The bright lights of Broadway go global

Earlier this year, it was announced that IndonesiaKaya, through its Ruang Kreatif programme, would bring back Indonesia Menuju Broadway 2021. The programme was first introduced in 2019, intended for young, talented Indonesian artists ready to progress in their talents and crafts. While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic dictates that this year’s Indonesia Menuju Broadway coaching will be held virtually, their very first Musical Theater Conservatory will be held in a hybrid method--offline as well as online.

The fact that the programme is back and highly anticipated shows the awareness and interest Indonesians have in Broadway and musical theatre. What is so enticing about the programme is that IndonesiaKaya partners with Passport to Broadway, New York to provide art performance training with Broadway standards for the talents. This opens the opportunities for participants to attend training in New York.

Broadway. We may not know exactly what it is, but we sure have all heard of it. There is a picture that comes to mind too. The bright lights, the stage, the music, all the glitz and glamour.

Broadway itself is actually the name of a street in Manhattan, but the name has represented so much more than a street. Just like Hollywood, the name represents a culture, a lifestyle and undying passion of a certain brand of art. The name has been associated with American theatres since 1735, when the first theatre opened on the street.

By the end of the 20th century, the word Broadway had been used to refer to a theatrical district (including Broadway itself and the side streets from Times Square to 53rd Street), a category (over 500 seats) and a sensibility (run strictly for profit). Mostly, the word has been closely associated with the American Musical.

Musical theatre combines songs, spoken dialogue and dance to tell a story. This is not to be confused with a play with music or an opera. A musical often boasts the integration of songs with plot into a cohesive whole. However, not all the lines or stories are delivered as songs; the songs are meant to provide additional insights into the characters or themes. Whereas an opera boasts a story that is nearly all sung, with a dialogue called libretto.

Things did not start out that way, though. It was only in 1943 with “Oklahoma!”, the first musical co-written by the famed duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein, that the world got their first view of an “integrated” show, in which songs and dances became fully integrated into a well-made story, with serious dramatic goals, that is able to evoke genuine emotions other than amusement.

From then on, musicals began to look the way we know and love them today. There are a number of musicals that revolutionised the art along the way. From “West Side Story” (1957), which conveyed much of its plot through dance, to “Hamilton” (2015) which superimposes hip hop music, lyrics and dance onto an old-fashioned, Masterpiece Theatre-style biographical drama about the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Going back to the name “Broadway”, we also have Off-Broadway (and Off-Off-Broadway) shows. The initial Off-Broadway movement centred on widely dispersed theatres, often located within converted spaces, that were creating productions perceived as too risky by Broadway theatres and once known for championing innovative playwrights and often-experimental productions. Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theatres are located throughout New York City, mostly in Greenwich Village and the West Side.

Generally, the distinction has to do with theatre sizes: theatres with up to 99 seats generally are considered Off-Off-Broadway, 99-499 seats fall under Off-Broadway, while 500 people and larger capacity generally denotes Broadway. Sometimes, when an Off-Broadway production experiences a significant amount of success, the productions would subsequently move to Broadway.

The 1950s all the way to the mid-1970s was a prolific period in terms of quality Broadway productions, with titles such as “Guys and Dolls” (1950), “My Fair Lady” (1956), “Hair” (1967) and “Chicago” (1975). The latter part of the 1970s and through the 1980s unfortunately was not as prolific, with some considering it the years of decline in the Broadway district; crimes were rampant, several theatres closed and shops were converted to adult entertainment clubs.

Broadway truly gathered the attention of the mainstream crowd in the 1990s when the entertainment and media giant Disney joined in on the fun. It was a match made in entertainment heaven, given how much Disney incorporates music into its movies and how big some of its original soundtracks had become. And, boy, did they pick the right production to start it all.

Disney's first venture on Broadway was with “Beauty and the Beast” in April 1994. The production was nominated for nine Tony Awards in its first year, including the award for Best Musical. The Broadway production ran for thirteen years and is currently the tenth longest-running show in Broadway history.

Then, “The Lion King” opened on Broadway in November 1997. It would go on to win six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. To date, over 100 million people worldwide have seen the show. It is Broadway's third longest-running show in history and has grossed more than $1 billion, making it the highest grossing Broadway production of all time.

Meanwhile, mainstream entertainers “crossing over” to Broadway and vice versa have also helped grow the popularity of Broadway productions. The likes of Hugh Jackman, Nick Jonas and Ariana Grande have all graced a Broadway stage at some point in their respective careers. A number of Broadway original productions have also gone to the big screen, such as “RENT” (2005), “Hairspray” (2007) and the Golden Globe Awards and BAFTA winning “Les Misérables” (2012).

And of course there was TV’s “Glee” (2009), a show that figured out a way to make musicals and glee clubs cool again. The show covered some notable Broadway musicals’ songs, including “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl”.

At this point in our history, it is safe to say that Broadway has become a global brand. As Savran (2017) eloquently put it, “Although the Broadway musical is customarily perceived as the most distinctively US theatre form -whose national and municipal identity is embedded in its name- it has circumnavigated the globe countless times.

As the globalised cultural economy increasingly facilitates the worldwide circulation of multinational theatrical productions, Broadway-style musicals are being manufactured from Hamburg to Shanghai. They are no longer a specifically US form, but a global brand that freely crosses borders, genres and styles.”

That is not to say that Broadway is perceived uniformly across the globe. In South Korea, for example, musicals, whether imported from the US or Europe or made in Korea, are considered an elite brand of entertainment that appeals to audience with a taste for socially liberal art. This is not exactly the case in Broadway’s homeland, the United States.

Broadway has been an inclusive community, too, with a number of minority groups being closely associated with the brand, particularly the LGBTQ and deaf communities. Speaking of the latter, in 2015 the popular Broadway musical “Spring Awakening” had a revival by Deaf West Theatre, which was re-imagined and performed simultaneously in English and American Sign Language. The production, which employed deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as hearing actors, garnered three Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical.

Nowadays, as with everything under the sun, Broadway has been affected by the ongoing pandemic. Before, Broadway audience was made up of 35% local residents and 65% tourists. Unfortunately, it is estimated that Broadway will not fully regain its tourist audience until 2025. Therefore, Broadway will need to develop and produce content tailored more towards the 35% of audience that hail from New York City and its suburbs and rely less on the international tourists (19%) and domestic tourists (46%).

This may mean more newly opened musicals, star-vehicle plays and special limited-run and concert events will reign over long-running established productions. We shall see. The world has long been enchanted by the bright lights of Broadway, thus it will wait until Broadway makes a complete revival.