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A
Walk Along the
Great White Way:
Broadway
Theatre District Field Trip
Broadway Theatre District is
never an official partition of the city but a general idea
of a wonderland which has inspired countless performing
artists around the world.
From West 38th to West 59th
between Sixth
and Eighth Avenue
, more than eighty theatrical venues have been constructed
among these dozens of street blocks for the past century.
As legitimate theaters or cinema houses, these venues
shall be regarded not only the dearest treasure of American
architecture, but also a living evidence of the performing
arts history.
Originally
located at the lower end of
Manhattan
,
New York
City’s theatre district moved steadily northward
throughout the nineteenth century. In 1904, the subway
system made the renamed Time Square (named under the newly
constructed New York
Times skyscraper) even more accessible with a main stop
at 42ndd Street and Broadway.
Beginning with the now-razed Casino
in 1882, ending fifty years later with Hollywood
(demolished) in 1932, and then Uris
(renamed as Gershwin)
in 1972, Minskoff (1973) and Marquis
(1986), the constructions of these theaters gave this area
the largest concentration of playhouses in the world. This
field trip is conceived to introduce one of the greatest
aspect of
New York City
to our patrons. The entire event will be conducted in
Mandarin.
At
this point, we do not have direct access to the interior of
these venues owing to the performance schedule and security
concerns.
Tour
guide: With
a masters in Cinema Studies (Film History) from
New York
University, Edwin Chen is a film historian and researcher of
Broadway musicals. For detailed information about him,
please click Edwin.
Fees：$20/$16
(Renwen members)/$18 (students)
Size
limit：15~20
people
Place
and time to meet：Shubert Alley
(between West 44th
Street and West 45th Street).
Departure at 2:30 pm promptly.
Schedule
1)
Shubert Alley
We
start from this historic landmark under the plaque that
reads “In honor of all those who glorify the theatre and
who use this short thoroughfare.”
2)
45th
Street Theatres
Visit
the quadruplet on 45th Street: Booth,
Plymouth, Royale and Golden,
and stop in front of the permeate home for Les
Miz, Imperial
Theatre, where Mary
Martin made her Broadway debut, Ethel
Merman first sang “There’s No Business Like Show
Business,” and Jerome
Robbins conquered the entire world with his last new
Broadway musical, Fiddler
on the Roof.
3)
46th
Street Theatres
Do
you know which theatre has presented the most Tony-winning
“Best Musicals” in history? Do you know in which theatre
Oscar Hammerstein II,
the “inventor of American musical theatre” made his last
song heard? They
are all on the
46th Street
.
4)
49th Street
to
52nd
Street
(Broadway)
Come
see the intimate Ambassador
and the prodigious Gershwin,
the first “musical barn” risen in the area.
And don’t forget the place where Julie
Andrews danced with Rex
Harrison in the original My
Fair Lady – The
Time Square Church!
5)
52nd Street
to
47th
Street
(
7th Avenue
)
Winter
Garden, arguably the best house in town, was renamed as Cadillac
Winter Garden in honor of its financial backer. Where
have all the tickets gone? Over here – at the thirty years
old TKTS booth! By
the way, did I mention that the most beautiful cinema
palaces all over the world is now a KFC?
6)
44th Street Theatres
There
are six theatres on the
44th Street
between Time Square
and Eighth Avenue
, nicknamed as “Rodgers and
Hammerstein Lane
,” a.k.a. “
Hits Street
,” for too many smash hits were first originated or later
transferred to the theatres on this short thoroughfare.
However, the first one and the newest one, Minskoff,
is also known as the “cursed” house in the theatre
community. Next to the “cursed house” is Shubert,
Broadhurst and Helen Hayes across the street. At
the end of West 44th are the most celebrated
theatres in the history of American musical: Majestic
and St. James,
where Oklahoma!,
Carousel, South
Pacific, King
and I, and Flower
Drum Song have been playing face to face from the
early forties to the late fifties.
7)
42nd Street Theatres
Our
destination is also the starting point of everything stated:
42nd Street
. Let’s
experience the haunted stories in
New Amsterdam
where a Ziegfeld Follies girl has been reported “still
living” in the house.
During the period from 1997 to 2000, the infamous
“street of evil” has now changed into a perfect
multi-media entertainment center.
The restoration of New
Victory, Apollo,
Lyric, Harris, Selwyn,
and Empire has proved the “New 42nd Street Project” a
huge success. This new
42nd Street
may not have the glamour it used to possess, but the spirits
have returned – thanks to Disney, AMC, the bankrupt Livent
Company and Madame Tussaud’s Wax Muesum.
To
register for this tour, please do the following: Fill
out the following enrollment form and submit it; Mail
a check to
China
Institute
125 East 65th Street
New York, NY
Attn: Renwen Society
If
you pay by a credit card, please call 212-744-8181 ext. 142
or fax your card number, expiration date, your name and
contact information to 212-628-4159. Please address your fax
to Renwen Society. For additional information, please
contact chair@chineselectures.org
or call 212-744-8181 ext. 142.
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