A Play in The Past

Kid Reporter Gracelynn Conway at the Museum of Broadway

Have you ever wanted to be part of a Broadway show? The Museum of Broadway, which opened in November of 2022, might be your perfect destination.  Located at 145 West 45th Street, New York, the museum offers a journey through the history of Broadway, beginning with the first Broadway show in 1732.

The experience starts with the playbills for the shows.  The playbills give information on how the musicals or plays came to be.  Some of the more popular shows now are Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Hamilton and Wicked.  In the next part, a scree bub a separate room shows you a video detailing the history that is not extensively explained in the museum. The video lasts 2-5 minutes, which allows you to go your own pace through the timeline. The timeline explains the earlier history of certain shows, and throughout the timeline, there are props and costumes from various shows. 

Once you go through and finish the timeline, you walk to another room that is filled with even more props and costumes with the names of those who had worn them.  Through the whole experience, there are places where you can sit or pose with various props to catch a fun and unique photo memory.  Museum staff members are around to help you with any pictures but will also remind you that props are not to be touched.

A Chat with Julie Boardman

            Julie Boardman is the co-founder and executive producer of the Museum of Broadway.  “It’s kind of crazy, but there never was a Broadway Museum or Museum of Broadway before,” Julie exclaimed. She believes that one of the most moving exhibits is the one dedicated to the AIDS Epidemic. “A portion of all tickets sales goes back to Broadway Cares,” she said.  To this, she pointed out the quilt hanging in the exhibit and the names on the walls that represent those who were lost to AIDS and their shows.

Boardman also works in the Broadway community, and she obtains the items displayed through theater connections.  A lot of the items are loaned, and other items are owned by the Museum.  For her, Covid was the biggest part of time that impacted Broadway.  Broadway had shut down starting March 12, 2020, and according to the plaque on the timeline, productions were supposed to be suspended for 32 days.

“The devasting shutdown ultimately lasted more than fifteen months,” Boardman said, with the first show reopening on June 26, 2021. Boardman expressed how many who worked in the theaters struggled financially.

Final Thoughts

Boardman’s final thought was about how in theatre, you do not have to be an actor to be there. Just because you want to do a musical does not mean you have to do any speaking or singing roles, sometimes all it requires is moving items around from back to front stage. The whole process of a musical does not happen just like that.  It can take years to go from that idea to the stage.