LIFE THERE

Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway...

WHAT ARE THEY?

For many people Broadway is the main street of New York. It is its longest street, which begins in downtown on Manhattan, runs through midtown and uptown and, across the Broadway Bridge connecting Manhattan with the Bronx. Then it goes through the Bronx as well. It is more than 25 km long, and of course its character changes from one end to the other.

However, in midtown, Broadway means the theatre district. So much so that from 59th Street down ward, until you see the Cats marquee, Broadway might as well be the Indian path it once was.

Everybody knows that there is nothing like a real Broadway show. The theaters and stages that make up the “Great White Way” are located in a small section of the city between West 41st and 53rd streets and Sixth and Eighth Avenues. Thus the Nederlander Theatre is at 41st Street, the Broadway Theatre at 53rd Street, while at 52nd Street you will see the Virginia and the Neil Simon. The Gershwin Theatre is at 51st Street, the Circle in the Square Theatre at 50th and very close to them, on Broadway proper, is the Winter Garden.

The Ambassador and the Eugene O’Neill Theatres are both at 49th Street, the Walter Kerr and the Longacre are located at 48th.

The Ethel Barrymore and the Brooks Atkinson are found at 47th, while at 46th one can visit the Lunt-Fontanne and the Richard Rodgers. The heart and soul of the area is Schubert Alley, a private connecting street between 44th and 45th Streets in front of the Schubert Theatre.

There you will find 11 theatres of which (at 45th Street) are the Imperial, the Music Box, the John Golden, the Royale, the Plymouth and the Booth. If you go along 44th Street, besides the Schubert, you will see there the Majestic, the Broadhurst, the St. James and the Helen Hayes. All in all there are 36 theatres in this vicinity and because at night it is as light there as in the daytime the place is also known as the Milky Way.

It is traditionally believed that the theatrical life concentrated on Broadway is represented by plays written by well-known dramatics, like E. O’Neill, A. Miller, T. Williams, for example, and approved by critics with big names in the cast.

However in the Winter Garden today one can enjoy the fabulous Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats”, and at the Imperial “Les Miserables,” the hit musical based on the Victor Hugo classic, which still attracts hundreds of musical-lovers.

“The Phantom of the Opera,” another long-running hit musical-drama imported from Britain, is still on at the Majestic Theatre.

Pulizer Prize-winner August Wilson’s play “Seven Guitars” about blues musicians in Pittsburgh in the 1940s is on at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s some non-fashionable small and much cheaper theatres came into being as more or less opposed to the Broadway theatre. Those theatres were immediately called Off-Broadway, as they began their life as an alternative to Broadway. All those newly-born theatres were fighting for the new and the non-commercial in the American theatre. Today there are over 350 Off-Broadway theatres in New York.

Off-Broadway began in Greenwich Village, at the Provincetown Playhouse, where Eugene O’Neill was the resident playwright. Even today most of the Off-Broadway action is in the Village, at the Cherry Lane, the Sullivan Street Playhouse, etc.

Some New Yorkers say that these are perhaps the two most famous Off-Broadway theatres: Shakespeare in the Park (Dalacorte Theatre, Central Park, 81st Street and Central Park West) in summer, where open-air productions are almost as much fun as the Old Globe used to be, and the now world famous Public Theatre at 425 Lafayette Street, where in a six-theatre complex one could once see the famous movie-star of today, Robert de Niro, in “Cuba and His Teddy Bear,” the hit, which wound up on Broadway, as do many of the productions originating at the Public.

Other Off-Broadway theatres have sprung up all over the city, most notably on 42nd Street between Ninth and Fourth Avenues, now also called “Theatre Row”.

In one season, 1959–60, New York theatrical life discovered Edward Albee, who in 1958 wrote his first play “The Zoo Story”. It was first put up in the same playhouse where E. O’Neill himself had had his earliest works performed 50 years earlier. The “Zoo Story” illustrates Albee’s wit and his talent for dialogue. The play tells how Peter, a publisher from one of the “high-income” districts of New York, on a Sunday morning in Central Park meets Jerry, a hungry old man, living in a small room without a single kind soul to turn to. Jerry starts a conversation which develops into a stream of self revelation, but Peter, who is by nature kind, is overwhelmed, by a horror of speaking to strangers, and does not seem to be able to hear and understand Jerry.

The play shows how terribly dissociated people sometimes are (both in the USA and elsewhere) and that, though they seem to speak the same language, they do not understand each other. It was one of the first American plays about the loneliness of man in modern industrialized society.

Albee’s best-known play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1961) was also staged in one Off-Broadway theatre at first. The play is universally-known nowadays, and many Americans were shocked to see how its characters spoke in a combination of clichйs, which revealed their unwillingness to face reality and to establish real contact with each other. America’s confidence and national pride, embodied in the ideals of progress, family life and physical and mental health, were undermined those days. Albee was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1964, the most prestigious American prize a playwright can win. But the author criticized not only American society at large, but was also very critical of the Broadway theatre, too. “The Broadway theatre is big business” – said Albee in one of his interviews. Audiences are very hard to attract, and they are basically a lazy audience who want more entertainment; they demand big stars. The “Off-Broadway theatre, on the other hand, existing in small theatres for intellectually curious audiences, produce with smaller budgets, without the advantages or disadvantages of big-name stars, plays dedicated to the problems of today, to the fates of common Americans”.

Off-Broadway flourished in the early 60s. In 1967 the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and producers united 36 member theatres and 74 member producers. Then later the membership decreased to 12 theatres and 38 individuals and the number of productions dropped to 55.

Because of all this some people said then that Off-Broadway was dying, with most established Off-Broadway producers having turned their attention largely or completely to Broadway, where there is always a better chance to make a suitable profit and become famous.

Speaking of the theatrical life of New York of late, one should know that there’s an Off-Off-Broadway movement there today, or world of experimental theatre, where performers usually work for the credits on their resumes, and in the hopes they can attract an agent to see them on stage. Playwrights who would never be given a chance elsewhere can see their work mounted there.

Particularly Off-Off-Broadway today is what Off-Broadway was yesterday – but with a difference. It is the place to experiment and for a new playwright or producer to test himself. But the movement is much larger than Off-Broadway ever was, since Off-Off-Broadway theatres nowadays can be found all over New York. One of the most respected of all the stages there is a Cafe La Mama Experimental Theatre Club at 74A East 4th Street.

Off-Off-Broadway is certainly much less expensive than Off-Broadway was even in its prime time. Today, though, Off-Off-Broadway is becoming institutionalized as well, and theatres are getting grants and planning full seasons.

New-York theatre-goers believe that it will not follow Off-Broadway into profit seeking, and if it does, there will have to be another chance for experimentation – perhaps Off-Off-Off-Broadway.

By Nataliya Predtechenskaya

I.. Read the text and answer the following questions.

1. Which part of New York is most famous for theatres?
2. Does the area have any nicknames and if it does why?\
3. How many movements can theatrical life there be roughly divided into?
4. What name and play gave birth to a new era in New York theatrical life?

II. Read the text again and try to remember the main points.

III. Answer the following questions about the details.

1. What happens to theatrical life in New York over time?

a. it remains the same
b. it changes rapidly
c. it changed several times

2. What kind of Broadway productions are most popular today?

a. classics
b. musicals
c. comedies

3. What names traditionally are associated with Broadway theatres?

a. B. Brecht and E. Albee
b. E. O’Neill, A. Miller and T. Williams
c. J. Kennedy and R. Reagan

4. Why is the Broadway theatre big business?

a. audiences are very hard to attract as they demand stars
b. Broadway theatres produce with low budgets
c. the plays they stage are dedicated to the problems of today

5. Which movement flourished in the late 50s and early 60s?

a. Broadway
b. Off-Off-Broadway
c. Off-Broadway

6. Where did Off-Broadway begin?

a. in Harlem
b. in Central Park
c. in Greenwich Village

7. Where are Off-Broadway theatres found in New York today?

a. in Greenwich Village
b. on 42nd Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues, also known as “Theatre Row”
c. in a small section of the city between 41st and 53rd streets and Sixth and Eighth avenues

8. Why do many people say that Off-Broadway was dying in late 1960s?

a. the number of the members in the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers decreased
b. most established and famous Off-Broadway producers turned their attention to Broadway to make a suitable profit
c. there were no famous actors

9. What is Off-Off-Broadway?

a. a world of experimental theatres where performers usually work for nothing
b. a world with established repertoire;
c. a branch of Broadway.

10. What is happening with Off-Off-Broadway today?