Who's Coming To B'way, From Where, And Why?

Here is the breakdown summarizing 2025 from The Broadway League:

• Broadway welcomed 14.7 million attendees, the second-highest total ever recorded.
• One-quarter of all admissions came from New York City residents.
• Under 13% of tickets were purchased by people from NYC suburbs, a 30-year low. This is cause for concern, and Broadway must address it!
• 42% of audience members were visitors from other parts of the United States
• 20% came from international travelers.
• Gender identity breakdown: 63% female, 32% male, 5% non-binary/gender-fluid/other.
• The average attendee age was 41.  This is good news as the age is lowering, meaning B'way is attracting younger audiences.
• 34% of audiences identified as BIPOC, the highest in three decades. BIPOC is Black, indigenous and people of color.
• Among those 25 years and older, 83% had a college degree and 43% held a graduate degree.
• Theatregoers reported an average household income of $276,465.
• The average person saw 5.4 shows, up from 4.7 last season.
• “Super-attendees” who saw 15+ shows made up 8% of the audience but bought 40%of all tickets.
• 53% said they’re attending more shows than five years ago; 27% are attending the same amount.
• 94% plan to see another Broadway show in the future. This is an impressive figure and shows that B'way has staying power.
• The average ticket price paid was $145.70, down from $154.70. Once again, this is good news -- lower ticket prices make B'way more accessible to more people.
• Personal recommendations remained the top factor for choosing a show.
• Instagram was the most commonly cited source of Broadway information. Note the dramatic shift here to social media -- and a social media platform that reaches a younger audience.
• Tickets were typically purchased 33 days before the performance.
• 22% of attendees work in New York City.

Blue Moon: A Broken HeART For Every Light . . .

As those of you who follow this blog know, we are are huge Broadway fans So, we were were really looking forward to Richard Linklater's new movie Blue Moon about the last days of Rodgers and Hart and the first night of Rodgers and Hammerstein. We hoped to see it on the big screen but it didn't hang around long enough at a local theater for us to catch it. So, we paid $19.95 to watch it on Apple TV and we can say that it was absolutely worth it, and we're here to tell you why

Director Linklater’s Blue Moon is a moody, beautifully contained portrait of lyricist Lorenz Hart on the night Oklahoma! premieres — the moment Broadway shifts away from the world he once ruled. Ethan Hawke delivers a stunning, career-peak performance, capturing Hart’s quick wit, aching vulnerability, and corrosive self-doubt with a rawness that never feels theatrical, even when the film intentionally leans into stage-like visual devices.

It's a very tightly contained movie that details one night in the life of the principals and it all takes place within the confines of the legendary theatrical haunt, Sardi's in Manhattan. Because of this the movie can seem a bit claustrophobic at times and, we must warn you, it is very wordy. But the entire cast is so good and the performances are so polished that these limitations are easily overcome. 

And Blue Moon is a movie that naturally leans into conversation and memory, all propelled by Hawke’s merciless charisma. It’s the sort of intimate filmmaking that we don't find anymore and it's bound to please fans of actor-driven period pieces and anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes aches of creative life. Hawke, who's in every frame of this movie, is a near certain Oscar nominee and several members of the supporting cast could be in the running as well.

Margaret Qualley brings warmth and subtle tension as the young woman who becomes Hart’s accidental confessor, while Andrew Scott offers a cool, understated turn as Richard Rodgers, hinting at the creative and emotional struggles beneath their legendary partnership. As Hart's bartender and patient listener, Bobby Cannavale is a street smart counselor, best friend and willing one-man audience all rolled into one. 

There's an extended scene with Rodgers and Hart alone amidst a crowd of admirers where you get the sense that their's was a bromance that survived overwhelming early fame only to wither amidst the same ying and yang that brought them together in the first place. Rodgers was the deliberate, focused craftsman while Hart was the jittery, obsessive and ultimately self-destructive auteur who was nonetheless a lyrical genius. One can only imagine what might have been if they had more years together.

Linklater uses this intimate chamber piece to evoke the glittering Broadway of the 1920s–40s — a world shaped by Rodgers & Hart’s sophisticated, slangy, emotionally complex songs — and to show how that era gave way to the integrated, story-driven musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein. In the process, Blue Moon becomes both an elegy for a vanished musical style and a bruising character study of a man who helped define it. 

For all its wit and polish, this is not a cheerful story. Hart was a tortured soul -- acerbic, alcoholic, sexually confused and lonely. But show business is a tough racket, darlings. And you know the old saw: there's a broken heart (or, in this case Hart) for every light on Broadway.

Quiet, smart, and unexpectedly haunting, Blue Moon lingers long after the final fade-out.

Definitely Something To Look Forward To!

287 B'way Shows! How Many Have YOU Seen?

 I decided to make a list of every Broadway show I've ever seen.

And the list kept growing and growing and growing. So far I've got 287. I've just added another to the list and am about to add yet another.

Mind you, I've seen some of these shows two or three times.

I've put an asterisk (*) next to some of my very favorites. I've put a pound (#) next to some of the shows I've seen more than once. And the tilde (~) represents shows that flopped.

How many hours in the theater does this amount to? Probably more than 700! Going over these shows brought back so many memories of time spent in the tender, enveloping arms of Broadway theaters. 

Of course, some shows I barely remember while others stand out so vividly in my mind I feel like they are part of me. And all the moments that come to mind! For example, one weekend we saw three musicals, each 20 years apart: Barnam from the 1980s, Camelot from the 1960s and Oklahoma! from the 1940s -- all one word titles, too. What a weekend that was!

The real standouts include the magnificent Hal Prince production of Show Boat; Sondheim's original Sweeney Todd, Sunday In The Park With George and Pacific Overtures; Tommy Tune's Will Rogers Follies and Nine; Jerry Herman's Hello Dolly!, Mame and La Cage; Lloyd Webber's Phantom and Sunset Boulevard, and so many, many stars: Carol Channing, Lena Horne, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mandy Patinkin, Tommy Tune, Raul Julia, Nathan Lane, Gregory Hines, Jerry Orbach, Audra McDonald, Robert Preston, Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Jordan, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Debbie Reynolds, Sammy Davis, Hugh Jackman, Gregory Hines, Ramin Karimloo and on and on! 

This is still an incomplete list, but here it is up to this point:

110 In The Shade

1776

42nd Street*
A Bronx Tale

A Chorus Line

A Day In Hollywood/A Night In The Ukraine

A Funny Thing . . . #

A Gentlemen’s Guide To . . .

Ain't Too Proud

A Joyful Noise

A Little Night Music

Alladin
All American~

Always, Patsy Cline

A Matter of Gravity
Amelie
Anastasia

A Party With . . .

A View From the Bridge#

After Midnight*

After the Fall

Ain’t Misbehavin’*

An American in Paris*

Annie

Annie Get Your Gun#
Any Wednesday

Anything Goes

Applause

Assassins

Baby~

Back To The Future

Barnum* 

Beautiful

Beauty and the Beast
Beetlejuice

Big

Big Fish~

Big River

Blithe Spirit*#

Bonnie & Clyde~
Brigadoon

Bubbling Brown Sugar

Bullets Over Broadway
Butterflies Are Free

Bye, Bye Birdie#

Cabaret*

Camelot#

Can-Can

Candide

Carousel*#

Catch Me If You Can

Chapter Two

Chess*

Chicago*#

Chinglish~

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Cinderella

City of Angels

Clothes for a Summer Hotel~
Coco

Company*#

Crazy for You

Curtains

Damn Yankees

Death Becomes Her

Defending The Caveman

Design For Living#

Elaine Stritch At Liberty*
End Of Te Rainbow

Equus

Eubie!

Evita

Fiddler on the Roof

Finding Neverland

Finian’s Rainbow*
Fiorello#

Five Guys Named Moe

Follies*#

Footloose
Forty Carats

Foxy

Funny Girl

Gigi

Girl From The North Country

Godspell

Golden Boy

Golden Rainbow~
Grand Hotel#

Grease

Grey Gardens

Grind~
Groundhog Day

Guys and Dolls#

Gypsy*

Hadestown

Hair

Hairspray

Hamilton

Happy Birthday, Gemini~

Harmony

Hay Fever

Hello, Dolly!*# 

Henry Sweet henry
Here's Love~

Here We Are

High Fidelity~

High Society

Honeymoon in Vegas~

How To Succeed In Business . . .#
I Do, I Do

I Love My Wife
I Married An Angel

I Remember Mama~

Into The Woods

Irene~
It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman

It Shoulda Been You~

It’s Only a Play

I’m Not Rappaport

Jackie Mason on Broadway

Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well

Jekyll & Hyde

Jelly's Last Jam

Jersey Boys#

Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Kelly~

Kinky Boots

Kiss Me, Kate#

Kiss of the Spider Woman

La Cage aux Folles 

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

Legally Blonde

Lena Horne – The Lady and Her Music#

Lend Me A Tenor

Les Miserables

Light Up The Sky

Little Me*#

Little Shop of Horrors#

Lorelei~

Love Life
Love Never Dies~

Luther

M. Butterfly
Mack & Mabel

Mame*#

Man of La Mancha

Mandy Patinkin in Concert
Marat/Sade

Mary Poppins

Mass Appeal

Matilda

Maybe Happy Ending

Me and My Girl*#

Memphis

Metro~

Million Dollar Quartet

Miss Moffat~

Mr. Saturday Night

Moon Over Buffalo

Mornings At Seven

Motown

Moulin Rouge

Mr. Saturday Night

Mrs. Doubtfire

Mummenschanz

My Fair Lady#

My One and Only*

Newsies
Network

Nice Work If You Can Get It*

Nine*

No, No, Nanette*

Noises Off

Oh Coward!
Oh! What A Lovely War

Oklahoma!*#

Oliver!*
Once On This Island

Once Upon a Mattress

On Your Toes

On the Town

On the Twentieth Century

Over Here!

Pacific Overtures*#

Paint Your Wagon

Pal Joey

Paradise Alley~

Passion

Penn & Teller

Peter Pan*

Pippin

Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Play It Again, Sam
Present Laughter
Pretty Woman
Prince of Broadway

Private Lives#

Promises, Promises

Pump Boys and Dinettes

Putting It Together

Purlie Victorious

Pygmalion

Ragtime*#

Road Show

Rocky
Romulus~

Same Time, Next Year

Saturday Night Fever

Seesaw
She Loves Me

Shenandoah

Show Boat*#

Shucked
Shuffle Along*

Side Show

Side by Side by Sondheim*

Singin’ In The Rain#

Sly Fox

Smokey Joe’s Cafe

Social Security~

Some Like It Hot

Something Rotten!

Sophisticated Ladies*

South Pacific*

Spamalot
Sponge Bob Square Pants

Starlight Express

Steel Pier~

Sugar~

Sugar Babies*#

Sunday in the Park with George*

Sunset Boulevard*

Sweeney Todd*

Teddy & Alice~

The Addams Family
The Band Wagon
The Band's Visit

The Belle of Amherst

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

The Book og Mormon 

The Boy From Oz

The Bridges of Madison County~

The Drowsy Chaperone*

The Flying Karamazov Brothers
The Front Page

The Full Monty

The Glass Menagerie

The Goodbye Girl

The Great Gatsby
The Happy Time

The Illusionists

The King and I*#

The Life~

The Light in the Piazza

The Magic Show

The Most Happy Fella

The Music Man*#
The New Yorkers

The Phantom of the Opera

The Play That Goes Wrong

The Producers

The Red Shoes~

The Ritz

The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life . . .

The Sound of Music

The Wedding Singer~

The Will Rogers Follies*

The Wiz

They’re Playing Our Song

This Was Burlesque*

Thoroughly Modern Millie*

Titanic*#

Tommy Tune Tonite!
Tootsie*

Vanya and Sonia And Masha and Spike*

Victor Victoria*

Vieux Carré~
Waitress
War Paint

Water For Elephants

We Take The Town~

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?*#

Wicked

Wonderful Town

 You Can’t Take It With You

Young Frankenstein

Zorba#

Legend:
* personal fave
# seen more than once
~ flop

Broadway Musical: A Unique Gift To The World!

The Complete List Of 2025 Tony Winners!

It was Broadway's Biggest Night last night and it did not disappoint.

Here's the wrap up on the 2025 Tony Awards and the comple list of winners:

Here are the Tony wins by show:

Many Happy Endings – 6
Buena Vista Social Club – 4
Stranger Things: The First Shadow – 3
Sunset Blvd. – 3
Oh, Mary! – 2
The Picture Of Dorian Gray – 2
Purpose – 2
Death Becomes Her – 1
Eureka Day – 1
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical – 1
Yellow Face – 1

And now, the list:

Best Musical
Maybe Happy Ending

Best Play
Purpose

Best Revival of a Play
Eureka Day

Best Revival of a Musical
Sunset Blvd.

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending (shown above)

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Francis Jue, Yellow Face

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Kara Young, Purpose

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Miriam Buether and 59, Stranger Things: The First Shadow

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Dane Laffrey and George Reeve, Maybe Happy Ending

Best Costume Design of a Play
Marg Horwell, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Paul Tazewell, Death Becomes Her

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Jon Clark, Stranger Things: The First Shadow

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Jack Knowles, Sunset Blvd.

Best Sound Design of a Play
Paul Arditti, Stranger Things: The First Shadow

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Jonathan Deans, Buena Vista Social Club

Best Direction of a Play
Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary!

Best Direction of a Musical
Michael Arden, Maybe Happy Ending

Best Choreography
Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, Buena Vista Social Club

Best Orchestrations
Marco Paguia, Buena Vista Social Club

Best Book of a Musical
Maybe Happy Ending Will Aronson and Hue Park

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Maybe Happy Ending Music: Will Aronson Lyrics: Will Aronson and Hue Park

Tony Memories: Mary And Ethel . . .

It's time for Broadway's Tony Awards and the event on Sunday evening reminds me of all the wonderful experiences I've had in Broadway theaters over the years, seeing more than 280 shows and spending thousands of hours in those darkened confines where disbelief is gloriously suspended.

When you've seen this much, chances are you've experienced most of greats when they were at the top of their form. And yes, I've seen Robert Preston and Carol Channing and Gwen Verdon and Liza Minelli and Jerry Orbach and Sammy Davis Jr. and Gloria Swanson and Julie Harris and Angela Lansbury and so many others all live, on stage. But two of the greatest that still stand out were the two undisputed reigning Queens of Broadway -- Ethel Merman and Mary Martin. What a joy it was to be able to witness their incandescent talent!

Mary Martin and Ethel Merman were towering figures of Broadway’s golden age—two women whose names became synonymous with the very essence of American musical theatre from the 1930s into the 1960s. Though their careers unfolded on the same grand stages, their paths, styles, and legacies reflect two very different sides of the Broadway coin, or for that matter the Tony Award itself, as both were Tony winners.

Mary Martin exuded warmth. With a lilting soprano voice, radiant smile, and natural grace, she brought a sense of sweetness and emotional depth to her roles. Audiences fell in love with her as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific, as the boy who wouldn't grow up in Peter Pan, and as the optimistic Maria in The Sound of Music. She became the quintessential Rodgers and Hammerstein heroine—wholesome, sincere, and utterly captivating. Her performances were not about overpowering the audience but about drawing them in. There was an emotional intimacy to Martin’s work; she seemed to sing from the heart, and her characters always felt grounded in a kind of gentle truth. I had the unique experience of seeing Martin perform both in concert and in a Broadway show and all of these qualities were on full display.

Ethel Merman, by contrast, was Broadway’s brass and bravado. With a booming mezzo-soprano that could cut through a full orchestra without amplification, Merman didn’t just sing—she belted. Her voice and her stage presence were larger than life. She commanded attention in every scene, whether as the sharp-shooting Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, the evangelist-turned-singer Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, or the fearsome Mama Rose in Gypsy, a role many critics consider the greatest female role in musical theatre. Where Martin soothed, Merman soared. She reveled in big, brassy showstoppers and punchy comedic timing, representing the quintessential showbiz dynamo. I also saw Merman in concert and on the Broadway stage in Annie Get Your Gun. Even in front of a full symphony orchestra, she never needed a microphone.

At the 1960 Tony Awards both Martin and Merman were nominated for Best Actress in a Musical, Merman for Gypsy and Martin for The Sound of Music. Merman's performance was a dazzling tour de force and she gave it her all, leaving everything on the stage. But Martin won the Tony for portraying Maria von Trapp whose story included her time as a novitiate. Merman's comment? "How are you gonna buck a nun?"

Their differences extended beyond performance styles. Martin was often described as gracious and maternal offstage—quietly influential and beloved by colleagues. Merman, meanwhile, had a famously bold personality. She was tough, outspoken, and unapologetically direct, much like the characters she played. While Martin worked closely with Rodgers and Hammerstein, Merman was the darling of composers like Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and the Gershwins—masters of the pre-“book musical” era who valued vocal fireworks and vaudevillian flair.

Maybe the differences in style can in part be attributed to the fact that Mary Martin was married to a man who diligently handled all of her professional affairs through the bulk of her career while Merman never had much success at marriage and pretty much faced the music alone. Martin's husband/manager cushioned her from the rough 'n tumble of show business while Merman had no such built-in protection. And let's not forget that Merman hailed from New York City (Astoria, Queens) while Martin was born in the small town of Weatherford, Texas.

And yet, for all their differences, both Mary Martin and Ethel Merman defined what it meant to be a Broadway star. They both worked incredibly hard, toured with their shows ands never missed performances. Both theatrical troupers, they originated some of the most iconic roles in theatre history, won countless awards, and helped shape the very idea of the Broadway musical. If Martin represented the heart and soul of the evolving American musical—its turn toward emotional storytelling and sincerity—Merman embodied its exuberance and theatrical punch.

Yes, they were competitors but, in the end, they weren’t so much rivals as they were complementary, each keenly aware of her unique appeal and her audience. Merman and Martin each illuminated a different side of the stage, and together, they set a standard that Broadway performers still aspire to today.

As Tony Night approaches, let's remember them fondly and give thanks for Broadway's illustrious legacy.