Broadway

Broadway is a magical place where anything you can imagine is possible. The productions can range from inspirational true stories to fantasy pieces that make us all feel young at heart. Many of the productions also have movies that follow a similar story line like “The Addams Family”, “Chicago”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “The Lion King”, “Mary Poppins”, Mamma Mia!, etc. Ever since I was a little girl I always wanted to visit New York City and see a show on Broadway. The two productions I always wanted to see the most were “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid”. I have always had a fondness for these two stories because they were released about the time whenever I started to take an interest in fairy tales and finding my “Prince Charming”. As the years went by my love of Theatre and all the aspects of what went with it grew as well. Through my experiences in my high school drama club I came to understand what all was needed to put on a successful production and exactly how many individuals were needed. Unfortunately by the time I was in a financial position to make my way to Broadway, Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast” were no longer playing. Two Disney productions that are currently playing on Broadway right now though are “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins”. Although my dreams of seeing “The Little Mermaid” on Broadway were squashed as of August 30, 2009 whenever the production closed I do still have a second shot of seeing it on a different stage. A touring edition of the production is suppose to start touring nationally later on this fall. “Beauty and the Beast” was one of Broadway’s longest running productions. It ran from 1994 through 2007. Although it no longer is on Broadway, it is still a popular choice for high school and community theatres to perform. I can proudly say my own high school even performed it, as well as the group theatre from all the neighboring high school’s for their summer production. Considering both shows popularity and timeless storyline I would say that there is a good chance that either of them might make another appearance on Broadway.

Although the two shows I originally wanted to see on Broadway are no longer playing I would still like to go see a production. I thought this assignment would be a perfect opportunity to learn about other interesting productions that Broadway has to offer. One of the first productions to catch my attention was “A Little Night Music”. It is a wild, romantic tale based at a weekend country house in Sweden during the turn of the century. Although the production has an impressive cast from all of the awards the only name I was personally familiar with before doing some research was Catherine Zeta-Jones. Another production I thought would be interesting to attend would be “The Phantom of the Opera”. I always loved the movie and story it’s self so the stage version would have quite a bit to live up to in my book. From the reviews I have read it sounds like a magically production, it even won the Tony Award for best musical, but the simple cost of tickets dampened my enthusiasm for going. I’ll admit, I’m a struggling college student so I would like to be able to see a marvelous production without having to spend all my entertainment budget for the month. The last production that jumped out at me was “Mamma Mia!”. It seemed like an interesting performance to see since the storyline was created using songs by the group ABBA. One thing I really liked about this particular performance is that they may have student rush seating available on the day of the performance depending on one’s luck. Overall though I think that is I do get to venture to Broadway in the near future I am going to shoot for going to “A Little Night Magic”, I like that it is a big enough performance to be on Broadway, but that it is still relatively unknown to the everyday public.