The 25th Annual Broadway Flea Market

Tomorrow, probably my favorite theatre charity event of the year takes place, the Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction.  And this year marks the event's 25th year! 

It takes place on W. 44th Street (home to The Phantom of the Opera, Memphis, Rock of Ages, and soon, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) and will "spill out into Times Square.  The event will take place light drizzle or shine on Sunday, September 25 from 10AM - 7PM.

The Flea Market features booths from most of the Broadway shows, selling everything from home made baked goods to posters to props actually used in the show.  Other booths sell vintage souvenirs, one of a kind photos, and long out of print cast recordings on vinyl, cassette and CD.  The array of things would be impossible to list here.  But the best thing is that you don't have to be rich to find something from your favorite shows - items start at under $1, and the later it goes, the better the bargains!

The Wicked booth and Memphis stars Montego Glover and Chad Kimball

sign autographs at last year's flea market

For slightly more money, you can pay to go through the photo booth and have your picture taken with today's biggest Broadway and daytime TV stars.  Or you can pay a flat fee and get autographs from your favorite celebs as you walk the autograph line.  There are usually three or four sets of stars, and you pay each time you walk through.  But it is a chance to say hi and get signatures from almost 100 stars!

The Grand Auction

But if you do have extra cash and really want to contribute to the cause, there is the Grand Auction, where you can bid on huge prize packs from all the shows, one of a kind personalized items from Broadway legends like Bernadette Peters and Angela Lansbury.  Several shows are auctioning off walk on parts and backstage experiences.

If you've never been before, you really should try it.  It has become an annual tradition for Mike, a close friend of ours, and I.  We get there bright and early and check out all the tables before we buy anything Sometimes you can find the same thing, only cheaper, at different booths.  And we have also found that we've purchased an item we liked, only to find something we've LOVED later, but couldn't afford it or carry it!  Then we grab a quick bite and head off to a big Broadway show.  So far, it has always been a show we are re-visiting, or that one of the three of us somehow missed.  Previously, it's been The Lion King and Wicked.  I'll tell you all about it early next week!

There are always huge crowds of theatre lovers!

For more information, including pre-bids for auction items, a full list of celebrity autographs and times, as well as a look at the tables and auction items go to http://www.broadwaycares.org/home.


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Jeff
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Musical Words of Wisdom: The Sondheim Musicals

Just over a month ago, I posted a blog of words of wisdom and witty, creatively stated ideas from the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Today, here are just some of the many you have sent in (along with a few of my favorites) from the musicals of Stephen Sondheim.

There were so many, it really was hard to choose, so below are the ones I think are the most clever, most meaningful; but most of all, these are the ones that most of you repeated.  Clearly, some of these quotes mean a lot to many of us.

Here is a quote, sometimes two, from each of his Broadway shows. Some are my contributions, others are singular submissions from one person, and others are quotes sent in from several of you. In the interest of fairness, I will attribute the quotes to no one, except the lyricists themselves. I think they are all kind of catchy and all of them at least clever and thought-provoking.

I have included more than a couple from the most quoted of his shows, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Into the Woods.  Not surprising, really.  What does surprise me is how many I got from Merrily We Roll Along!

And I am still collecting your quotes from the musicals of Kander and Ebb!

Anyone Can Whistle

• "Crazy business, this, this life we live in - Can't complain about the time we're given - With so little to be sure of in this world." 

Assassins

• "Everybody's got the right to their dreams."

Company

• "Everybody rise!  Rise!  Rise!  Rise!  Rise! Rise!  Rise!"


• "But alone is alone, not alive."



• "And that's what it's all about isn't it? Company!  Lots of company!  Life is company!  Love is company!  Company!"

Follies

• "The things that I want, I don't seem to get, The things that I get...well, you know what I mean?"


• "Sometimes when all the wrappings fall there's nothing underneath at all."

Gypsy

• "Some people sit on their butts. Got the dream, yeah, but not the guts!”

Into the Woods

• "Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor."


• "I was taught to be charming not sincere."


• "We disappoint. We Disappear. We die, but we don't."


• "Isn't it nice to know a lot? And a little bit not."


• "Someone is on your side, Someone else is not. While we're seeing our side maybe we forgot: they are not alone. No one is alone."


• "Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell. Children will listen."

A Little Night Music

• "I frequently laugh myself to sleep contemplating my own future."


• "Isn't it rich? Are we a pair?"

Merrily We Roll Along

• "Dreams don't die so keep an eye on your dreams."


• "And a friendship's like a garden: you have to water it, and tend it, and care for it. And I want it back."


• "Okay, so now you know, life is crummy."


• "Some rides are rough and leave you jumpy, why make it tough by getting grumpy?"


• "Success is like failure - It's how you perceive it, It's what you do with it, Not how you achieve it"


• "You need a tune you can hum."

Passion

• "Why is love so easy to give, and so hard to receive?"


• "They hear drums. We hear music. Be my friend..."


• "Just another love story, that's what they would claim. Another simple love story. Aren't all of them the same?"

Sunday in the Park with George

• "The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not. You have to move on."



• "We do not belong together, and we should have belonged together. What made it so right together is what made it all wrong."



• "There are only two worthwhile things to leave behind when we depart this world of ours: children and art."

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

• "Don't you know, silly man, half the fun is to plan the plan?  All good things come to those who can...wait."


• "We'll not discriminate great from small.  No, we'll serve anyone - meaning anyone - and to anyone at all!"


• "Eat them slow, 'cos that's the lot and now we've sold it!  Come again tomorrow!  Hold it! ("More hot pies!") Bless my eyes! ("Right this way, Sir!") Fresh supplies!"


• "Being close and being clever ain't like being true."


• "No one can help, nothing can hide you -- isn't that Sweeney there beside you?"

Rate this blog below, and leave your comments here, by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com or Tweet me!

Jeff

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Who Are These Broadway People?

Fans of the Great White Way enter through the doors of the forty designated Broadway theaters every year to see their favorite plays and musicals.  23 of them are currently named after actors, writers, producers, theatrical philanthropists, and even architects and critics!

When you go see The Lion King at the Minskoff Theatre, do you know who Minskoff was?  Or how about Vivian Beaumont, whose name adorns the theater at Lincoln Center that is home to War Horse?  Well, Minskoff is named for a New York architect, and Ms. Beaumont was an actress and philanthropist who donated much to the arts as heiress to the May Department Stores fortune.

Here are pictures of some 15 others who have been honored with having a Broadway theater named after him/her.  Can you tell who is who?

1.  2.  

3.    4. 

5.   6.

7.  8.

9.   10. 

11.   12.

13.  14.  

15.

Hint: 1, 6 and 7: Composers;  2, 4 and 5: Playwrights;  3: Theatre Artist;  8, 10 - 12: Actors;   9, 13 and 14: Theatre Owners/Producers;  15: Theatre Critic

Rate this blog below, and leave your comments here, by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com , or Tweet me!
Jeff
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Survivor: Broadway

There was a time when the reality show Survivor was new and actually interesting.  I don't watch it anymore, but this season's version caught my eye, and I'll bet you'll know why immediately.

 

This season it is called... Survivor: South Pacific.

 

 

So, immediately my mind went to that weird fantasy place it goes to when I'm bored at work and I daydream of Broadway.  Imagine, if you will, the characters in Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific.  They are the first cast of Survivor: Broadway.

 

• The motto: "Out Sing.  Out Dance.  Out Act."  The location: Bali Hai (really, what else could it be?). 
• The two tribes: Team Forbush vs Team de Becque.

 

The Tribe Leaders share a moment

The "Pretty Girls," the "Eye Candy," the "Smart Guy"

 

• 9 team members per tribe: 1 natural leader (always cut when the team needs him/her the most), 1 villain (so close to winning, but found out just in time). 1 elder (offers great advice, everyone loves him/her, but he/she can't keep up in the challenges), 1 funny guy or bookish, quiet guy (if he/she can get a decent alliance, he/she could win), 2 male eye candy/musclemen (to be shirtless, look good sweaty and to justify the physical challenges), 2 female "babes"/pretty girls (to be catty in those solo confessional segments, to look good in a bikini top and panties, and to squirm in the inevitable mud pit or to be squeamish during a bug eating contest).

 

A tropical setting...

 

...a pretty, exotic young woman...

 

...and a shirtless guy.
Just another episode of Survivor: Broadway!

 

TEAM FORBUSH:

• Leader: Ensign Nellie Forbush
• Villain: Captain George Brackett
• Elder: Commander William Harbison
• Funny Guy: Luther Billis
• 2 Male Eye Candy: Radio Operator Robert McCaffery, Lt. Buzz Adams
• 2 Female Eye Candy: Ensign Dinah Murphy, Ensign Janet MacGregor

 

 

These things happen when the tribes merge!

 

TEAM de BECQUE:

• Leader: Lt. Joseph Cable  
• Villain: Bloody Mary
• Elder: Emile de Becque
• Bookish Guy: The Professor
• 2 Male Eye Candy: Seabee Billy Whitmore, Lt. Eustis Carmichael
• 2 Female Eye Candy: Liat, Ensign Cora MacRae

 

The Physical Challenge: "Long Distance Beach Run...

 

... and Military Formation"

 

THE CHALLENGES:

• Long Distance Beach Running and Military Formation: a test of endurance and mental strength

 

 

"Build a Working Laundry"

• Build a Working Laundry:  a test of teamwork, logic and problem-solving, with just enough brains needed to make it work

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

 

"The Towel Snap and Hair Dry Relay"

 

Looks like Team Forbush won this challenge!

• Towel Snapping and Hair Drying: a relay race under odd conditions

 

Team Forbush wins again

• The Let's Put On A Show Challenge: of course!

 

 

Next Season: Survivor: Broadway All Stars Team Tevye vs Team Mama Rose!  The greatest characters in musical theatre history go head to head in the remote junkyard of Cats!

 

Photos from the Lincoln Center Theatre production of South Pacific; the Original Broadway Cast, the final Broadway Company, and the First National Tour.

 

 

Rate this silliness below, leave your comments here, by email at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com, or Tweet me!
Jeff
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