Event on the other side of the Atlantic, Broadway theaters reopened their doors this week in New York, after 18 months of closure. The opportunity to pay homage to the temple of the American spectacle.
Broadway, the oldest avenue in Manhattan is 21 km long, 39 theaters have seen the biggest
Magic is in the air, said George Benson. We go to bed late until the arrival of the milk delivery man adds Frank Sinatra. Broadway, Manhattan’s oldest avenue is 13 miles long. 39 theaters have seen the greatest from Franck Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald, Liza Minelli, Fred Astaire or Cab Calloway who played with the public.
Broadway is a veritable temple of spectacle and a formidable playground for composers. A real playground, especially for a certain George Gershwin. Summertime is the first act of Porgy and Bess. We are in 1935, Gershwin wanted a modern opera. Critics prefer the term musical, one of the specialties of Broadway.
Maurice Chevalier, Charles Aznavour performed on Broadway
West Side Story, Romeo and Juliet of Modern Times, is a Broadway creation. Leonard Bernstein is in the composition and Jérôme Robbins in the direction and choreography. It’s a long job to bring a unique performance to the public says Jérôme Robbins at the launch party in September 57. Rightly, the musical will be adapted to the cinema.
Musical comedy Hair will also be screened in 1968. Antimilitarist creation, hippie on Broadway or how a certain idea of America finds itself in the spotlight.
Long hair, colorful clothes, this time Broadway sounded as far as France. The French, in fact, crossed the Atlantic to perform on Broadway. Among them, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Aznavour. It is also there that the ephemeral link between Yves Montand and Marylin Monroe would have started. Accustomed to the music hall, Line Renaud especially retains a world without mercy from Broadway.
Broadway provides the spectacle outside its theaters. A portion of the avenue is even called the “Canyon of the Heroes”. Confetti, party favors, pennants, it’s a parade with great pomp.
Charles de Gaulle went to Broadway in the aftermath of the war
Broadway regularly acclaims cultural and political personalities such as Charles Lindbergh, the Apollo 11 astronauts but also an illustrious French personality: Charles de Gaulle. We are August 27, 1945, it is New York that the General chose after the war to thank the United States. De Gaulle was not going to derogate from a speech in the temple of the spectacle.
Definitely Broadway and its shows of all kinds have not finished surprising us.
Marc Bourreau
Retropen the news of Classic
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