The first time I visited New York City, at age 13, I saw five Broadway shows in six days and vowed to move there as soon as I could. The new Museum of Broadway, which opened in November after a long, COVID-induced delay, is designed for people like me, who felt the call of the theater—albeit mostly as an audience member.
Spanning four floors and 26,000 square feet, the MoB (not the best acronym, admittedly) is packed with history, memorabilia, and the kind of behind-the-scenes knowledge every Broadway diehard craves—and the diehards are exactly who’s coming. The nine other people in my timed ticket group on a Friday morning in January oohed and aahed over the little red dress from Annie, sang along to “Seasons of Love” while taking in the Rent display, quickly solved Sondheim anagrams (Downiest Hoot = Into the Woods), and gamely tried to learn dance steps from West Side Story alongside a video projection of Robbie Fairchild. They also, like me, savored reading the incredibly thorough historical timelines, stretching back to New York theater’s beginnings in the 1700s and including fun facts, like how the actress Olga Nethersole was arrested in 1900 for portraying a seductress and “violating public decency” in the play Sapho.
Maybe the neatest thing (aside from Oscar Hammerstein handwritten lyric notes for Oklahoma!, which are full of words that rhyme with “surrey”) is The Making of a Broadway Show, an exhibit designed by architect and set designer David Rockwell. Here, stage managers, makeup artists, composers, lighting designers, and even dry cleaners get their due. It makes you realize how much work goes into a production—and how there’s a role for everyone. Mine, for now, is to keep buying tickets. Until I find the time to write that play…
