Broadway booming since Sept. 11

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

•	'The 56th Annual Tony Awards' 7 tonight PBS 8 tonight CBS

That makes this year's Tony Awards ceremony, with hosts Gregory Hines and Bernadette Peters, appropriate. Broadway, which seemed doomed after Sept. 11, is booming.

"The houses are full, the streets are full," says Mark Mannucci, who is producing taped segments of "The 56th annual Tony Awards," for the PBS hour, which airs at 7 tonight. The remainder of the show airs 8-10 p.m. on CBS. "Everyone is busy."

That's part of the eternal tug of theater, says Isabelle Stevenson, the veteran chairwoman of the American Theatre Wing, which founded the Tony Awards.

"It's a great time to see a show with a live audience," she says. "I want that buzz of people around me."

For a time, none of that seemed likely. After Sept. 11, people avoided New York. In a normal week, Broadway shows gross about $12 million. In the week of Sept. 17-23, according to Variety, it was $3.6 million.

Five shows promptly folded. Predictions were dire.

Instead, Broadway has bounced back. With two weeks left in the season, Variety says, the 50-week take was $612 million; that was just shy of the total ($636 million) at that point a year earlier.

Broadway has done it with the usual mixture of old and new.

Some musicals last forever.

"The Phantom of the Opera" has been on Broadway since 1988 and "Les Miserables" since 1987. An "Oklahoma" revival, up for seven Tonys, is thriving.

Still, "Thoroughly Modern Millie," which leads with 11 Tony nominations, is doing fairly well at the box office. "Mamma Mia" has seven nominations.

Both are new shows, even if they have old roots. "Millie" is based on a failed 1967 movie musical; "Mamma Mia" is stuffed with Abba songs.

"Everyone seems to know the lyrics," Stevenson says.

On the nonmusical side, there are also some old names — a new play by Edward Albee, a revival of "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller — and some new ones.

The latter is led by Suzan-Lori Parks; her "Topdog/Underdog" has drawn raves, a Tony nomination and a Pulitzer Prize.

"It's entirely different from anything else on Broadway," Stevenson says.

Broadway keeps finding a place for new stars. This year, Sutton Foster jumped to the top in "Millie"; she's nominated for best actress in a musical.

Still, there's also room for veterans. David Brown, 85, produced the Tony-nominated musical "Sweet Smell of Success" with writer Ernest Lehman, who has been his friend since boyhood; Stevenson won't be specific, but grants that she's slightly older than they are.

Alongside these veterans are the emerging leaders.

"Susan Stroman is a Broadway giant now," says Jeff Folmsbee, producer of the PBS hour. "She has become so dominant."

This year, Stroman took on a daunting task — re-choreographing "Oklahoma," which was already famous for the choreography of Agnes DeMille.

"She has a sense of confidence," Mannucci says. "She's your classic Broadway story."

This year's choreography category has Stroman against Rob Ashford (for "Millie") and John Carrafa — twice. His "Into the Woods" and "Urinetown The Musical" were both nominated.

"Those two shows couldn't be more different," Folmsbee says.

Such categories are the key to PBS' part of the Tony coverage. During the PBS hour, the first 10 awards are handed out, including ones for direction, choreography and sets.

Mannucci's short segments will look at the people in those categories. Then, at 8, the CBS portion will take over.

It will be time for lots of singing, dancing and general commotion. Even Sept. 11 won't keep Broadway from throwing its annual celebration.