Broadway

Broadway theatre, simply called Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York and in Manhattan, New York City. Along with London’s West End theatre, Broadway theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Broadway theatre district is a popular tourist in New York City, New York. According to The Broadway League, Broadway shows sold approximately $937 million worth of tickets in the 2007-08 seasons.

Looking for tickets? Getting your hands on tickets can be easy at times and hard at others. Tickets for Broadway can be bought online and at the box office. Buying tickets online is recommended highly because you can print the tickets right after paying with a card of some sort. A couple websites that sell tickets are www.playbill.com, www.theatermania.com, and/or www.broadway.com. Musical tickets can range from $100 to $500 while straight or non-musical tickets range from $100 to $150. Off Broadway tickets are much cheaper and range from $50 to $75. There can also be discounts on tickets for people who cannot afford the real price. In Duffy Square and South Street Seaport, New York, you can find these discount booths that have 25 to 50 percent off face value tickets. These booths are formerly known as TKTS and do not take credit cards.

There are five different shows who currently have made over one million dollars in gross profit last week. These shows are Wicked, West Side Story, Billy Elliot: The Musical, The Lion King, and Jersey Boys. I have never seen a Broadway show yet, but would absolutely love to see the show Wicked. Ever since I was a child, my favorite movie has been the Wizard of Oz. I used to watch it every day with my little brother, Nick. It always reminds me of my little brother whenever I hear of or see the movie. It made me and my little brother bond and become good friends when we were really young.

Wicked tells the story of two girls in the Land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery, and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious, and very popular. Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, the spellbinding musical takes a look at how these unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch. Stephen Schwartz is the producer of the new musical while Joe Mantello is the director. Wicked is the winner of the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical and is currently making the most money while showing on Broadway. The musical Wicket has also won two other Tony Awards in 2004 as well.

The top stars in the show consist of Nicole Parker (Elphaba), Alli Mauzey (Glinda), P.J. Benjamin (The Wizard), Rondi Reed (Madame Morrible), Kevin Kern (Fiyero), Alex Brightman (Boq), Christy Candler (Nessarose), and Timothy Britten Barker (Doctor Dillamond).