story by Kayte Deioma
On Broadway
Year’s ago, I took some of my siblings to see Blood Brothers on Broadway during a weekend getaway to the city. They only went along to humor me. There was a universal attitude among them of “What’s the big deal? We’ve seen lots of plays.” After the performance, my sister Ellie looked at me with her eyes still lit up and said, “Now I get why you love Broadway!”
It’s a completely different phenomenon than community and professional theatre across the country. You’ll see it in the caliber of the performances, the size of the venues and the energy that comes from having so much of a good thing all in one place.
Even seeing a Broadway touring company with the original cast is not the same as seeing the show on Broadway. The tours usually perform in massive auditoriums and concert halls with 2,000 to 3,500 seats. Most theatres on Broadway are relatively small in comparison, with 580 to 1000 seats. Even the largest Broadway theatre, the Gershwin, seats a mere 1,900 people. So when you see a show on Broadway, it’s more intimate, and more vibrant, than when you see the same show on the road.
On my recent trip to the Big Apple with Ellie and her three kids, we wanted to find just the right 
production to introduce them to the magic of Broadway.
Theatre has become much more accessible for kids with Disney now having half a dozen productions on Broadway. As wonderful as The Lion King may be, I wanted the kids to see a musical that was fresh content, not created from a movie they had seen a dozen times. I was also looking for something that wasn’t based on a bunch of old hit songs. That seems to be the craze of the last decade.
I was looking for something more original, where the story and music would be fresh and new, so we’d have no preconceptions. Ellie and I agreed on the award winning musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” playing at the 623-seat Circle in the Square. Even though the age recommendation was 10 and up, we decided the content looked innocuous enough, and our 7 and 9-year olds are relatively
sophisticated.
Fortunately, the song My Unfortunate Erection – lamenting why the character Chip was distracted and missed his spelling word – went pretty much over the girls’ heads. It also took a little while for them to realize that they weren’t supposed to understand the crazy spelling words. Nevertheless, they were captivated by this live production, that took place not only on the stage, but had characters roaming among the crowd, and audience members roped into being contestants in the spelling bee. The 16-and-over members of our group found it hilarious.
An Off-Broadway Staple: The Blue Man Group
In addition to the Broadway experience, another New York original production that’s worth a visit, especially when traveling with kids, is the Blue Man Group. This New York spectacle is still better in the 300-seat Astor Place Theatre in the Big Apple than at any of its giant spin-off homes around the world.
If you’re sitting in the first few rows, you may feel the need to don the complimentary rain ponchos to protect yourself from the potential paint
spattered with the beat of a drum or spit skillfully onto a canvas. They manage to keep most of the mess miraculously on stage, but some flying substance that bore a strong resemblance to macaroni and cheese did manage to reach Becca in the fifth row. She was blissfully clad in plastic, so she was immune to the yuck factor.
The zany rhythmic antics of the mute blue-headed trio of Blue Man Group kept our whole crew mesmerized and laughing with delight from beginning to end.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Circle in the Square
235 W 50th St/1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
www.spellingbeethemusical.com
Blue Man Group
Astor Place Theatre
434 Lafayette Street
New York, NY
(212) 254-4370 or (212) 307-4100
www.blueman.com
Read more Reviews of Blue Man Group on Tripadvisor.com.
