Looking Back at Broadway

My bags were packed. I had memorized the subway maps and street names. I was on my way to the city that started it all, the city that never sleeps, the big apple, the big time.

Manhattan has been calling to me every since my parents began taking me to the California Music Circus in Sacramento. And add on seven-odd years of acting, singing, and dancing, it is not hard to understand the fascination I’ve had with Broadway. It is something that entices every theater geek, whether they care to admit it or not.
While I was never destined to headline any marquees, with each year of my youth that ticked away I felt I was long overdue to see where it all began, to make the sacred pilgrimage.

Manhattan is a right of passage for anyone really. For those who covet fashion and Tim Gun, who swoon for the hip-hop of the Bronx, or even business moguls drooling for Wall Street, New York City is a hot bed of American culture. It is the city where dreams come true, and my dream was to get there.

But like I said, my sights were set on 42nd and Broadway. My first glimpse of Times Square, standing outside the Will Rogers Theater, sitting in the old fashioned theater was something I never thought I would get to do. At least not as a sophomore in college.

My short stay on the biggest little island gave me two theater excursions: “In the Heights”, the 2008 Tony Award winner for best musical, and “Billy Eliot: The Musical” the 2009 Tony Award winner for best musical.

“In The Heights” tells the story of three days in the life of the people living in the Dominican-American neighborhood, Washington Heights. The score features hip-hop, salsa, meringue and soul music. Think “West Side Story” meets “Rent.”

“Billy Elliot The Musical” is based off of the film “Billy Elliot” (2000). With music by Elton John, “Billy Elliot The Musical” takes place in a small town in 1980s England, where a little boy trades in his boxing gloves for ballet shoes and discovers his true calling in life.

These are two of the newest, most popular musicals to hit the stage. One is hot, sexy Dominican party complete with rap music and gyrating choreography. The other, a new kind of jazzy comedy featuring cross-dressing boys screaming obscenities at their brash parents.

In short, the new Broadway is edgy. It swears, spits and isn’t afraid to reflect a society that has come to worship sex, drugs and rock n’roll.

It is a completely different world. I was not around to experience Broadway in its golden age (roughly 1940 to 1960) with the wartime themes of love, loss and social strife. I only know the new Broadway, where instead of glamorous eveningwear, top hats and corsages, I arrive at the theater in jeans and a pea coat (along with about two scarves and a hat, as January weather requires).

Sitting in the old theaters is incredible. Not only for the beauty or age of architecture, but for how out of place the theatergoers seem. We all looked as if we had set foot in a time machine. But instead of being transported to the early 1900s, we are whisked away to present day Washington Heights, or a small town 1980s England.

The magic of Broadway has always involved two things. First, embracing the past and using it to relate to the present. We celebrate shows that take place in the 80s (Billy Elliot) for the parallels we can draw to our lives today.

Second, Broadway shows must push the envelope. The force of innovation is what keeps show business moving forward. Including finding new sources for material. Big name shows pull their ideas from books (Les Miserables, Wicked), movies (Legally Blonde, Shrek), television and music.

So where is innovation leading us currently? Walking along Times Square, I passed a large marquee for the upcoming “Adams Family” musical, starring Nathan Lane. If that isn’t enough for you, the hot ticket this spring is going to be rock opera “American Idiot” based on, you guessed it, the Grammy Award winning album by Green Day of the same title.

The next “Tommy?” Maybe. But whether or not we enjoy it doesn’t distract from its originality. It is a sub culture that has yet to really make it big on the stage. Lead singer of Green Day Billie Joe Armstrong actually co-wrote the script with director Michael Mayer, whose previous work includes Tony Award winning musical Spring Awakening.

If you tuned into the Grammy’s this year you saw a sneak peak of the show. The cast of “American Idiot” performed one of the songs from the show, “21 Guns”, with Billie and the band themselves.

If the Broadway musical was offensive before, just wait until the cast of “American Idiot” with their skinny jeans and eyeliner, hit the stage blaring, “Well maybe I’m the f***** America!”

I’m not sure where the line between innovation and tacky is. I enjoyed the two shows I saw a great deal, and maybe that’s all that matters, and wishing for the past is a waste of time. All we can do is look forward to what is to come. No matter how vulgar.