Wayback Wednesday: Broadway in the 1970s

Traveling Tuesday: Broadway in the 1970s

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From 1966 through 1978, I lived in two different locations within New Jersey, both of which enabled my folks to take advantage of the cultural and arts opportunities in New York City. Now, as an adult I can’t imagine what it would have been like to schlep four kids into the city, so I have an even greater appreciation for my experiences. I will remember the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall that featured live animals in the nativity scene!

The 1970s proved to be a time of great change on Broadway, and rock music began to dominate the stage. Conventional musicals such as Oklahoma! were replaced by shows with scores such as Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show, Godspell, and Evita. Other shows such as The Wiz and Pippin featured “funkier” scores. Many productions added theatrics and light shows as part of the show. Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber became highly successful stars in their own right.

Musicals also saw a larger range of genres and plots and included religious themes, experimental story lines and cultural diversity. Interestingly old-fashioned musicals such as Annie and revivals such as No,

Courtesy NADIRAH

No, Nanette saw great success as well. Black musicals made a return to Broadway with Raisin, Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, and the exceedingly popular The Wiz which ran for four years and won seven Tony Awards.

One site mentioned underappreciated shows like Over Here! which starred two of the three Andrews Sisters and is set as a cross-country train trip in the U.S. during WWII. The show begins with a nostalgic look at 1940s America but evolves into a social commentary about the fear of dying in battle, prejudice, and discrimination.

Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp eventually became a cult musical, but didn’t do well and closed after only ten days. Michael Stewart’s Mack and Mabel did marginally better and managed to remain open for sixty-six performances. The plot involves the romantic relationship between Hollywood’s silent movie director Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand who became one of his biggest stars.

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The 1949 Actors’ Equity Agreement divides Broadway from off-Broadway, and there are four criteria used to determine a “Broadway” Theatre:

• Seating capacity of over 500 seats
• Produces mostly “legitimate theater productions” (although I never found how this was determined)
• Is generally within Manhattan’s Theatre District (the Vivian Beaumont Theater is an exception)
• Is under an Actors’ Equity production contract if for-profit and follows the Actors’ Equity LORT A contract if non-profit.

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Dial S for Second Chances

Can years of hurt and misunderstanding be transformed into a second chance at love?

Jade Williams agrees to be on the high school reunion committee because the-one-that-got-away is out of the country and won’t be home in time to attend the festivities. Now, he’s not only home, but joined the committee. Is it too late to back out or can she set aside forty-five years of regret and pretend she isn’t to blame for her broken heart?

One of the downsides of being rich means fielding requests for money and favors. But when an old high school buddy contacts Derek Milligan to be on the reunion committee as just one of the gang, no strings attached, he can’t resist. At the first meeting, he’s dismayed to find himself sitting next to his former high school sweetheart. He should be angry. Instead, he’s attracted. Can he risk his heart a second time?

Reunion festivities include calling into to WDES’s program No Errin’ for Love with fake relationship problems. When both use their real situation, the stakes are raised higher than either imagined.

Pre-order link: https://amzn.to/43tXBlp

Wartime Wednesday: The Stage Door Canteen

Wartime Wednesday: The Stage Door Canteen

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Two and a half decades before the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Stage Women’s War Relief organization was formed to coordinate charitable contributions during The Great War, as WWII was then known. Activities included creating workrooms for sewing uniforms and other garments (with a reported output of nearly two million items), setting up clothing and food collection centers, selling Liberty Bonds, and presenting benefit performances to raise funds. The organization also opened a canteen on Broadway for servicemen. In 1919, the SWWR turned its attention to helping veterans and civilians recover from the war, eventually ceasing operations.

Fast forward to 1939. By request of the U.S. government, Playwright and director Rachel Crothers reestablished the organization as a branch of the British War Relief Society but called it the American Theatre Wing. Founding members were a “who’s who” in the industry including Josephine Hull, Gertrude Lawrence, Theresa Helburn, and Mary Antoinette “Toni” Perry, who would eventually be the inspiration for the Tony Award.

The group initially conducted fundraising events and clothing drives to send overseas to the British

Photo: Library
of Congress

people. However, after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the focus shifted to the American war effort. On March 3, 1942, the first canteen opened at the former Little Club, located under the “44th Street Theatre” in Manhattan, and was donated free of charge by its owner Lee Shubert. Newspapers reported that more than 1,250 servicemen attended opening night with two hundred “actresses of varying importance as hostesses and seventy-five name actors as busboys.”

Two days prior, the public was invited to view the establishment for the price of donations to the kitchen. More than one thousand pounds of sugar was collected! Recruiting was serious business, and applicants were told they would be expected to work through the entire war and required to provide a substitute if they had to miss a shift.

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Despite the lack of alcohol served, the canteen was an instant success. Operating seven nights a week, the building was filled to the gills with servicemen and young women dancing to the music of famous bands and rubbing shoulders with Hollywood and Broadway stars. Food was free to the troops, and the public was generous in its donations of canned goods and other items. Songwriter Irving Berlin contributed all profits from his hit “I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen.” Soon other canteens opened in Boston, Newark, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Washington, DC. Los Angeles’s canteen nearly surpassed the popularity of Broadway’s original facility thanks to its cadre of movie stars. Near the end of the war, London and Paris would each boast a canteen.

Unusual for the times, the canteens were open to servicemen of all Allied nations from every branch of service, mingling men of all nationalities and colors, creating “one of the few democratic institutions in existence anywhere.” (Theatre Arts Magazine, 1943).

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Murder of Convenience

Betrayal, blackmail, and a barrage of unanswered questions.

May 1942: Geneva Alexander flees Philadelphia and joins the USO to escape the engagement her parents have arranged for her, only to wind up as the number one suspect in her betrothed’s murder investigation. Diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease, she must find the real killer before she loses her sight…or is convicted for a crime she didn’t commit.

Set in the early days of America’s entry into WWII and featuring cameo appearances from Hollywood stars, Murder of Convenience is a tribute to individuals who served on the home front, especially those who did so in spite of personal difficulties, reminding us that service always comes as a result of sacrifice.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/4Ax9aN