BROADWAY UP CLOSE...R

When I first put on my green shirt in 2010, I was initially going to call the company BROADWAY CLOSE UP. The only problem? Those initials were BCU, which, to me, sounded more like a university than a company. With a quick swap of the last two words, I was headed downtown to get my business license and company name registered.

Ever since then, I've explored all the ways that I can get as up close to the word "BROADWAY" as possible - to bring its history, magic, and stories directly to you. 

In the past thirteen years I've found that my up close view has almost always been a more figurative approach. But every once in a while it gets very literal...like last week. 

Ever since I discovered the remnants of the ol' Hammerstein farm and Paradise Rooftop Theatre atop the New Victory, I've become closer to the team at the theater. We all share a love of that 123-year-old building. Recently they've been doing some repair work on the interior features in the auditorium, requiring scaffolding to be constructed up to the original dome. That's when I got an email from the theater's team: "This is a rare moment in time that we can climb up to the dome of the New Victory...do you want to join us?" 

I couldn't say YES fast enough! 

A little over a week later, I found myself signing my life away on a liability waiver, donning a mask, and climbing over metal scaffolding high into the rarified air of the New Victory. Up, up, I went until we reached the top. And there, just in front of me, right at eye level for the first time, was a plastered foot! Beginning with the initial construction of the theater in 1900, a group of putti - otherwise known as a cherub (or plural: cherubim) - were assembled out of plaster ringing the edge of the dome holding lyres. These whimsical, musical angels always seemed so tiny from below, balanced perfectly on the dome's rim. Their presence above always felt very fitting to me: the original design of the theater had the musicians in a constructed box high atop the proscenium arch since the theater wasn't initially equipped with an orchestra pit. Music emanating from the air of the New Victory Theater was perfectly represented, in my mind, by these cherubic musicians! 

These little guys had lasted 123 years, and here they sat within arm's reach of me. The detail was beautiful. The plaster work was masterful. And the restoration team at the theater was treating them with the utmost care. After showing me how the plaster pieces of the dome were affixed to the ceiling (by small wires that reminded me of pipe cleaners circa 1900!), I got a glimpse at a few lion head carvings that I hadn't ever noticed from below, and then we headed back down to solid ground on the orchestra level. 

As I dusted myself off, I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have gotten this opportunity. To feel that plaster with my own hands was to, quite literally, touch Broadway's past.

It doesn't get much more up close than that!