By Marilyn Lester***“The costumes, the scenery, the makeup, the props…” so go the lyrics to Irvig Berlin’s “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (Annie Get Your Gun). It’s all there and very much more in The Museum of Broadway, which opened its doors on November 15 (conceived in 2017 and delayed until now by COVID). Over four floors, the history of New York theater, from its earliest times in the founding days of the city, to w
hat we now know as The Great White Way, is chronicled in a journey that combines the best of a traditional museum with an interactive, immersive attraction. The result is a theater-lover’s dream. And in theater terms, the experience is absolutely boffo! Even those only mildly curious about the most famous stages in the world will be entranced and engaged by what this amazing museum has to offer.
The Museum of Broadway is the first-ever permanent museum dedicated to the history of the Rialto—and its time has certainly come. The museum strikes a terrific (and fun) balance of presenting prime information about musica
ls, plays, and the people who create them. With so much history to choose from, the curation of the exhibits has been wisely done. Nit-pickers my grumble—let ’em. For most of us, what the museum offers is just about perfect. There’s even an ultra-cool “The Making of a Broadway Show” exhibit, a behind-the-scenes that details how a score of talented professionals iin front of and behind the curtain bring a theatrical property to life and to the stage.
There’s much to take in over those four floors, all of it fascinating, beginning with the early history of theater in the City of New York, presented in a “Map Room” and in timeline wall exhibits. From there it’s a trip through main rooms, including The Ziegeld Follies, Show Boat, Oklahoma! and West Side Story, through HAIR, Company, A Chorus Line, La Cage aux Folles, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Wicked and Hamilton, among others. These histories b
ig, and others, small tell their stories in costumes, props, renderings, rare photos, videos, recordings and more. Overall, the museum highlights in excess of 500 individual productions from the 1700s through the present.
The museum also has a space for special exhibits, the first being The American Theatre as seen by Hirschfeld,” curated by David Leopold, Creative Director of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation.
The Museum of Broadway was conceived by two esteemed Broadway producers, Julie Boardman and Diane Nicoletti, who approached major Broadway stakeholders about the idea. Supported across the board, collaborati
ng founders became Playbill, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Billy Rose Theatre Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, The Al Hirschfeld Foundation, Goodspeed Musicals, Creative Goods, and Concord Theatricals. A host of other theater-related entities and individuals also signed on to make a concept a reality.
Elie Landau serves as the Museum’s general manager. The team of curators is headed by Ben West (Resident Historian and Timeline Walls Curator) and also includes Jennifer As
hley Tepper (Map Room Curator), John Kenrick (Game Changer Curator), Matthew Schneider (Text Consultant, Game Changer History), Michael McDonald and Lisa Zinni (Costume & Props Curators), Faye Armon- Troncoso (Set Decorator & Props Supervisor, Making of a Broadway Show).
