This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to another episode of Half Hour with Jeff and Richie, the podcast where we dig deep into the shows we see on Broadway.

[0:06] Richie Grasso: But this week we won't be discussing a show, but we would rather discuss our trip to the Museum of Broadway, which is now open in New York City.

[0:16] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff, a music industry producer and manager.

[0:19] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, a theater director and producer.

[0:21] Jeff Malone: Let's dive into the Museum of Broadway.

[0:26] Richie Grasso: Half hour.

[0:31] Jeff Malone: Hello everyone.

[0:32] Richie Grasso: Welcome, welcome.

[0:33] Jeff Malone: I just wanted to give you all a little quick overview on this museum.

[0:36] Richie Grasso: As you know, we are not discussing a show today.

[0:39] Jeff Malone: We're discussing a trip to the Museum of Broadway.

[0:41] Richie Grasso: So some of you have been, some of you have not.

[0:43] Jeff Malone: There will be spoilers on this.

[0:44] Richie Grasso: Um, I know some people really like to not be spoiled when they go to a museum.

[0:48] Jeff Malone: So I'm just letting you know you have been warned.

[0:50] Richie Grasso: We're gonna tell you everything about the museum.

[0:51] Jeff Malone: So you might either want to go, uh, or if you've already gone, hopefully you'll enjoy that conversation.

[0:57] Richie Grasso: Uh, the Museum of Broadway is founded by entrepreneur and two-time Tony Award-winning producer Julie Boardman and founder of award-winning experimental agency Rubik Marketing, Diane Nicoletti.

[1:07] Jeff Malone: This one of a kind museum is an immersive and interactive theatrical experience devoted to musicals, plays, and the people who create them.

[1:14] Richie Grasso: Featuring the work of dozens of designers, artists, and theater historians.

[1:17] Jeff Malone: This one of a kind museum takes visitors on a journey along the timeline of Broadway from its birth to the present day, where the past, present, and future of Broadway come together like never before.

[1:27] Richie Grasso: And I just want to say this is located in Midtown.

[1:30] Jeff Malone: I believe it's 45th Street, and it's right next to the Lyceum Theater.

[1:35] Richie Grasso: It's right literally in the heart of Times Square.

[1:38] Jeff Malone: Uh, if you're looking for something to do on a rainy day, or maybe you're looking at something to do in between shows or before a show.

[1:45] Richie Grasso: This is a really, really great couple hours to spend in midtown for sure.

[1:49] Jeff Malone: So let's go a little bit into this, Jeff, and talk just about what did we like, about the design, the flow.

[1:54] Richie Grasso: There was a whole flow to this museum that was not like your typical, well, here's a map, kind of walking around wherever you want.

[2:02] Jeff Malone: Like when we go to the MoMA or the Met or something, and you kind of just say, you go wherever, you know, this is very different, right?

[2:09] Richie Grasso: So what did you kind of think of the whole design and flow?

[2:12] Jeff Malone: Well, okay, before I do that, I did want to ask you a question because I feel like this leads into the design and flow first.

[2:18] Richie Grasso: But sorry, I just hit my mic.

[2:21] Jeff Malone: But um when you think of a museum, and I feel like I haven't been to enough museums in my life, but when you think of a museum, what do you feel like you want to expect from it?

[2:31] Richie Grasso: I think that's a great way to start this up.

[2:33] Jeff Malone: That is a great way.

[2:33] Richie Grasso: I want to learn something and I want to experience a specific thing that is there.

[2:39] Jeff Malone: So if I'm going to the Louvre and I'm going to go see the famous Mona Lisa, I know that I'm gonna go see the Mona Lisa, but there's a million other things to see there too, right?

[2:49] Richie Grasso: So I feel like when we went to the Art Institute of Chicago, we saw Sunday in the Park with George, like you're going to see that, but I do you remember some of the other amazing art pieces we experienced?

[2:59] Jeff Malone: So I think it's about going to see something specific and also learning new things and immersing yourself and kind of just reading things, looking at artifacts and kind of getting in touch with a specific genre of that museum.

[3:14] Richie Grasso: Right.

[3:14] Jeff Malone: And kind of when you go to a museum, most of them have like an exhibit, right?

[3:19] Richie Grasso: So you're you'll be in the Andy Warhol exhibit or you're in the Van Gogh exhibit.

[3:24] Jeff Malone: And like it's not spread out everywhere.

[3:27] Richie Grasso: Usually you have those specific parts.

[3:29] Jeff Malone: So anyway, I wanted to kind of lead into that with this because I wanted to touch on how this museum was designed for Broadway, for the Broadway musicals, the plays, the history of it, and then kind of move into that.

[3:43] Richie Grasso: For sure.

[3:43] Jeff Malone: So and I feel like when you start at the beginning of this, you're starting with this, you walk in and there's this like big gift shop, right?

[3:50] Richie Grasso: Which like I know, it's so funny.

[3:52] Jeff Malone: You start in the gift shop.

[3:53] Richie Grasso: Yeah, usually you end in the gift shop, but it's but for that to be their storefront and what you see from the street and to get tourists to come in and buy tickets and then buy things, it makes complete sense to have a gift shop in New York, like down in the front and center, you know.

[4:04] Jeff Malone: Oh, yeah, and highlighting the shows that are on Broadway right now and letting them sell merchandise there is totally like I get it.

[4:10] Richie Grasso: Um, and where else are you gonna put that?

[4:12] Jeff Malone: New York City small.

[4:13] Richie Grasso: So they you know, they found this nice venue to do that.

[4:16] Jeff Malone: But in terms of flow, I like how they bring us in, and it's like, um, we're going up the stairs and we're learning about like what it's like to get into the Broadway theater.

[4:29] Richie Grasso: And then like we kind of get to the first exhibit, and oh well, first we watch a film and they kind of tell us about it.

[4:38] Jeff Malone: And before that, even let's talk about that staircase walk-up.

[4:42] Richie Grasso: I think that was really cool to walk up.

[4:45] Jeff Malone: It didn't even feel like you were walking up multiple flights of stairs because we kind of took our time and you were seeing actual behind the scene photos of people getting into hair and makeup, and you're hearing audio of like warming up vocals, dance warmups, and and places call and all this stuff, and and just immersing yourself into that was very, very smart.

[5:04] Richie Grasso: I thought that was a smart way.

[5:06] Jeff Malone: It was clear that we were gonna start at the top of this building and work our way down.

[5:10] Richie Grasso: So what goes up must come down.

[5:12] Jeff Malone: So we gotta get up there.

[5:13] Richie Grasso: And yes, there was an elevator option as well, but the stairs was very cool.

[5:17] Jeff Malone: And even before we got to that museum, there was the room of every playbill of every show currently running at that time.

[5:24] Richie Grasso: So you saw what theaters were vacant, what theaters had something in it, and it was like a holding room before we went to watch the film.

[5:29] Jeff Malone: So those things I thought were very cool.

[5:31] Richie Grasso: And it's funny with the holding room because you're looking around and you're like, oh my God, there's so many shows here, like so many theaters that are empty right now, but we already know everything that's coming.

[5:41] Jeff Malone: And it's kind of like frightening in a way.

[5:43] Richie Grasso: You're like, oh man, so much is coming.

[5:46] Jeff Malone: It's going to be another packed season with shows.

[5:50] Richie Grasso: But I like what they kind of did to bring you in first with watching this film and kind of giving you the history of how like theater was really starting and how really theater started downtown first, then slowly trickled its way up to Broadway.

[6:03] Jeff Malone: I thought that was great because I didn't know that.

[6:06] Richie Grasso: Yeah, it totally makes sense that when um immigrants were coming here, or lower Manhattan was a really diverse and concentrated area of people.

[6:16] Jeff Malone: And so theater there are some small theaters still downtown that are still like around, and there is still a theater scene downtown.

[6:24] Richie Grasso: So but then it was like, of course, big build big buildings were gonna be built as you moved north, and the theater investors and and entrepreneurs and builders were gonna find they kind of you know, they say they skipped over Union Square, they skipped over Herald Square, they kind of bopped up to Times Square.

[6:41] Jeff Malone: And then you know, Times Square is what it is because of the theater district, I think.

[6:45] Richie Grasso: And and four 41 Broadway theaters, but there was hundreds, there was so many Broadway theaters.

[6:50] Jeff Malone: They even mentioned when the Marquee Theater was being built, four Broadway houses had to go away for one, and that's what started the movement of saving these theaters.

[7:00] Richie Grasso: So, why in the last like 30 years have we really never seen a theater like go away or get torn down?

[7:06] Jeff Malone: Because they're a lot of them are either historic landmarks or they have to stay there.

[7:10] Richie Grasso: Uh, there are architectural gorgeous buildings, and they stay, and yeah, we you we renovate them like the Palace Theater, we definitely renovate and add, but it's nice to see the theater district with 41 houses still staying strong and still putting houses there.

[7:24] Jeff Malone: And so, yes, that film about five minutes was very important to learn how we got to the beginning of Broadway and everything leading up to it.

[7:32] Richie Grasso: Such an immersive and amazing film to watch.

[7:35] Jeff Malone: Well, it's also interesting to know like there are still other theaters like still around that potentially could go back into the Broadway scene.

[7:42] Richie Grasso: Um, like recently, when did the Hudson just come back into the Broadway scene?

[7:46] Jeff Malone: You know, that was gone for a while, and now it's like back in the here.

[7:50] Richie Grasso: So you know, you never know if they're gonna pop up.

[7:53] Jeff Malone: So I I liked the flow and how we kind of moved into these exhibits and the kind of start of the history of Broadway, like where influences came in from immigrants into the Broadway scene, and kind of just taking you around there and like looking and saying, Oh, you know, here are the theater owners and here are the theater creators that kind of took over and kind of paved that way into what the first exhibit was, which was Follies.

[8:22] Richie Grasso: So the Ziegfeld that oh, the Ziegfeld Follies to be confused with the musical Follies.

[8:28] Jeff Malone: Yes, but yes, and so yeah, there was that little bit of history.

[8:31] Richie Grasso: There was photos, there was some artifacts of theater pre the Follies.

[8:35] Jeff Malone: So if for those of you, you know, I love my theater history, my Broadway history, the Ziegfeld Follies really was a big start to commercial mainstream musical theater as we know it today.

[8:45] Richie Grasso: We do know that shows like Porgy and Bess, Showboat in Oklahoma were the main start of the musical theater art form as we know it today with a book and a music song combination.

[8:56] Jeff Malone: This the Follies was a song and dance review show in Ziegfeld.

[8:59] Richie Grasso: I mean, that was a huge, huge, huge thing.

[9:02] Jeff Malone: And so to see some of those actual gowns to be submerged into that with the music playing.

[9:09] Richie Grasso: And let's talk about that for a second.

[9:10] Jeff Malone: Every exhibit will, as we go through this, had music playing from that time or those shows.

[9:15] Richie Grasso: So, you know, when you're in a museum, an art museum, usually it's quiet.

[9:17] Jeff Malone: So it was nice to hear the audio pumped through.

[9:20] Richie Grasso: I thought that was really cool.

[9:21] Jeff Malone: It was a really cool.

[9:22] Richie Grasso: My question to you on this was how did you feel the more immersive style of museum kind of presents versus your traditional museum?

[9:31] Jeff Malone: For this, I loved it because we're talking about productions and shows.

[9:35] Richie Grasso: So when you're providing actual costumes and scenery and lighting and put yourself in it, like have fun with it.

[9:41] Jeff Malone: I think, first of all, I will say, is there a risk for things to be touched, broken, damaged?

[9:46] Richie Grasso: Yeah, of course.

[9:47] Jeff Malone: And so while we were walking through some of this, I was like, oh, how do they like monitor keeping these things safe?

[9:53] Richie Grasso: Um, but there was so much staff everywhere.

[9:56] Jeff Malone: And I was really impressed with the Museum of Broadway staff.

[9:58] Richie Grasso: Shout out to all those staff members who are in the exhibits with you, taking your photos or answering your questions or guiding you along.

[10:05] Jeff Malone: That was really impressive to me.

[10:07] Richie Grasso: But yeah, I liked how some things weren't immersive and I could just read on the wall, and then some things like super immersive, like Follies, there was the nightstand there or the um the dressing stand, and then there was also like Oklahoma with all the corn, and you could walk through and see like, wow, this is like being in the scenery.

[10:31] Jeff Malone: Like everyone.

[10:32] Richie Grasso: I do I think there could have been a little bit more history in there that you could learn more.

[10:38] Jeff Malone: Yes.

[10:38] Richie Grasso: But I don't know if that's really necessarily about fully what this museum is about.

[10:43] Jeff Malone: And I do think where it's located, it brings in more of a tourist element.

[10:51] Richie Grasso: So because of that, I not to say that tourists don't care, but I don't know if that's necessarily what they want.

[10:57] Jeff Malone: They want more of that, you know, behind the scenes like Warner Brothers studio style museum that you're walking.

[11:04] Richie Grasso: And we never we've never had that in New York.

[11:06] Jeff Malone: We've never really had a museum like this.

[11:07] Richie Grasso: We've had pop-up showcases of things of Broadway artifacts.

[11:11] Jeff Malone: But yeah, there's definitely something here where it's like, if I went to this museum at one o'clock on a Tuesday, I could probably spend three hours walking and reading every single thing.

[11:20] Richie Grasso: We went on a weekend, it was a little like, come take your picture.

[11:23] Jeff Malone: Oh, wait, this group's coming in.

[11:24] Richie Grasso: Like, let's go into the next room now.

[11:26] Jeff Malone: And I didn't feel rushed at all by any means, but there was a little bit more of a tourist audience because we were there on a weekend.

[11:32] Richie Grasso: So but I I think it was it's very smart to move us through exhibits in chronological order of history of Broadway.

[11:44] Jeff Malone: We'll be right back.

[11:48] Richie Grasso: Welcome back.

[11:49] Jeff Malone: I think that's really smart.

[11:51] Richie Grasso: And you're seeing photos, props, scenery, uh costumes, artifacts with the music playing, actual script writing of song and lyric photos.

[12:01] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I I thought that was really impressive.

[12:04] Richie Grasso: And they made sure that in some of the exhibits of like, oh, 1940 to 1950 or night, they were if you looked at the big sheets on the wall, they were putting photos and are and names of plays of important historical shows that were hitting landmark moments.

[12:22] Jeff Malone: So you had to kind of look for that because the big splashy things were company, hair, um, rent.

[12:30] Richie Grasso: I'm going out of order, but you know, um Showboat, Oklahoma, The Wiz, The Wiz was awesome, cabaret.

[12:36] Jeff Malone: So you you did see the big splashy things.

[12:39] Richie Grasso: You had to kind of look for the less splashy things, which has its pros and cons, but right.

[12:44] Jeff Malone: So for us, like inspiration for us as creators in this space.

[12:50] Richie Grasso: I think looking at things on a deeper level, you really had to want to do it.

[12:55] Jeff Malone: And sometimes we would get to certain productions and it would be like, oh, look, there's that original Broadway cast photo, or like there's a performance uh photo.

[13:03] Richie Grasso: And what I kind of feel like I wanted a little bit more from that was maybe like, was it opening night?

[13:09] Jeff Malone: Was it something in a dress rehearsal?

[13:11] Richie Grasso: Who was actually in the photo?

[13:13] Jeff Malone: You know, because some of them it would just would say like the producer's photo, um cast, and you like don't know like what's the number that they're doing, who's the lead singer in this, and like that's kind of things like if we're looking at a museum, I would want to say, like, oh, shouldn't that be there?

[13:31] Richie Grasso: Yeah, and some did, but some did not, yeah.

[13:33] Jeff Malone: And that's why, and and then I was, you know, I do feel like this was a good representation overall of all communities on Broadway.

[13:41] Richie Grasso: I thought there was there was you're going through the history, and as you're seeing it, it really educates you, like, oh, Broadway was something very different in the golden age than it is now.

[13:51] Jeff Malone: And the representation of of black artists, of people of color of the LGBTQIA plus community, and plays and musicals that represent them was growing as you literally walked through the museum till you got to certain points and you were seeing, oh yeah.

[14:07] Richie Grasso: And then you were seeing how the cultural landscape changed.

[14:10] Jeff Malone: And and shows some shows got bigger, some shows got darker, some shows got funnier.

[14:15] Richie Grasso: Uh and and then, but then there are those few moments every time you turn the corner, like, let's take a picture at the producer's desk, let's take a picture on the swing from hair.

[14:23] Jeff Malone: The company, the little set pieces of company were great.

[14:26] Richie Grasso: Um there was the Rent and Lion King at the end.

[14:29] Jeff Malone: Those were great.

[14:30] Richie Grasso: There were some nice moments throughout.

[14:33] Jeff Malone: So yeah, I didn't think they did a nice job with that.

[14:35] Richie Grasso: One thing I wanted to kind of talk about like, do you feel like there was a show that should have been highlighted bigger in the museum and something maybe that shouldn't have been?

[14:47] Richie Grasso: Um, I feel like in general, I feel like a lot of things were represented. I do feel like to me, it's more of a okay. So, like, for example, August Wilson is like a huge playwright. I didn't see like a lot of those plays represented. Uh, there was some Tony Award-winning shows that were like not even really barely meant that literally won Tony Awards. So, like, listen, I know you can't get to everything, but it to me it was just some certain things. Um, I found plays in general were just underrepresented. And I know that this is a this is a museum of Broadway. This wasn't a museum of musicals. This is a museum of Broadway, and so much of Broadway is plays. So plays seem to kind of just be hidden in moments.

I thought there could have been like a let's talk about the play. And and you know, I thought there was just more there could have been a little bit more of plays. Um, and then and then just um some underdog shows. I think there was like I said, I don't think there was and maybe someone could comment and correct me if there was something completely absent. I didn't think that there was anything completely absent, but definitely things were highlighted more than others. Also, at the very, very end, the showcase feature room is Chicago right now, um, for the 25th anniversary. I believe. And there was like, and that's cool and that's great and that's awesome, but like it's there for a long time.

I'm like, okay, what can this showcase room be next now? Let's, you know, Black History Month's coming up. Can we have that whole room be about like black history of theater, maybe? Can we talk about in Pride Month? Can that room be all about like LGBTQ representation and plays and music? Like, let's think about that final room a little bit more of just Chicago's great, like I think that's awesome. It's an amazing show, but if it's gonna sit there for months, I know that Al Hirsch felt the exhibit was there first, but well, I feel like there should be something a little bit more like I don't know if that needs to showcase a show. We're going through this whole museum and we're seeing shows showcased the whole time.

Why are we getting to the end and it's like a special showcase like Chicago should just be in the museum anyway? Why is this not representing more of a specific thing? A specific artist or director or something like that, which is like why I I kind of started this conversation the way we did to begin with, because when you go to a museum, normally you're looking at specific exhibits that are highlighting specific people. So they do have that throughout the theater where it's like highlighting Steven Sondheim, or it's like the Gershwins, and it's like, okay, that's great, but that's kind of what I feel like that last exhibit should be. Like, what was their mark in the Broadway space and what was everything that they have done?

You know, and maybe that's something that's coming. Maybe, you know. They have ideas, maybe, who knows? Maybe but like how much more powerful would that have exhibit been if it was just like a Fosse exhibit at the end, and it's highlighting Chicago? It's highlighting um Sweet Charity. It's highlighting dancing, you know, that's the kind of thing. And it's highlighting around that, you know, or or who's like um someone big now that you would want to see in there. Like well, they definitely have like the Andrew Lloyd Webber moment in the museum, the Hal Prince moment. They definitely highlight some of those people in moments throughout the museum. But I'm looking at it from a perspective of like, does it like Tommy Tune who has a million Tony Awards?

Like, do a whole thing like Audra McDonald has so many. Wouldn't it be like awesome if there was a month where like it was about Audra McDonald and we learned about every single Tony she won in every show she took? Like, like, let's specialize something like that. Like, let's go there. Um, you know, let's uh, or just maybe talk about like I I like to think more about cultures. Like, what is the Asian representation on Broadway? And let's kind of show the journey of that. Like, I I'm I'm talking a little bit more like, and then and maybe do I know it's expensive to load in and load out. You can't do a million of them a year, but just things like that. I would like that last room to kind of be something as that, and that would get me as a theater goer and an artist to be like, oh, I gotta go back to the museum abroad because they have this amazing exhibit on blank.

Do you know what I'm saying? Like, how cool kind of would it be for people to learn about musicals that flopped? Like a flop exhibit, and like what's considered a flop on Broadway. So many people don't even know what that means. So, you know, and could someone like you and I walk in there and we're so inspired by like, oh, wow, that show flopped, that show flopped, and then like, hey, maybe it's on Broadway next year. Another example is when we went to the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco in June, there was a special exhibit in another building about Disney cats and dogs animation. What got us to go there was oh, there's so many animated dogs and cats and so many Disney films, and the whole exhibit room was about just the dogs and the cats in every Disney.

Like, like that's a very specific thing, but it got us to go. So I'm thinking, like, oh, here's an example. Animals. How many times have animals been used on Broadway? Let's talk about that journey of like how many times have we seen literal live animals on Broadway shows? Like, that's a cool idea for an exhibit. I don't know. Maybe maybe the Museum of Broadway will hire me and I'll do their special show. Yeah, now we're just going into like that. Speaking of Disney, that whole last exhibit could just be a special exhibit on Disney one day because as much as Disney was represented, I think there's so much more that Disney has had on Broadway that wasn't there. You know, and that's like such a game changer in this industry of what the Broadway on what Broadway is today.

And and another thing that I found missing in this a little bit was there was an exhibit of the Public Theater, and I think that's an amazing theater that has really pushed forward a lot of big Broadway shows. But could we have a an I know this is the Museum of Broadway and not the museum of New York entertainment in general, but when you have Lincoln Center with ballet, opera and live music, when you have uh off Broadway, off off Broadway, and so many other types of plays and musicals and entertainment, couldn't it be cool to talk a little bit about what the world is like outside of Broadway? So many times it's like Broadway, Broadway, Broadway, but there's so much theater and opera and singing and dancing and live entertainment, all maybe a small little exhibit on like off Broadway or outside of Broadway. This is else what's going on in New York, or regional theater and how important regional theater gets shows to Broadway because people rely on the regional theater space to develop a work.

[21:01] Jeff Malone: We'll be right back.

[21:06] Richie Grasso: Let's jump back into things. So I know that at the very end of the exhibit, they have that like this is how you get the show to Broadway, but I thought it would have been cool if there was a moment where they talked about how important regional off Broadway, off off Broadway support is to getting to Broadway. That could have been a little bit more. And that's like another thing that that that final exhibit can be like a whole off Broadway section at some time. I would totally love to go and see something like that. And I guess that's kind of my call-out for this too is like so many of the major things that were highlighted in in the museum. It's like we know that already. And to me, that's like only just touching the surface.

But I'm very intrigued to see like what's gonna happen throughout this museum because it's no way going to be able to just stay this way forever. And they can't want people to keep coming back and seeing new things. There's also the um the memorium to the AIDS victims, and I wanted to talk about that room for sure. I wanted to talk about a couple of things like what did we really love that they did in the museum. And I think that that was one thing that I just loved. Loved it. You know what I really loved about it? There's a lot of things I loved about it. First of all, it really caught me off guard. I turned the corner and I like almost choked up. I was like, oh my gosh, oof. And like I didn't feel comfortable taking photos in there.

I didn't, I and there was a bench to sit on and you could reflect. I'm so happy that wasn't a room that was thrown at the end or thrown in the beginning, or just in the corner of the gift shop. It was in. And it was right when it was happening in the history of Broadway. And to see all these names of people who passed, and then to see the quilt, the Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS quilt. I just took a moment. I don't even think you and I talked to each other for like two minutes in there. We were just kind of just standing there and saying, wow, yeah, this did really impact the Broadway community, and so many lives were lost. There was a quote on the wall from someone that said you'd show up to rehearsal, and then a couple weeks later into the rehearsal process of the run, you'd realize some people from the show literally died. So throughout the process because of HIV AIDS. And so I just thought that was an amazingly impactful room. It's extremely important, and I'm grateful that they included it in there.

[23:13] Jeff Malone: Yeah, it's always so important too. Like that how major Broadway cares is, and how even when you're looking at that quilt up on that wall, and you remember back to those days when those quilts were such a major thing, it was happening during that time. And to see all of the theater organizations, the shows that came together and put that together, it was just so impactful. And it's still happening today. So it's like it's so important. And uh a fun fact a portion of each ticket sold to the Museum of Broadway benefits the nonprofit Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS organization. They give a donation for every ticket to the museum. Um then that kind of led to also right into the whole room of Rent, and it was like just perfect timing.

And it's like in the 90s, and like Rent was such a major thing, and we were just you know, uh one thing I will say so like we get to Rent, and Rent is great, it has this huge exhibit. It was such a game changer in the Broadway space. But after kind of like what would you say after 1999, maybe the 2000s, they kind of just went like this with the museum. Put it all in the corner. I know it was like from 2001 to 2022, and then it says, like, oh, we have room for more. I'm like, they did kind of I I don't know. It kind of ended actually with The Producers.

[24:30] Richie Grasso: Yeah, yeah, because The Producers was a huge show of its time. And then I wonder, like, there, there's we're in the living and breathing part of Broadway. I think they'll if you jump 10 or 20 years ahead, there's gonna be a whole room or exhibit on immersive Broadway. Because what are we seeing right now? Immersion, immersion, immersion, standing in the standing and moving. And I think that's gonna be a whole movement of the Broadway space of the twenty two thousands. Well, what I will say actually, how they ended this um museum with the whole behind-the-scenes floor and like teaching you how to create a musical and showing uh where they did highlight the stuff that is on Broadway and what was on Broadway recently was I loved seeing the models of the stages.

You know, when you see things like Wicked and you see the behind the scenes on like what's going into that theater, also how big that theater is so crazy. The wing space, the fly space, the Grocerman Theater where Wicked is, yeah. Yeah, just being able to see that, and you're like, wow, this is so cool. And you see them like getting the little model people, and you see them like getting ready and stuff like that. They have all of those throughout the space downstairs, and I was like, oh, this is so cool. That was a very, very cool thing at the end.

[25:46] Jeff Malone: I totally agree with that. And just learning about lighting, scenery, sound, costumes, the production, and that whole room of learning what it's going on mindset. Do you know how many people go to Broadway shows and don't even realize that's what's going on? So important to have a whole room dedicated to the so much story to some things like that. And I feel like that's why we love our podcast so much, because we bring so much of that into what we talk about. You know, like we had a friend that saw Six recently, and like my some of my questions to her would be like, Did you know that this started as like a college thesis for someone and now it's a Broadway stage? She probably will be like mind-blown.

But like, there's so much history when you see uh when you see a museum like this, and like that's the kind of stuff like you know, how did Oklahoma start? You know, where did it come from? What was the idea that happened there? And you know, I think I as we're getting ready to wrap up, a few f uh things that stood out to me for sure. I I think there was just some like amazing artifacts in general, but like Patti LuPone's wig from Evita, like yes, like the Annie dress, like how cute. The Annie corner, yeah. There was like a little Annie corner. Also, there was a map that showed you where all the current tours were in the United States. I thought that was so cool because that's a whole part of Broadway too is the tours that go out.

And then I at the very end I said, Oh, I have to go use the restroom. And I opened the restroom door, and there's the Urinetown exhibit in the restroom. And I said, Okay, someone's really thinking here, and that's really smart. Okay, and I'm like looking around on the walls, reading about Urinetown, which was a big show, actually, for its time, and and it was just in the bathroom, like, yes, like that was so funny to me. Um, and and and the whole and the whole uh the whole thing was bookended with the whole museum started with let's start at the very beginning, you know, Sound of Music quote, a very good place to start, and then it ended with so long, farewell uh Sound of Music quote. So, like book ended nicely that way.

Um, the whole thing is wonderful. I want to see more things, I want to see how it grows. I hope it stays around for a long time. People go support it and check it out. It's really for the native New Yorker and for the tourists. I think it's for everyone.

[27:52] Richie Grasso: It definitely is for everyone. It's definitely something like if you're coming to New York City and you're going to Broadway, you should definitely check this out. It's totally it's perfect. Totally, you know, so oh my gosh, that flew by, we're out of time. We're talking about we didn't even talk about a show today yet. We talked about all the shows, you know. You know, so it's all of the shows. Which is so funny because we were walking up the stairs in the beginning, and I remember this, and I hear half hour to places, half hour. Want to talk our whole day? And then we're leaving, and you heard it, and I was like, oh, we didn't get a recording enough, but that was in it. We tried, but they didn't say it enough.

Well, that does wrap up our discussion for today's episode. We hope you enjoyed our trip to the Museum of Broadway. And remember, we want to hear from you. So continue the conversation with us on Instagram and TikTok at Half Hour Podcast. And let us know your thoughts on the Museum of Broadway and any other Broadway experiences you'd like us to check out. If you enjoyed our show today, please leave a review. Your feedback helps us bring more Broadway to you. And remember, you can listen to past episodes, and please stay tuned for more upcoming ones. We have some big shows coming this fall to talk about. It's all on the way to all those announcements too that uh starter for the spring. Oh, yeah, it's coming. Well, until next time, I'm Jeff.

[29:08] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie saying ta-ta.

[29:11] Jeff Malone: Bye.