Bringing Broadway back to the Niswonger

Start spreading the news. We’re leaving today — back to the very heart of it … Van Wert, Van Wert! Goodbye New York City and hello home! The bright lights beckon as the birthplace of Broadway, but the purpose of Van Wert Live is to bring those stage delights home to you.

The APAP conference in NYC is the place where agents and presenters come together to work on opportunities. Of course, pricing and routing, as well as content, is top of mind when making deals so that both the desire for the show and the ticket price make it accessible for our ticket buyers. Kylie Owens, marketing director for Van Wert Live, and I are back from a whirlwind of meetings and showcases with opportunities to light up Van Wert with entertainment in the year to come.

So what exactly is Broadway? This refers to a location found in the theater district located in Manhattan in New York City. For a performance to be considered Broadway, it must be held in any of the 40 professional theaters that have 500 or more seats found in this area. A performance to be held on Broadway is a mark of success that is considered to be the highest level attainable for commercial theater.

The origins of Broadway history in New York did not begin until 1750 when Thomas Kean and Walter Murray opened a theater company on Nassau Street. This theater was large enough to hold 280 patrons and typically put on Shakespearian plays and ballad operas. One of the most popular ballad operas of the time was The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay. Theater stopped in the city during the Revolutionary War, but began again in 1798. The Park Theater, a 2,000 seat theater, was built.

The longest-running plays on Broadway are typically musicals, with more than 100 different musicals that have all run for more than 1,000 performances. The longest-running show is The Phantom of the Opera (30 record-breaking years), which has more than 12,000 performances and is still playing on Broadway at this time. Before that, Cats was the longest-running show, closing after 7,485 performances in 2000 and then Les Miserables, closing after 6,691 performances in 2003. Broadway’s longest-running revival is Chicago, which is currently still performing after opening in 1996 and currently numbered at 6,208 performances. It is also the longest-running show to have premiered on Broadway. Although Kylie and I were in New York City, it was Chicago that filled our Broadway craving.

More recent Box Office greats are Hamilton ($130M), The Lion King ($105M), Wicked ($91M), Aladdin ($81M), The Book of Mormon ($70M). Hamilton topping the list despite the small size of the 1,321-seat theater is a massive achievement of success.  Tickets for Hamilton cost on average $300 per person. According to the Broadway League, attendance in Broadway theaters easily surpassed the ticket sales of the 10 professional sports teams in New York and New Jersey by 2.7M admissions — a true testament to the popularity and timeless success of traditional theater.

The first Broadway show in Van Wert was Annie on December 10, 2009. Since that grand success, numerous other titles, including The Heights, Fiddler On the Roof, West Side Story, Mamma Mia, Joseph And the Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Sound of Music, have entertained thousands.

This next week on Thursday, January 23, The Bandstand will take the stage. This Tony Award-nominated show includes a live band on stage that sets the tone for the veteran’s story of healing and redemption thanks to music and a band of friends. We have saved you the flight to NYC. 

It is a momentous event in Van Wert when Broadway comes to our town, thanks to the visionary support and power of the Van Wert County Foundation, a proven tech director and volunteer staff, sponsor partners, members, and our revered ticket buyers. See you at the show!