This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:06] Gordon Cox: Welcome to Stagecraft, Variety's Theater Podcast, bringing you backstage and behind the scenes with stars, creators, and industry leaders on Broadway and beyond.

[0:16] Gordon Cox: I'm Gordon Cox.

[0:18] Gordon Cox: On this episode of Stagecraft, I'm talking to Julie Boardman and Diane Nicoletti, the co-founders of the Museum of Broadway. This new attraction just opened in Midtown Manhattan as the first permanent museum dedicated to Broadway shows, artists, and theaters. On display are set models, set pieces, costumes, art installations, rotating exhibitions, and more. Boardman, a theatrical and event producer, and Nicoletti, an experiential marketing expert, are both in the virtual studio with me to tell us about making the museum happen, the story it's telling, the philosophy behind it, and why they like to think of it as the Switzerland of the theater district. Hi, Julie and Diane. Thanks for joining me.

[0:55] Julie Boardman: Thanks for having us.

[1:00] Gordon Cox: I'm talking to you pretty soon after the museum's big opening, and I wonder how much is opening a museum like opening a Broadway show?

[1:11] Julie Boardman: That's a great question. Um, it's like a Broadway show that has a lot of authors and a lot of people on the creative team, I guess. So instead of just one creative team, we've got lots.

[1:36] Julie Boardman: Oh, sure. Because we've had to do all the construction and everything like that in addition to putting on the exhibits. So I've never produced a Broadway show myself, but I can only imagine from that standpoint.

[1:49] Gordon Cox: Yeah, yeah. Before we talk about the origins of the museum, I wonder if we could just start by going into a little bit about your own backgrounds and how they led you to where you are today with the Museum of Broadway. I guess Julie, let's start with you.

[2:03] Julie Boardman: Sure. Um, so I grew up a fan of Broadway. I started performing when I was five. Um, so I kind of grew up on that track. I did the National Tour of 42nd Street. I, you know, so I was a performer through and through. Um, and then I started learning about the um, the producing end of it. And um, in my late 20s, I got into the producing end on Broadway. Um, and have kind of been on that track ever since.

[2:34] Gordon Cox: How did you do that? Just out of curiosity for people who are always curious how people get into producing.

[2:42] Julie Boardman: Yeah, I think you have to, uh, well, I guess I only know my path, but um, everybody's, yeah, just started, you know, asking questions. Um, there are some classes that you can like courses that you can take um in Broadway through now. It's called the Commercial Theater Institute.

[3:00] Gordon Cox: Right.

[3:00] Julie Boardman: You can take some classes and it was called something else. Um, and so, you know, I started doing that and just in conversations, you know, would just say, Oh yeah, I want to produce and started like learning um about that side of it. I had gone to school for music industry, so I'd like already sort of started learning the business end of, you know, I was working in that um field before, but um, and then the necessary evil, I suppose, of wanting to be a producer is you have to raise money.

[3:29] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[3:29] Julie Boardman: So a friend of mine was like, Well, why don't you give it a shot and see if you can do it? And if you can, then maybe you'll have a future in this. And if you can't, then you'll know. And so um, you know, he was nice enough to give me a shot with no pressure. And so um, I first raised some money for the national tour of Dreamgirls that went to Japan. Then I did the national tour of Peter and the Starcatcher. And then my first Broadway show that I was a co-producer on was An American in Paris. And I kind of looked at it as since I was a younger female, I guess, in the industry, that I could look at it more like a marathon instead of a sprint. And you know, just start building a track record and doing shows that I gravitated towards.

And um, and just kind of getting to meet as many people as possible. Um, and so yeah, one thing kind of led into the next, into the next, and suddenly now I think someone told me that I've been part of nine Broadway shows at this point, so as a co-producer, um, but with my eye always on wanting to creative produce on Broadway, which is, you know, developing and that piece is where my heart is. But concurrent to all of this, I had started an event staffing agency hiring out of work Broadway actors and giving them kind of freelance work. Um, and Diane and I went to college together. We've been friends for 20 years. Um, and then she had started an event, an experiential agency, and so she would produce the events and then hire um me and my team to kind of on-site manage and event staff and all of those pieces.

So we worked together for probably over 10 at this point. And then the idea kind of came about, you know, why isn't there a Broadway museum and kind of how would you make one if you were to, and what would that look like? And we started brainstorming, and um, you know, it took a while to figure out the story that we wanted to tell and how to tell it because there's so much history. Um, but once we kind of unlocked that piece and started having conversations with different artists, um, things started falling into place.

[5:27] Gordon Cox: Yeah, yeah, and I'll have some more questions about that but uh actually Diane, um tell us a little bit about what you do on the experiential marketing side of things.

[5:27] Diane Nicoletti: Yeah sure well um like Julie mentioned um we've been working together for over a decade um in that space and so in 2009 um I started an experiential agency. I had previously been working for a boutique agency. I went and got my MBA, did all the things and I was like, you know what I want to start out on my own and so um I did and for the first couple years, you know, similar to Julie like it was, you know, doing things for like free, you know, like I'll do your event, I'll do, you know, I'll do this, you know, uh this project for you just to get like my foot in the door. Um, we produced a fashion show for instance where we like under, like I underwrote it myself and you know, produced that and that was a way to kind of get my name out there.

Um, and then one of my first biggest clients was Disney actually, um, and produced an event for Brave, uh, the Pixar movie at the time and we created like these Highland games for kids and it was like a fan experience um tied to the premiere. Um, and then it just sort of snowballed, uh, you know, worked with Sony, worked with Marvel, Dreamworks, HBO and creating a lot of these different fan experiences and so it had a lot with, you know, fabric fabricating sets if you will and getting people immersed into the movie or the television show to help promote it.

[7:02] Diane Nicoletti: In some cases, it was even like little mini museums um where we had Game of Thrones artifacts that were on display, um, got virtual reality and AR involved in those types of things. And so yeah, for over the last 13 years, I guess I've been doing that. And then, you know, in the last five, Julie had brought this idea. And knowing that we wanted to have an experiential spin to the museum, you know, really just sort of taking some of that experience and what consumers gravitate to, you know, what worked, what didn't in previous events, and tried to incorporate that into this museum.

[7:43] Gordon Cox: So in your vision of what the museum is, who is it for? And what is it providing for them that uh hasn't existed previously?

[7:53] Diane Nicoletti: You know, I think it's really for people of all ages. It's been really exciting to see people actually going through it. And we did a couple days of previews with people in, you know, in the community and, you know, rights holders and such going through. And um, and it's just been really wonderful to see how people experience it. Um, you know, people who have seen so many Broadway shows, you know, I think there's a common thread that everyone has a first time they saw a show, and so they identify that as they go through, and then from there, then their knowledge starts to grow as they walk through the timeline. Um, but you know, or you could have seen maybe one Broadway show and then, or you've never seen a Broadway show, but you've seen them in your hometown in licensed productions. So I feel there's like an entry point um for pretty much everyone, I would say.

[8:46] Gordon Cox: What was compelling about the idea for you? What is the thing that it is doing for folks that uh maybe you can't get in another kind of experience?

[8:56] Diane Nicoletti: Well, we've always said that it's, uh, you know, New York and Broadway. Broadway is such a huge part of the culture of New York. It's, uh, a large reason. It's the second reason really why people come to New York outside of shopping. And so from that standpoint, having that as a way to support the industry, as a way to support the community, as a way to give people another um outlet as they see shows and have that as a compliment and have that as a foundation is just felt important and exciting. You know, we do want people to have fun as they're going through it. So it was Broadway is fun. It, you know, it is something that is such an experience when you go see it. And so having that in a museum form was something that we were really excited and gravitated to.

[9:50] Gordon Cox: And tell us a little bit about getting the community involved and how you kind of sourced all the memorabilia and all the objects and all of that stuff. Tell us about, uh, first of all, when you brought the idea to folks in the Broadway industry and community, what was their reaction?

[10:08] Julie Boardman: Um, so when we were like figuring out the idea and kind of how it would work and what the guest experience would be, um, you know, the story that we were telling, once we kind of got that down on paper, we, well, Diane's got a crash course in how the Broadway community kind of works and operates. Um, and um, so we went to kind of the major stakeholders. Um, and we went to the theater owners, we went to the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League and Playbill and Broadway Cares and the licensing companies, and met with the heads of each of them and said, Hey, this is what we're looking to do. Um, you know, I had built relationships that enabled us to um go have those conversations, and um, and so yeah, we just kind of shared what it was, and I think both of us are very open, I would say.

And so, you know, there some along the way a lot of people have had, well, what if you did this or have you thought about this? And so we always, you know, have tried our best to um, you know, I think there's never a bad idea. So we've always tried to listen and then try to incorporate that into um the final product in the end. Um, but yeah, so we had these conversations and everyone seemed open to it, you know. I think perhaps just in general, there was some doubt if we could do it or not, because there have been attempts, you know, uh along the ways or rumors of attempts along the ways that we have heard of. Um, and we've even met with some of the people who did try along the way to kind of learn a little bit of like what not to do as we were kind of building everything and the idea.

Um, but yeah, so we had these conversations and everyone was open, and so we just kept going and fine-tuning, and then you know, we had a um friends with David Rockwell, we had a conversation with him, and he was like, People approach me about doing things like this all the time, but you've taken a lot of thought and care into your approach, and we um from the beginning have very much wanted to create Switzerland as much as you can, um, and try to, you know, we have a room in the very beginning that has everything that's currently running on Broadway today, and we wanted to make sure that you know, everyone, every show, there's 41 theaters, gets the same amount of space and real estate, and you know, so everyone's treated equally.

[12:37] Julie Boardman: Um, and that was just something that was important to both of us as we were, you know, creating it. So I think he um that resonated with him, and the other idea kind of at the core of the museum is this idea that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. So had all these people not pioneered and broken ground and taken risks, we would never have the art that we have today. Um, and you know, the art form is ever evolving too as people continue to write and take risks and kind of reflect society at the moment as they're writing. And um, you know, that it's a really special, special art form, I would say. Um, obviously one I care very deeply about. Um, but that was kind of the idea of how we organize the timeline is around that idea that you know, had they not done that, we wouldn't be where we are.

So we on the timeline very much look at plays, musicals, people, these groundbreaking moments that happened, a lot of overlooked history. Um, we've been working now with Ben West, who's our resident historian and timeline curator for over three years. Um, he joined our team. And um, you know, we've just been getting wonderful people. We have an incredible team of people who have put this together.

[13:57] Gordon Cox: As you talk you've mentioned a couple times about figuring out what the story of the museum and what the sort of user uh visitor experience is. Tell us about what uh what you landed on and why that was how you figured out kind of what the story is, and as you said, what the uh criteria for for sort of acknowledging the major landmarks that maybe we all acknowledge and then also you know spotlighting some talents and achievements that maybe have been overlooked in the past like just tell us a little bit about how you how you walk people through uh the story of Broadway.

[14:31] Julie Boardman: Yeah I think I think because we're both technically millennial women we have a certain um viewpoint on the world anyways that I think probably helped to shape what that story was that we wanted to tell um and and the people that we've brought into the team as we continue but um but yeah it is it is very much you know there's a lot of overlooked history and um you know moments that to celebrate from like early on things that you know I I am a big fan of Broadway but you know I've definitely learned a lot more than I ever knew before by you know doing this project and neither of us are historians or curators and we have a wonderful team and we've been working with the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress and um you know so many different um research libraries and places with our curation team to put this together and kind of source all of the the um information that you see on the walls um that was Ben that was Ben West um but um you know in terms of these exhibits that are dedicated to the shows that help and and it's not all the shows right it's some of the shows that help to transform the landscape of Broadway.

You know, it's the Ziegfeld Follies, and then we would pair each of them in the experiential nature with a different artist or Broadway designer. Some some are Broadway designers, and then um a a good amount of them are actually from outside of Broadway. Um, we looked globally to find artists too. We kind of had the inkling of an idea for what we wanted to accomplish in the storytelling, and then would find um different artists to kind of match that and then take that idea further and forward and put their spin on it too.

[16:18] Julie Boardman: Um, but we have an artist um that Diane found from Australia, and we have another one from Paris and from London and from kind of all over. So we're combining Broadway with, you know, it's it's very much like an art installation, too, as you're as you're walking through and combining kind of that pop culture piece of it as well. The largest section, if you will, is the timeline of Broadway. Um, we do have immersive moments with the map room, with the making of a Broadway show, with the Playboy room, even um, but the timeline of Broadway, there's a reason why the shows that were selected through our curatorial team, you know, through a lot of the conversations that we had at the industry, there were reasons why those shows are highlighted, um, whether they be the laying the foundation, if you will, of the Ziegfeld Follies or the first book musical outside of the Black Crook with Showboat, or um, when choreography really sort of pushed the form forward with uh Westside story, first concept musicals, etc.

[17:19] Julie Boardman: And so each one of those had a story to tell in many ways, um, outside of its own, you know, outside of the the actual um show itself. And so we really leaned into that a little bit. So with hair, you know, it broke a lot of grounds from a cultural, social, sexual point of view. And so we tried to incorporate the lyrics, but the storyline within this 60s, 70s graphic mural. And so once we had, let's call it the concept for each of these different rooms, we then figured who was going to be that best artist to pair with it. Which is why you'll see throughout some are Broadway scenic designers because we really wanted to just recreate the set in some ways or create an iteration of the set. But then there were others that let's call them abstract where the storytelling isn't necessarily a set design, but it is something that is taking an artistic interpretation of the visual storytelling of that particular show.

[18:23] Julie Boardman: And you know one of the things that at least I've seen from experiential is that everyone of course has like different points of view and things that they gravitate to. And so giving giving folks a little bit of that breadth of variety because we have 26,000 square feet and because it's a large museum, we're able to do that as opposed to sometimes with events you kind of have one singular story that you're telling. Here we can tell multiple stories and accommodate multiple people in terms of what they can really enjoy. And so there's you know tech elements to it which some people care about some people don't you know there are things that are the abstract there are the more realistic and there's the costumes and the props there's the information. So you know we're not trying to be everything to everybody but we are giving people a a nice variety as they go through.

[19:17] Julie Boardman: And it's interesting to hear at the end what people, what's their favorite because across the board it's different. You know, everyone, some people will say West Side Story is their favorite room, others will say company, others will say a chorus line. It just it there's usually not sort of that same answer, which is which is good. That the you know that means that everyone's enjoying different elements of the museum.

[19:40] Gordon Cox: I'll have more with Julie and Diane right after the break.

[19:53] Gordon Cox: And now here's more with the co-founders of the Museum of Broadway, Julie Boardman and Diane Nicoletti. You have opened uh a space that's right next to the Lyceum Theater. It's right on 45th Street, just off kind of uh the Times Square, um, right in the heart of the theater district. I imagine it was very important for you to have a space somewhere in that kind of Broadway box. I I uh how challenging was the was finding the real estate for something like this.

[20:23] Julie Boardman: Yeah, great question. Um it's probably one of the hardest pieces to unlock um as we were developing this. Um, we started looking at spaces, gosh, I don't even know how many years ago at this point. Um we knew that we needed to be in the center of Times Square. Um, you know, so that already checked off, you know, a lot of places in New York City that might have might have worked really well for this. Um, so we wanted to be in Times Square. We needed to have an you know, the street level entrance. Um, we needed to make sure that the flow worked um in terms of what we because we already had the concept and what we wanted, we just needed to make sure it worked into the floor plan.

[21:06] Julie Boardman: Um, so yeah, we looked, I don't even know at this point how many places, but our our brokers all our real estate brokers also believed in the project, and so they stuck with us and and just really had their their finger on the pulse um for what would become available. Um and the space that we landed in, um, it actually used to be an Irish bar, um, O'Lane's, and then it was office space above. And sadly, um, during COVID, they actually went out of business. So we we were able to, you know, kind of chance upon it. It wasn't necessarily on most anyone's radar as it being a connected space, because it was looked at as office space and restaurant bar. So we've had to go go through a lot of um permitting stuff to enable to make the museum too. But um, so yeah, we combined basically restaurant and bar that was on, you know, the cellar ground and part of the second, and then office space that was the rest of the second and the third to make um the museum of Broadway.

[22:11] Julie Boardman: Yeah. And then we're right next door to the Lyceum, which is really nice because it's the oldest continuously operating Broadway theater, and there's just a really nice um story that we share the wall with them.

[22:23] Gordon Cox: I also imagine it's no accident that you have opened right before Thanksgiving, which is kind of the start of the holiday boom time at the Broadway box office. Did you time that to take advantage in part of all the folks coming into New York to see a Broadway show as they do every year?

[22:39] Julie Boardman: There was only so much we can control from a timing perspective, of course. Um, and so um, but we knew that this would of course be a great time to open if we could hit the date, and luckily we did.

[22:52] Gordon Cox: So uh in the uh materials for the museum, it says you are credited as producer, in addition to co-founders, you were credited as producers of the museum. And then there's a long list of folks who are also credited as producers, and there are names that you know people will recognize from the producers' credits of a lot of Broadway shows and uh you know organizations and things like that. And that made me wonder is this a project that is produced like a Broadway show?

[23:19] Julie Boardman: It is a thing that you have created an LLC for and that we will eventually recoup the capitalization of like tell me about sort of how the financial model works and how much is it related to how Broadway, which is its own idiosyncratic thing, uh how much how much are those two things related?

[23:38] Julie Boardman: Um yeah, well, when we were figuring out, you know, how do you how do you make a museum for Broadway? Um, you know, given both of our our backgrounds, Diane had worked with a lot of major brands who provided the the funds in order to make it and um and then I've produced and you know obviously been part of the community. Um so yeah, we we knew that it would be something that would resonate with people and in the Broadway community, and so yeah, that's who we went to um to help fund the project um to help make it a reality. Um, so yeah, you'll probably recognize quite a few of those names and um uh yeah, so it's it's been really wonderful the um reception, I guess, for people in the community.

[24:27] Gordon Cox: And how did you settle on the price point for the tickets? How what goes into that? And how does how does that I imagine you have to sort of balance you know being able to pay for the museum and then also kind of accessibility and all that stuff. Tell me how you thought about that.

[24:40] Julie Boardman: Sure. Well, we we also looked at comparables too um in terms of other attractions in the Times Square area um and that's that's really to be honest what we based it off of.

[24:51] Diane Nicoletti: Now that you're up and open, what's next? What do you see, where do you see the museum going from here? I know you have kind of rotating exhibitions or exhibitions that will change. Tell us about kind of what's coming and where you see, what you imagine will come. Yeah, I think we have a lot of dreams and hopes. A lot of what we, because nothing like this has ever existed before, certainly in the experiential nature. There have been a couple temporary museum exhibits along the way for different Broadway things, but never a permanent space to celebrate Broadway. And so we wanted to make sure that we got to the opening day and can actually get there and make sure that this place exists for everyone.

And so now from this point moving forward, we have a lot of hopes and dreams of things within the timeline that will continue to optimize and add different things with technology and some design stuff. Our history doesn't necessarily change, but we do, as I said before, it continues to grow and evolve. So the timeline will continue to grow, and should there be another show that we need to have a full exhibit dedicated to it, like we have plans in place for how to grow it. But we had to first make sure we got to the opening. And then we have a lot of, we'd love to do a lot of like master classes and panel discussions and things like that. And we built a studio space for that nature so that we could make sure that, you know, people, I think within the exhibit, that's the making of a Broadway show that David Rockwell designed, you know, that gives people an insight into the community and Broadway and all the different jobs that you could have.

You know, you don't need to be an actor. So this is hopefully some of that, you know, master class panel discussion, those type of things can be extensions of that if people want to learn more or hear and do like a different speaker series. So we have a lot of ideas there also.

[27:03] Julie Boardman: What for each of you? Because the museum has, you know, you can see set elements from the new company in the most recent company revival, and you can see costumes, as you've mentioned, and you can see there's like a cool model of like the Gershwin with the Wicked set in it. Like there's cool stuff in there. What for each of you is your favorite element of the museum or object in the museum, and what was the hardest, sort of most challenging thing to sort of secure? It's such a tough question.

[27:36] Diane Nicoletti: I think again it goes back just to the variety. Every single day or like whatever mood I'm in, I'm like, ooh, this is my favorite room today, or then like another day, this is my favorite room. You know, there are some really wonderful artists that were wonderful collaborators, but they were just really sort of special processes, if you will, to like watch them. I loved Uli Bullmann when she came from Germany and she had the 13,000 crystals, over 13,000 crystals that she hung for representing the number of performances Phantom has run on Broadway. And you just kind of get in awe of folks in terms of what they're doing in their craft in many ways. And so something like that was very astounding, if you will, in terms of watching that.

And then, you know, going back to even just like your favorite show, it's the ones that you have special memories for, you know, and Phantom of the Opera is another one where that was my first show. So there's something special about that room for me, but they all are really special, especially if I've seen them or if I was in a show in high school like Oklahoma, like that has special meaning to me in a different way too. So, yeah, it's hard, it's hard to pick. And a lot of people, if they've, as they've been going through, have said like they're teary-eyed and they cry in certain moments because it has such a good memory, and that says something, you know, like Broadway touches you in many ways. And so having that experience in the museum in that way is pretty special.

[29:14] Julie Boardman: And what for you was the most challenging thing to kind of pull off or pull together?

[29:23] Diane Nicoletti: It was a journey. Like I think Julie maybe said earlier, when she first started her Broadway career, it's like a marathon, not a sprint. And I think that that was the strategy for lack of a better word that we took throughout this, was that, you know, we're not gonna be able to solve everything all at once. And so each time we had a new challenge, we just sort of faced it head on. We talked to people that could help us figure it out because we didn't have all the answers. This was something that's never been created before. So trying to talk to folks, understanding our shortcomings and partner with people that could help us was something that really made us get to the finish line, I guess, if you will.

[30:09] Julie Boardman: Yeah. On that note of what you just mentioned, you know, neither of us are construction experts. So we had Jones Lang LaSalle on as our construction project manager, and they really helped to, you know, drive the boat there in terms of permitting and working with the general contractor and all of the steps because we essentially did a four-story renovation at the same time as, you know, getting all the people in the community on board with the idea and, you know, getting all of the items that you see on loan and all of, you know, we worked with each of the estates or authors for each of those exhibits, you know, because it is their IP, and we wanted to make sure that we were collaborating with them.

I think there was a bit of a learning curve for people because, you know, it's a new idea. It's not just looking at artifacts on the walls, it's taking that idea and making it into even more. I think Diane had said, I think visual storytelling earlier, and that piece of it, you know, Broadway is a brand, if you will, that really is a global brand. People from all over the world know what Broadway is. And so A, we wanted to make sure we were being respectful of everything, and we just, you know, very much wanted to collaborate with everyone to create this. But, you know, it is that visual storytelling piece. If you don't speak English, you could maybe hopefully get the idea from the exhibit that we've, you know, created with the artist for these different shows.

You can kind of get a sense of why that show is important also from that. And we do have an app that accompanies your experience so it can translate into different languages and audio tours and things, but, you know, that visual storytelling piece, I think hopefully it makes a big impact and, you know, for kids too, that creates a memory so that when later on they remember what it was that they went through.

[32:13] Diane Nicoletti: Is there a permanent collection or is it all, as you mentioned, sort of on loan from the artist or an estate or a replica?

[32:22] Julie Boardman: Yeah, there's, most items are on loan from different artists and people in the community. We do have some private collection or things we've been acquiring. And then, you know, in terms of like the handwritten lyric sketches from, you know, that live at the Library of Congress, like they will live at the Library of Congress and we'll reproduce because they should remain there so that anyone can, you know, access them at any time too. But it's important, I think to us that, you know, the originals stay there for in terms of like something that's so, you know, historic and, you know, the handwritten notes of how figured out my favorite things, like, you know, it's wonderful that we can curate and reproduce these items and have people be able to see that to understand like the creative, you know, genius that exists as you're like writing.

I think that's probably, you know, no favorites, but that the dramatist room that's in the making of a Broadway show, we actually went to every single author to make sure they were okay with us even just printing something that's published out there in the world to make sure that they were okay with us decoupaging their, you know, script on the wall. And then we have handwritten materials from some of these authors, and it's really incredible. It's a little bit sad too because, you know, more current people, authors and creatives actually just type on a computer or, you know, use music notation programs on a computer, so there isn't that handwritten nature as much anymore. Some people still do it kind of old school, but not everyone.

So it was fun to kind of discover and uncover what still exists too. You know, there are a lot of items from our past that found their way into dumpsters, you know, at a certain point along the way because maybe, you know, the production closed and the producer stopped paying for the storage unit, and then those items, if they weren't sold to somewhere like a Goodspeed that rents out or like TDF costume, you know, they rent out all these costumes and gives it another life, which is really wonderful. But if that didn't happen, a lot of it ended up in a dumpster sadly.

[33:25] Diane Nicoletti: And then that's kind of a fun little note. In our retail store, we have a lot of different items, you know, again, to that, trying to be as inclusive and Switzerland-like. We have something from every show that's running on Broadway. We have our own line of merchandise, of course, but, and we have a shop within a shop with Hirschfeld and lots of books and all the things you would expect to find in a gift shop. But one of our friends from college, also USC, everything goes back to USC, I guess. But Jen Wheeler Kahn says she's created this company called Scenery Bags that actually, when a show closes and, you know, the drop may not be used anymore, she actually upcycles it and creates like jewelry and handbags and things out of it. So we sell her stuff in the store too. Cool. So anyway, just a fun little fact.

[35:49] Julie Boardman: Well, we look forward to seeing what's next from the Broadway museum. And in the meantime, folks can co-see the first iteration of the Broadway Museum right now. Thank you both for joining me. It was great speaking with you.

[36:03] Diane Nicoletti: Thank you, you too.

[36:05] Julie Boardman: Thank you so much.

[36:10] Gordon Cox: That was Julie Boardman and Diane Nicoletti, the co-founders of the Museum of Broadway, now open in Midtown Manhattan. If you like what you're hearing on this and other episodes of Stagecraft, I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps us grow our audience of folks who love theater as much as you and I do. Or tell a friend about Stagecraft or give us a shout out on social media. Find past episodes and subscribe at all the pod purveyors, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and on the Broadway Podcast Network, which is a great place to find more theater for your ears. Until next episode, find me on Twitter at G Cox Variety. Thanks for listening and see you at the theater.