David Merrick’s classic ad for the 1961 Broadway musical SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING, shown above.
Faced with lukewarm reviews, Merrick devised an elaborate stunt to bring it publicity. He found seven people who happened to have the same names as seven well-known theater critics.
He then invited these seven people to a free performance of the play and afterwards wined and dined them until they agreed to let him use their names in the ad. It was entirely truthful. Richard Watts really did say that the play was "a knockout from start to finish." However, the theater critic Richard Watts had never said those words.
Merrick later confessed that he had wanted to pull off this stunt for many years. But he couldn't find a person with the same name as the famous critic Brooks Atkinson of the Times. When Atkinson retired in 1961, Merrick seized his opportunity
The average attendee age was 41. This is good news as the age is lowering, meaning B'way is attracting younger audiences.
34% of audiences identified as BIPOC, the highest in three decades. BIPOC is Black, indigenous and people of color.
Among those 25 years and older, 83% had a college degree and 43% held a graduate degree.
Theatregoers reported an average household income of $276,465.
The average person saw 5.4 shows, up from 4.7 last season.
“Super-attendees” who saw 15+ shows made up 8% of the audience but bought 40%of all tickets.
53% said they’re attending more shows than five years ago; 27% are attending the same amount.
94% plan to see another Broadway show in the future. This is an impressive figure and shows that B'way has staying power.
The average ticket price paid was $145.70, down from $154.70. Once again, this is good news -- lower ticket prices make B'way more accessible to more people.
Personal recommendations remained the top factor for choosing a show.
Instagram was the most commonly cited source of Broadway information. Note the dramatic shift here to social media -- and a social media platform that reaches a younger audience.
Tickets were typically purchased 33 days before the performance.
As those of you who follow this blog know, we are are huge Broadway fans So, we were were really looking forward to Richard Linklater's new movie Blue Moon about the last days of Rodgers and Hart and the first night of Rodgers and Hammerstein. We hoped to see it on the big screen but it didn't hang around long enough at a local theater for us to catch it. So, we paid $19.95 to watch it on Apple TV and we can say that it was absolutely worth it, and we're here to tell you why
Director Linklater’s Blue Moon is a moody, beautifully contained portrait of lyricist Lorenz Hart on the night Oklahoma! premieres — the moment Broadway shifts away from the world he once ruled. Ethan Hawke delivers a stunning, career-peak performance, capturing Hart’s quick wit, aching vulnerability, and corrosive self-doubt with a rawness that never feels theatrical, even when the film intentionally leans into stage-like visual devices.
It's a very tightly contained movie that details one night in the life of the principals and it all takes place within the confines of the legendary theatrical haunt, Sardi's in Manhattan. Because of this the movie can seem a bit claustrophobic at times and, we must warn you, it is very wordy. But the entire cast is so good and the performances are so polished that these limitations are easily overcome.
And Blue Moon is a movie that naturally leans into conversation and memory, all propelled by Hawke’s merciless charisma. It’s the sort of intimate filmmaking that we don't find anymore and it's bound to please fans of actor-driven period pieces and anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes aches of creative life. Hawke, who's in every frame of this movie, is a near certain Oscar nominee and several members of the supporting cast could be in the running as well.
Margaret Qualley brings warmth and subtle tension as the young woman who becomes Hart’s accidental confessor, while Andrew Scott offers a cool, understated turn as Richard Rodgers, hinting at the creative and emotional struggles beneath their legendary partnership. As Hart's bartender and patient listener, Bobby Cannavale is a street smart counselor, best friend and willing one-man audience all rolled into one.
There's an extended scene with Rodgers and Hart alone amidst a crowd of admirers where you get the sense that their's was a bromance that survived overwhelming early fame only to wither amidst the same ying and yang that brought them together in the first place. Rodgers was the deliberate, focused craftsman while Hart was the jittery, obsessive and ultimately self-destructive auteur who was nonetheless a lyrical genius. One can only imagine what might have been if they had more years together.
Linklater uses this intimate chamber piece to evoke the glittering Broadway of the 1920s–40s — a world shaped by Rodgers & Hart’s sophisticated, slangy, emotionally complex songs — and to show how that era gave way to the integrated, story-driven musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein. In the process, Blue Moon becomes both an elegy for a vanished musical style and a bruising character study of a man who helped define it.
For all its wit and polish, this is not a cheerful story. Hart was a tortured soul -- acerbic, alcoholic, sexually confused and lonely. But show business is a tough racket, darlings. And you know the old saw: there's a broken heart (or, in this case Hart) for every light on Broadway.
Quiet, smart, and unexpectedly haunting, Blue Moon lingers long after the final fade-out.
I decided to make a list of every Broadway show I've ever seen.
And the list kept growing and growing and growing. So far I've got 287. I've just added another to the list and am about to add yet another.
Mind you, I've seen some of these shows two or three times.
I've put an asterisk (*) next to some of my very favorites. I've put a pound (#) next to some of the shows I've seen more than once. And the tilde (~) represents shows that flopped.
How many hours in the theater does this amount to? Probably more than 700! Going over these shows brought back so many memories of time spent in the tender, enveloping arms of Broadway theaters.
Of course, some shows I barely remember while others stand out so vividly in my mind I feel like they are part of me. And all the moments that come to mind! For example, one weekend we saw three musicals, each 20 years apart: Barnam from the 1980s, Camelot from the 1960s and Oklahoma! from the 1940s -- all one word titles, too. What a weekend that was!
The real standouts include the magnificent Hal Prince production of Show Boat; Sondheim's original Sweeney Todd, Sunday In The Park With George and Pacific Overtures; Tommy Tune's Will Rogers Follies and Nine; Jerry Herman's Hello Dolly!, Mame and La Cage; Lloyd Webber's Phantom and Sunset Boulevard, and so many, many stars: Carol Channing, Lena Horne, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mandy Patinkin, Tommy Tune, Raul Julia, Nathan Lane, Gregory Hines, Jerry Orbach, Audra McDonald, Robert Preston, Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Jordan, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Debbie Reynolds, Sammy Davis, Hugh Jackman, Gregory Hines, Ramin Karimloo and on and on!
This is still an incomplete list, but here it is up to this point:
110 In The Shade
1776
42nd Street* A Bronx Tale
A Chorus Line
A Day In Hollywood/A Night In The Ukraine
A Funny Thing . . . #
A Gentlemen’s Guide To . . .
Ain't Too Proud
A Joyful Noise
A Little Night Music
Alladin All American~
Always, Patsy Cline
A Matter of Gravity Amelie Anastasia
A Party With . . .
A View From the Bridge#
After Midnight*
After the Fall
Ain’t Misbehavin’*
An American in Paris*
Annie
Annie Get Your Gun# Any Wednesday
Anything Goes
Applause
Assassins
Baby~
Back To The Future
Barnum*
Beautiful
Beauty and the Beast Beetlejuice
Big
Big Fish~
Big River
Blithe Spirit*#
Bonnie & Clyde~ Brigadoon
Bubbling Brown Sugar
Bullets Over Broadway Butterflies Are Free
Bye, Bye Birdie#
Cabaret*
Camelot#
Can-Can
Candide
Carousel*#
Catch Me If You Can
Chapter Two
Chess*
Chicago*#
Chinglish~
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Cinderella
City of Angels
Clothes for a Summer Hotel~ Coco
Company*#
Crazy for You
Curtains
Damn Yankees
Death Becomes Her
Defending The Caveman
Design For Living#
Elaine Stritch At Liberty* End Of Te Rainbow
Equus
Eubie!
Evita
Fiddler on the Roof
Finding Neverland
Finian’s Rainbow* Fiorello#
Five Guys Named Moe
Follies*#
Footloose Forty Carats
Foxy
Funny Girl
Gigi
Girl From The North Country
Godspell
Golden Boy
Golden Rainbow~ Grand Hotel#
Grease
Grey Gardens
Grind~ Groundhog Day
Guys and Dolls#
Gypsy*
Hadestown
Hair
Hairspray
Hamilton
Happy Birthday, Gemini~
Harmony
Hay Fever
Hello, Dolly!*#
Henry Sweet henry Here's Love~
Here We Are
High Fidelity~
High Society
Honeymoon in Vegas~
How To Succeed In Business . . .# I Do, I Do
I Love My Wife I Married An Angel
I Remember Mama~
Into The Woods
Irene~ It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman
It Shoulda Been You~
It’s Only a Play
I’m Not Rappaport
Jackie Mason on Broadway
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well
Jekyll & Hyde
Jelly's Last Jam
Jersey Boys#
Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Kelly~
Kinky Boots
Kiss Me, Kate#
Kiss of the Spider Woman
La Cage aux Folles
Last of the Red Hot Lovers
Legally Blonde
Lena Horne – The Lady and Her Music#
Lend Me A Tenor
Les Miserables
Light Up The Sky
Little Me*#
Little Shop of Horrors#
Lorelei~
Love Life Love Never Dies~
Luther
M. Butterfly Mack & Mabel
Mame*#
Man of La Mancha
Mandy Patinkin in Concert Marat/Sade
Mary Poppins
Mass Appeal
Matilda
Maybe Happy Ending
Me and My Girl*#
Memphis
Metro~
Million Dollar Quartet
Miss Moffat~
Mr. Saturday Night
Moon Over Buffalo
Mornings At Seven
Motown
Moulin Rouge
Mr. Saturday Night
Mrs. Doubtfire
Mummenschanz
My Fair Lady#
My One and Only*
Newsies Network
Nice Work If You Can Get It*
Nine*
No, No, Nanette*
Noises Off
Oh Coward! Oh! What A Lovely War
Oklahoma!*#
Oliver!* Once On This Island
Once Upon a Mattress
On Your Toes
On the Town
On the Twentieth Century
Over Here!
Pacific Overtures*#
Paint Your Wagon
Pal Joey
Paradise Alley~
Passion
Penn & Teller
Peter Pan*
Pippin
Pirates! The Penzance Musical Play It Again, Sam Present Laughter Pretty Woman Prince of Broadway
Private Lives#
Promises, Promises
Pump Boys and Dinettes
Putting It Together
Purlie Victorious
Pygmalion
Ragtime*#
Road Show
Rocky Romulus~
Same Time, Next Year
Saturday Night Fever
Seesaw She Loves Me
Shenandoah
Show Boat*#
Shucked Shuffle Along*
Side Show
Side by Side by Sondheim*
Singin’ In The Rain#
Sly Fox
Smokey Joe’s Cafe
Social Security~
Some Like It Hot
Something Rotten!
Sophisticated Ladies*
South Pacific*
Spamalot Sponge Bob Square Pants
Starlight Express
Steel Pier~
Sugar~
Sugar Babies*#
Sunday in the Park with George*
Sunset Boulevard*
Sweeney Todd*
Teddy & Alice~
The Addams Family The Band Wagon The Band's Visit
The Belle of Amherst
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Book og Mormon
The Boy From Oz
The Bridges of Madison County~
The Drowsy Chaperone*
The Flying Karamazov Brothers The Front Page
The Full Monty
The Glass Menagerie
The Goodbye Girl
The Great Gatsby The Happy Time
The Illusionists
The King and I*#
The Life~
The Light in the Piazza
The Magic Show
The Most Happy Fella
The Music Man*# The New Yorkers
The Phantom of the Opera
The Play That Goes Wrong
The Producers
The Red Shoes~
The Ritz
The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life . . .
The Sound of Music
The Wedding Singer~
The Will Rogers Follies*
The Wiz
They’re Playing Our Song
This Was Burlesque*
Thoroughly Modern Millie*
Titanic*#
Tommy Tune Tonite! Tootsie*
Vanya and Sonia And Masha and Spike*
Victor Victoria*
Vieux Carré~ Waitress War Paint
Water For Elephants
We Take The Town~
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?*#
Wicked
Wonderful Town
You Can’t Take It With You
Young Frankenstein
Zorba#
Legend: * personal fave # seen more than once ~ flop
It was Broadway's Biggest Night last night and it did not disappoint.
Here's the wrap up on the 2025 Tony Awards and the comple list of winners:
Here are the Tony wins by show:
Many Happy Endings – 6 Buena Vista Social Club – 4 Stranger Things: The First Shadow – 3 Sunset Blvd. – 3 Oh, Mary! – 2 The Picture Of Dorian Gray – 2 Purpose – 2 Death Becomes Her – 1 Eureka Day – 1 Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical – 1 Yellow Face – 1
And now, the list:
Best Musical Maybe Happy Ending
Best Play Purpose
Best Revival of a Play Eureka Day
Best Revival of a Musical Sunset Blvd.
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending (shown above)
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play Francis Jue, Yellow Face
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play Kara Young, Purpose
Best Scenic Design of a Play Miriam Buether and 59, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Best Scenic Design of a Musical Dane Laffrey and George Reeve, Maybe Happy Ending
Best Costume Design of a Play Marg Horwell, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best Costume Design of a Musical Paul Tazewell, Death Becomes Her
Best Lighting Design of a Play Jon Clark, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Best Lighting Design of a Musical Jack Knowles, Sunset Blvd.
Best Sound Design of a Play Paul Arditti, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Best Sound Design of a Musical Jonathan Deans, Buena Vista Social Club
Best Direction of a Play Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary!
Best Direction of a Musical Michael Arden, Maybe Happy Ending
Best Choreography Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, Buena Vista Social Club
Best Orchestrations Marco Paguia, Buena Vista Social Club
Best Book of a Musical Maybe Happy Ending Will Aronson and Hue Park
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre Maybe Happy Ending Music: Will Aronson Lyrics: Will Aronson and Hue Park
