desk Awards whilst its original cast album received a Grammy Award. In addition, the show was revived in 2015 on Broadway and garnered 3 Tony Award nominations, among other honors. Wendla Bergmann, an adolescent in late-nineteenth-century Germany, laments that her mother gave her “no way to handle things” and has not taught her the lessons she is meant to know as a young woman. She tells her mother that it is time she learned where babies come from and her mother cannot bring herself to explain the facts about conception clearly to Wendla, despite knowing her daughter is reaching puberty. Instead, she simply tells Wendla that to conceive a child a woman must love her husband with all of her heart. The other young girls in town – Martha, Thea, Anna, at school, some teenage boys are studying Virgil in Latin class. When Moritz Stiefel, a nervous and anxious young man, sleepily misquotes a line. Moritz’s classmate, the rebellious and highly intelligent Melchior Gabor, tries to him, but the teacher will have none of it. Melchior reflects on the shallow narrow-mindedness of school and society and expresses his intent to change things, Moritz describes a dream that has been keeping him up at night, and Melchior realizes that Moritz has been having erotic dreams which Moritz believes are signs of insanity. To comfort the panicked Moritz, Melchior, who has learned sexual information from books, Moritz, Melchior and the other boys – Ernst, Hänschen, Otto and Georg – share their own sexually frustrated thoughts and desires. Moritz, who is not comfortable talking about the subject with Melchior, requests that he give him the information in the form of an essay, complete with illustrations. All the girls, save Ilse, are gathered together after school, Martha admits that she has a crush on Moritz, but is made fun of by the other girls. At the top of the list is the radical, intelligent, Moritz has eagerly digested the essay that Melchior prepared for him, but complains that his new knowledge has only made his dreams even more vivid and torturous. Melchior tries to calm and comfort his friend, but Moritz runs off in frustration, All of the boys and girls express their desires for physical intimacy. Searching for flowers for her mother, Wendla stumbles upon Melchior, the two reminisce on the friendship they once shared as children and share a moment while sitting together in front of a tree
12.
Hair (musical)
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Hair, The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s. The musicals profanity, its depiction of the use of drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag. The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of musical, using a racially integrated cast. Simultaneous productions in cities across the United States and Europe followed shortly thereafter, since then, numerous productions have been staged around the world, spawning dozens of recordings of the musical, including the 3 million-selling original Broadway cast recording. Some of the songs from its score became Top 10 hits, a Broadway revival opened in 2009, earning strong reviews and winning the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for best revival of a musical. In 2008, Time magazine wrote, Today Hair seems, if anything, Hair was conceived by actors James Rado and Gerome Ragni. The two met in 1964 when they performed together in the Off-Broadway flop Hang Down Your Head and Die, the main characters were autobiographical, with Rados Claude being a pensive romantic and Ragnis Berger an extrovert. Their close relationship, including its volatility, was reflected in the musical, Rado explained, We were great friends. It was a kind of relationship that we directed into creativity, into writing. We put the drama between us on stage, Rado described the inspiration for Hair as a combination of some characters we met in the streets, people we knew and our own imaginations. He recalled, There was so much excitement in the streets and the parks and the hippie areas and we hung out with them and went to their Be-Ins let our hair grow. Many cast members were recruited right off the street, Rado said, It was very important historically, and if we hadnt written it, thered not be any examples. You could read about it and see film clips, but youd never experience it and we thought, This is happening in the streets, and we wanted to bring it to the stage. Rado and Ragni came from different artistic backgrounds, in college, Rado wrote musical revues and aspired to be a Broadway composer in the Rodgers and Hammerstein tradition. He went on to acting with Lee Strasberg. Ragni, on the hand, was an active member of The Open Theater, one of several groups, mostly Off-off Broadway. He introduced Rado to the theatre styles and methods being developed at The Open Theater
