What is the biggest misconception about Broadway?

I used to think it was that all the men on Broadway were gay (Yea, we know,Hunter, you are not).

Now I think it is that the Broadway Community is a loving and welcoming bunch that embraces all performers with open arms and takes care of them as if they really WERE family.
I guess they are just as shallow and petty and bitter as the rest of the world.

Thanks for the reality check.

What do YOU think is the biggest misconception about Broadway?

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Or that when a star is nice to you at the stage door it makes them your "friend" and the nicest/sweetest/funniest person in the world.

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In all seriousness, I do feel like the musical is shrouded in misconceptions. Many people automatically think of hokey songs, bad acting, and lots of schmaltz. Not that some musicals aren't totally guilty of this, but some of the sophistication seen in many musicals. I think it's a product of some regional theaters that usually rely on the schmaltz and skip over the substance when mounting musicals.

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Two different people in my school thought these things:

1. Broadway is one theatre, and all of the shows alternate performances.

2. Broadway shows are like movies in a movie theatre, playing dozens of times a week, almost anytime a day you would like to see them.

That when you get an autograph from someone at a stage door and tell them how great you thought they were, that you've "met" them and "talked" to them.

As in," I met Hugh Jackman the other night and we talked about his show. He was SO nice!"

I used to think Broadway was like a museum, and that all shows that ever were or had been ran in perpetuity, as if in their own little pavilions like Epcot.

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My sister (in Missouri) was under the impression that Broadway tickets were extremely hard to get...that to get tickets to ANY Broadway show would take at least a years reservation in advance.

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Ha! BroadwayBound, I too thought the theaters were ginormous, that the stage was the size of a football field. :-P

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StageManager2, imagine my surprise walking into Chicago for my first broadway musical. I was shocked. FAIL. haha.

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Sue, I love this thread.

I think there have been so many misconceptions about Broadway over the years.

1) The "Golden Age" was a flawless time with flawless shows and flawless actors, directors, writers, and craftsman.

Not hardly. Shows were very rough around the edges. Talent was hit and miss. "Legends" such as Gertrude Lawrence and Jerry Orbach regularly sang off-key. Actors were hammy. Costumes were cheesy and cheap. Sets were painted flats.

But what they did have, more than ever in any other time in American theatre history, was heart. And Broadway today is a machine. A corporate entity. A commodity. The "business" side of "show business" has taken over. People aren't theatre anymore. And that can't be duplicated today. I've seen it attempted producers, writer, actors, etc.), and they fail, because no one recognizes it, and no one is genuinely interested in "heart." If the leading lady sings off-key, that's all they care about. I can't imagine a Carol Channing, Zero Mostel, or Gertrude Lawrence making it as a star today. They didn't hold their pitch-perfect notes long enough. They didn't riff enough. They needed a "tune adjuster."

Most of the people who wax poetic about the golden age are "seeing" it from a very distant memory. It's selective. And rose-colored. But what they DO remember is the emotional impact of what they saw. And that is clear as a bell.

2) Broadway is dying. It never has been, and it never will. It's been changing. Drastically. Not for the better, IMO. But it's not dying. Not even close.

3) The really talented actors, dancers, and singers are all on Broadway and in NY. This attitude is usually adopted by people in NY. Most of them have never left NY.

4) Broadway is the pinnacle of American theatre. I will say there was a time when it used to be. That time is gone. The only thing Broadway has now is bigger budgets and bigger stars. Not bigger talent and not better shows.

5) As aspiring actors, you do theatre for respect, movies for money, and TV for fame. Theatre doesn't have the respect it used to have. I would say you do movies for money AND respect. You do TV for fame (the viewing audiences still dwarf both theatre AND film audiences).

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Updated On: 6/19/10 at 05:45 PM

BroadwayBound, I hear ya! BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was my first Broadway experience and disappointed is not even the word. More like disenchanted. As a kid I used to have a picture book of entertainment through the centuries and they mentioned that in the 1700s operas became very elaborate with large companies and giant sets. They even used live animals (like horses and doves and sometimes trained wild animals) to complete the spectacle. So I was expecting nothing short of cannons and firework displays, so to speak. But then I walked in and saw the "small" stage, not much bigger than some of the local theaters here. Hahahaha

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So many misconceptions as a child:
Beauty & The Beast was my first Broadway experience too. I still liked it but subconsciously it did not touch the movie nor when I used to watch the Tonys or The Sound of Music or (gulp) Annie as a kid.

I used to think as a kid Upstate that NYC was not that far at all. Plus Schenectady had its own Broadway which did leave my seven year-old self confused.

I did think all the shows played at one place like musical chairs churning out show after show.

Zero concept of flops. Watching the Tonys, I thought there was something for everyone and shows ran forever (Les Miz and Phantom did not help) too.

Even watching the new stuff for the Tonys, I just thought stuff like The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and My Fair Lady were still on Broadway, none of this revival stuff came to mind. So when I heard Cats became the longest running show, I did a major double-take.

I also thought being a Broadway actor people led a life like Julie Andrews. I just considered her the gold standard of anything to do with music for the longest time, meaning there was no workers comp needed or appearing in Law & Order or a film shot in NYC as an extra to make it by.

I used to think all of the Broadway theaters were on broadway, until I saw Rent, and that an off-broadway show was simplay a show that wasn't on the street, broadway. I also thought shows ran forever.