My wistfulness isn't new. I've been yearning for such a
place for years. But that longing intensified with a recent visit to Cooperstown,
New York, where my husband K and I spent a full day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and
Museum. I'm not much of a sports fan but by the time I made my way through all
three floors of memorabilia and over 100 years of the sport's history, I found
myself really wanting to see a ballgame and totally envious that a similar place
doesn't exist for theater.
Now there are places in New York where you can find exhibits
about Broadway history. Both the Museum of the City of New York and the New-York
Historical Society have theatrical treasures in their collections and they occasionally
display some of them, such as the museum did with its terrific survey of
Yiddish theater in 2016 and the Historical Society with its tribute to the legendary
theatrical cartoonist Al Hirschfeld in 2015.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts offers an
even more steady diet of theater-related exhibits. The one it did on Noel
Coward in 2012 was one of the most informative and entertaining museum shows of
any kind I've ever seen. The Library's currently hosting a small tribute to Richard Rodgers
and Oscar Hammerstein that will be on view through Sept. 25.
But none of these venues are in the Theater District so only
the most determined tourists are likely to seek out their shows. The one geographical
exception is the American Theatre Hall of Fame, which makes its home at the
Gershwin Theatre, where Wicked has been playing for the past 15
years.
Founded in 1972 to honor the careers of significant theater
professionals, the hall's members include actors like Audra McDonald and
playwrights like Tina Howe, as well as producers like Daryl Roth and even theater
critics like Ernie Schier, a co-founder
and the first chairman of the American Theater Critics Association (of which I'm a proud new member).
All of those folks in the previous paragraph were inducted into the Hall of
Fame last fall and their names are now inscribed alongside past honorees on the
walls of the Gershwin. I’m told that a collection of memorabilia from past winners is
assembled there too. But my guess is that only the most die-hard theater fans
even know that any of it is there. And most of them can't see those displays
even if they know of their existence because the space is only accessible to people paying to see Wicked.
What the names on the wall and the artifacts on display need
is a place of their own where Broadway and its history can be widely
appreciated. The space doesn't have to be as big as the one baseball has in
Cooperstown but it shouldn't be a cheesy throwaway either. The best museums
today are interactive affairs that offer visitors a variety of ways to interact
with the subject they're celebrating.
Wouldn't it be great if some of the crowds roaming through
Times Square had a nearby place to go where they could see the costumes Patti
LuPone and Laura Benanti wore in Gypsy, hear songs that were cut
from the original production of In the Heights, see drafts of the
script for A Raisin in the Sun or learn about the achievements of
the names on that Hall of Fame wall?
A reasonable admission fee could make it enticing for even a
casual theatergoer. Docents from all parts of the theater community could share
their enthusiasm for live theater. And Broadway performers might even pop in
every now and then to add extra excitement. Heads snapped around when the
recently-retired outfielder Carlos Beltrán walked through one of the galleries
the day K and I were at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
I'm willing to bet that a conveniently located museum that
offered a truly visceral sense of Broadway (after all, who can put on a better
show than Broadway folks) would have a lot of its attendees leaving the same way
I left the baseball museum: dying to see the real thing.
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