In olden days, before the dawn of the internet, Broadway lovers who lived out of town often starved. They had to wait for the Sunday Times Arts & Leisure section to arrive on the following Wednesday, and wait for the vinyl of the latest musical to be available at the mall, and wait for the annual Tony Awards broadcast to try to sate their appetite. Today, of course, theater geeks feast upon a buffet of instantaneous bliss, following their favorite shows and stars on social media, downloading scores and video clips before a show even opens, and building online communities to share in the spoils.
That’s how Stan Friedman of New York Theatre Guide, a theater vet of many hats, introduced his “Impressions of BroadwayCon 2016 in New York City.” Finally, to answer this crying (among theater freaks and Broadway superfans) need, came BroadwayCon, an annual three-day get-together of fans, producers and creators, artists, and musical theater devotees of all kinds and ages from all across the U.S. So far, it’s withstood a blizzard and two years of a pandemic—but it’s survived and flourished.
BroadwayCon returned to in-person programming this summer after the 2021 edition took place virtually. The theater enthusiasts’ expo was held from Friday, 8, to Sunday, 10 July 2022 at the Manhattan Center and the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan’s Clinton neighborhood (what used to be called Hell’s Kitchen).
The musical-theater convention was postponed this year from its usual January dates because of the surge of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in New York City. The 2022 edition of BroadwayCon was the first in-person gathering in two years; the 2020 BroadwayCon in January of that year was the last live gathering.
Launched in 2016, BroadwayCon has normally been held in January. The first event was staged at the New York Hilton Midtown from 22 to 24 January 2016. Louis Peitzman, New York-based deputy entertainment editor for BuzzFeed News, dubbed BroadwayCon 2016 “basically musical theater nerd heaven.”
The convention, which consists of performances from current shows, a preview of the upcoming season, panels and workshops, merchandise sales, keynotes, autograph and photo opportunities, and cosplay (which I discussed in a post on Rick On Theater last 22 June), was conceived and is run by Melissa Anelli and Stephanie Dornhelm and their company, Mischief Management, with the help of actor Anthony Rapp (original cast of Rent as well as the film adaptation; currently a regular on the streaming series Star Trek: Discovery on Paramount+).
Rapp recounts that the origin of BroadwayCon dates back to the first year Rent played on Broadway (29 April 1996-7 September 2008; previously Off-Broadway, 26 January-31 March 1996) when he met BroadwayCon co-creator Anelli, a big fan of the Jonathan Larson musical, at the stage door.
“I met Melissa when she was 16 [i.e., 1996], outside the Nederlander Theatre after Rent,” said the actor in Playbill.
I started communicating with her and a bunch of other people, who were also active on AOL Rent chat boards. [Remember the online service provider America Online?] This was before ‘stage dooring’ became this hectic crazy thing. Sometimes there were just a couple people outside the theatre. Not hundreds like it is today. I was 24 at the time, and I would talk to them and get to know them.
Rapp and Anelli formed a friendship and through Mischief Management, Anelli organized the annual Harry Potter conference LeakyCon (launched in 2009), which has now become GeekyCon (rebranded in 2014; on hiatus since 2016). Rapp attended GeekyCon and performed a parody song about all the different fandoms, then Anelli and Dornhelm broached the idea of creating a convention aimed at the Broadway community modeled on the popular ComicCon.
(For those like me who’d never heard of GeekyCon, it was a convention for fans of sci-fi and fantasy films, television shows, and books. Among these are such works as Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, Supernatural, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, as well as the Harry Potter books and movies.)
After the first BroadwayCon, the national theater magazine, Playbill, came on board to spread the word about the fandom confab.
The concept at the outset was not to make BroadwayCon an event directed by the theater industry, but a way for the fans to interact directly with the people who make theater. Rapp explained:
It’s a chance for us to interact and share and contribute and give back. When there’s a community that organizes around something that they’re passionate about, then it becomes special. As a theatre artist, when we’re on stage, of course the applause is nice, but to directly interact and share with these people is very rewarding. Rent was extraordinary and so was the community of fans who gathered around it, and I’d love other theatre artists to experience just a taste of that.
The actor also asserted that “part of the mission is to be charitable.” Toward that end, a percentage of the ticket sales benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a theater community nonprofit organization that raises funds for AIDS-related causes across the United States.
I’m sure Rapp is speaking the truth from his point of view, and that of many of the performers and other artists attend BroadwayCons for that reason, but let’s be honest: it’s a marketing dodge. As the New York Times reported at the first BroadwayCon:
Broadway has always relied on word of mouth to sell tickets, but the industry—like film and television before it—has come to see special opportunity in loyal fans who come early (and, in some cases, often), share their enthusiasm on social media and ultimately persuade friends and family to shell out big dollars for seats.
Broadway producer, blogger, and writer Ken Davenport (Broadway revival of Godspell, 2011-12; the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Kinky Boots, 2013-19; and Deaf West Theatre’s Spring Awakening revival, 2015-16.) blogged about his observations on that first BroadwayCon:
Sure there was a blizzard. And sure some of the panels were over-packed.
But overall, I’d give the very first BroadwayCon a [New York Times chief theater reviewer] Ben Brantley-sized rave. [Brantley retired in October 2020.]
And here are five things I loved about it.
1. If You Hold It, They Will Come.
My first appearance at The Con was on the first day, Friday, in the early afternoon. And honestly, since I figured most of the attendees would be in their teens and early twenties, I didn’t expect a huge turnout. #Wrong. Fans (of all ages) were everywhere, and a Hamilton [Richard Rodgers Theatre, 6 August 2015-Present] karaoke party was already underway. “Ok, ok,” I thought. “So there are a lot of people here. But surely there won’t be a ton at my session. It’s about producing. It’s not like we have Sutton Foster or a Newsie on the panel.” #WrongAgain. The Producing 101 Panel [Saturday, 23 January] was SRO, with people S-ing [sic] out in the lobby trying to hear how shows like Fun Home [Circle in the Square Theatre, 19 Apr 2015-10 September 2016; previously Off-Broadway], Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson [Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 13 October 2010-2 January 2011; previously Off-Broadway], and more came to be. So not only did people come, but they came to celebrate every aspect of Broadway.
2. The Stars Came Out To Con.
Part of the reason the people came, was that the stars came. I remember thinking when it was announced that BroadwayCon’s success would depend on whether our industry went all in, or whether we kept an arm’s length. And boy oh boy, did the biz jump in. Lin-Manuel Miranda [playwright, actor, Hamilton], Sara Bareilles [composer-lyricist, actor, Waitress], Diane Paulus [director, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, Waitress], Adam Pascal [actor, Something Rotten!], Faith Prince [actor, Annie] . . . and on and on, all showed up . . . and showed up with smiles on their faces. It was like an opening night party that the fans got a ticket to . . . and there was no long line at the buffet (ok, there wasn’t a buffet but you get it). Cons like this were created to give the fans access to folks they only see on a stage, and BroadwayCon didn’t disappoint.
3. The Average Age of the Attendees.
I hope BroadwayCon releases some demographic statistics about where these folks came from, how many shows they see per year, and how old they were. My eyeball survey says that it’s a young crowd. And sure, some folks might say, “Ken, they are not the traditional theatergoer, so you know that they’re not keeping your show or any show alive. Broadway survives on the 44-year-old female who makes $250k a year.” All that’s true, but I don’t see these conventions as a short term market. While sure, they do help in the immediate (see #4), today’s twenty-something super fan, is tomorrow’s traditional theatergoer. And if we can rev up their passion even more, not only will they make sure theater is an integral part of their adult life, but they will *be much more likely to pass that passion on to their children. And thus, the theater tradition continues.
4. Shows Sold Tickets.
Get hundreds and hundreds of theatergoers in one room and let them talk theater all day . . . and they want to go see theater. And they did. I overheard so many people saying, “I’m going to see the matinee of XXXX,” “I’m going to rush XXXX,” or “I’m seeing five shows this weekend!” Now, obviously Blizzard Jonas effed up a lot of the theatergoing, but without a doubt BroadwayCon helped moved the ticket needle last weekend (I bet BroadwayCon could survey this year’s guests and find out a rough idea of how many did see shows last weekend).
[Blizzard Jonas was a massive snow storm that hit New York City on Friday, 22 January 2016, and by Saturday, had dumped 26.8 inches of snow on the city, making it the second-biggest snowstorm since 1869. The city’s public transit system shut down and so did the area’s interstate bus systems. The mayor and the governor urged people to stay home.]
5. I Learned Stuff Too.
I was on panels with [producer, performer] Ted Chapin, [producer] Hal Luftig, [producer, theater-owner] Daryl Roth and more. And I stopped in to other sessions and heard from [director] Bart[lett] Sher, [director, actor] Sam Gold, [actor, singer] Michael Cerveris and so many more. I could have stayed there all day. This is not a convention just for “stage door kids,” this is a convention for anyone and everyone who loves Broadway and who wants to learn. And I’ll be making sure I clear more of my day next year to listen in.
BroadwayCon was a success just by happening. But it exceeded my expectations in providing such a positive environment for the fans to find each other, and find new theater-loving friends . . . and not just the Facebook kind. The real, “I meet you in person and don’t judge you by your photos,” friend.
The only thing that pissed me off about BroadwayCon was I kept thinking, “Why didn’t they have this when I was a super fan?”
Davenport is, of course, correct about the demographics of the Broadway audience versus the crowd at BroadwayCon. The New York Times cites some of statistics of the convention attendees: “Nearly 80 percent of the registrants are female; 75 percent are from outside the state of New York; and 50 percent are 30 or younger.”
In their reports on the first-ever BroadwayCon, National Public Radio (NPR) spotlighted three teen Instagram friends and Broadway fans, two 14-year-olds from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and New York City, and a 13-year-old from Los Angeles, and the Times interviewed a 19-year-old Swedish Broadway devotee.
Damian Bazadona, the president of the digital marketing firm Situation Interactive, asserts,
There is a generational divide in understanding what BroadwayCon is aiming to be. Some think it is a bunch of theater nerds in a room, but some think this is the future of audience development.
Indeed, some of the participants come to BroadwayCon, just as they do to conventions for other industries, to sell their product and create marketing buzz. The fans, though, have various other motives.
Some come to meet their favorite actors, directors, composers, or other artists; others are there to collect merchandise and mementoes—although, there’s no reason convention-goers can’t come to do both. Some fans, who are incipient theater artists and are looking for a Broadway break, are there for career tips, to make friends and network, or to cosplay.
Cosplay has been part of BroadwayCon since the first one. The Theatre Development Fund (TDF – the non-profit corporation that operates the discount ticket booths in Duffy Square and various other locations and is dedicated to assisting the theater industry in New York City) booth had actual Broadway costumes fans could try on, but many attendees arrived dressed as characters from The Phantom of the Opera (currently the longest running show in Broadway history) and Sweeney Todd, the witches of Wicked, a coupla newsies, Hamilton’s King George, and Hairspray’s Tracy Turnblad.
Frank DiLella, the entertainment journalist who’s the host of On Stage on Spectrum News NY1, the New York City cable news channel’s weekly half-hour theater program, characterized the BroadwayCon cosplayers:
Some of the most amazing theatre costumes by fans were certainly present at BroadwayCon. I will never forget that there were these two twins from out of town dressed as the Side Show [conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton – 1997-98; revived 2014-15] sisters . . . .
In BuzzFeed, Louis Peitzman asserted:
Cosplay is a highlight at any convention, whether you’re participating
or merely people-watching. . . .
Never have I recognized more coslay than I did at BroadwayCon . . . . It’s hard to describe the sheer delight of coming face-to-face with a Medium Alison from Fun Home. I know you. I knoooow you.
Costumed convention-goers (as well as those dressed in audience mufti) could create a Broadway keepsake by posing for a photo in front of a giant mock-up of the Playbill cover.
Among the other events of the first BroadwayCon, some planned and some unscheduled, were an impromptu fan Hamilton sing-along, a class on “Life Lessons in Musical Theatre” by Melissa Errico (My Fair Lady, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas), and a master class by Rebecca Luker (Phantom, The Sound of Music, The Music Man; Luker died of ALS in 2020).
There was a 20-year reunion of the original cast of Rent, attended not just by the cast, but people close to the show, including Jonathan Larson’s sister, Julie Larson, and New York Theatre Workshop artistic director Jim Nicola, the producer of the Off-Broadway début of the play.
Rent, because of the 20th anniversary of its Broadway opening, plus Hamilton, which had opened both Off-Broadway and then on Broadway in the year leading up to BroadwayCon 1, and the Deaf West hearing-deaf hybrid revival of Spring Awakening, which had just opened in 2015 and closed on 24 January 2016, the closing Sunday of the BroadwayCon weekend, were heavily spotlighted during the exposition.
At the Hamilton panel on Friday evening, 22 January, a hugely popular event, the interviewer asked if any of the cast had ever rapped before being cast in the hit Off-Broadway-to-Broadway musical. Several had, but near the end of the session, creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda improvised an impromptu rap off a typo in the real-time transcription of the session shown on video screens in the room.
Because the blizzard had closed down the city’s and the region’s transportation systems, many performers scheduled to contribute to the festivities couldn’t get there, last-minute substitutes came in. Idina Menzel, the original Elphaba in Wicked, agreed to participate as a speakerphone guest on a pop-up event called The Broadway Party Line. BroadwayCon organizers took the stage with their contact lists and proceeded to phone friends in the biz. They dialed up A-listers like Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone, Joel Grey, and Audra McDonald who answered questions and chatted.
Rock star Krysta Rodriguez, who was scheduled for a 20-minute gig at the late-night cabaret on Saturday/Sunday, stepped up and gave a two-hour concert when the other scheduled performers couldn’t make it.
(The snowstorm also closed down the Broadway theaters, which canceled performances on Saturday for both the matinee and evening shows. BroadwayCon offered $20 tickets for anyone who had seats that day for cancelled performances. BroadwayCon’s 2016 regular entrance fees included a $95 Day Pass for full access to all convention programs and a $50 Explorer Pass, which granted admission only to the BroadwayCon Marketplace—the merch vendors.)
Other events included a game modeled on TV’s Family Feud (with actors and fans) and panels on lighting design and stage management. On Friday afternoon, an original musical number created for the opening ceremony was presented, establishing a BroadwayCon tradition. Here’s how that special event was hyped in the official schedule:
Another op’nin’. . . no, actually, it’s our first opening. [For any of you who don’t recognize that lyric, it’s a ref to one of Broadway’s all-time favorite paeans to show business, “Another Op’nin’ Another Show” from Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate, 1948. The other Broadway anthem is Irving Berlin’s “(There’s No Business Like) Show Business” from Annie Get Your Gun, 1946.] The first-ever opening for the first-ever BroadwayCon. We can’t tell you what’s going to happen, because it’s all a big surprise. You can, however, expect singing, dancing, laughter, cameos from some of your favorite guests, a lot of tomfoolery, and who knows what else. . . .
BuzzFeed’s Peitzman limned the opening event:
You know what makes me happy? When there is a deep-cut reference to the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee [2005-08] and the auditorium erupts in cheers. That does not happen at other conventions. That has likely never happened before, anywhere. The BroadwayCon opening was a charming performance filled with song parodies and assorted other references that ranged from the obvious (lots of Hamilton) to the more obscure (Honeymoon in Vegas [January-April 2015], anyone?). This hourlong musical was a sure sign that I was in the right place . . . .
The template established in 2016 has been followed at all BroadwayCons since (with the obvious exception of the 2021 online expo). This includes last-minute, seat-of-the-pants changes to the announced schedule—even when there was no storm.
Let’s jump ahead to this year’s conference earlier this month and look at BroadwayCon 2022.
On Thursday, 6 January, Mischief Management announced that the seventh annual BroadwayCon, originally scheduled for 18-20 February, following Broadway’s year-and-a-half shutdown, would be delayed until 8-10 July due to the Omicron variant surge.
Arguably, the most prominent guest to appear this year was former FLOTUS, U.S. Secretary of State, and 2016 Democratic nominee for President of the United State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A certified Broadway enthusiast, Clinton moderated a panel on Friday afternoon, 8 July, called “Here’s to the Ladies” on legendary women of Broadway.
The panel members were actors Vanessa Williams (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Into the Woods), Julie White (The Little Dog Laughed, Sylvia), LaChanze (Once on This Island, The Color Purple), and Donna Murphy (Passion, The King and I).
The panel discussed the unique challenges women face in the workplace in general, but specifically dealt with the theater. Clinton asked the panelists how many women directors they’d worked with, and the answers were unsurprisingly low. The actors addressed the unique perspective women have in the arts.
Other presenters at BroadwayCon 2022 included Rent stars Rapp and Freddie Walker-Browne, four-time Tony nominee Judy Kuhn (Les Misérables, Chess, She Loves Me, Fun Home), three-time Tony nominee Carolee Carmello (Parade, Lestat, Scandalous), Olivier winner Lesli Margherita (Zorro, West End, 2008-09; U.S. performances in Salt Lake City, 2012, and Atlanta, 2013), Jacqueline B. Arnold (Moulin Rouge!), Andrew Barth Feldman (Dear Evan Hansen), Thayne Jasperson (Hamilton), Erin Quill (Avenue Q), Ryann Redmond (Frozen), Nik Walker (Ain’t Too Proud), iTunes celebrity-interview podcast Little Known Facts host Ilana Levine, author Jennifer Ashley Tepper of The Untold Stories of Broadway (2013-21, series—four volumes to date—of anecdotes by theater pros about Broadway theaters, productions, and personalities).
Attendees heard from casts, crews, and creative artists from shows currently running on The Great White Way. As in past years, BroadwayCon 2022 featured a line-up of question-and-answer sessions with the stars of Broadway shows, live performances by members of the casts, sing-along sessions for the fans, and more from hit Broadway shows such as A Strange Loop (opened at the Lyceum Theatre, 26 April; Tonys for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical), POTUS (Shubert Theatre, 27 April-14 August), Disney Princess – The Concert (touring since 2021 to venues across the U.S. and around the world), and Dear Evan Hansen (Music Box Theatre, 4 December 2016-18 September 2022; 2017; Tonys for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score Written for the Theatre).
(For those, like me, who aren’t in the know, Disney Princess – The Concert is a composite revue of songs sung by the heroines from Disney animated features such as Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora [from Sleeping Beauty], Ariel [The Little Mermaid], Belle [Beauty and the Beast], Jasmine [Aladdin], and more. It began in 2015 as Broadway Princess Party, a small concert at Feinstein’s/54 Below in New York City. The performers are Broadway stars, many from the stage productions of the Disney shows.
(Despite its New York City origins, there have been no performances in venues in the city, though concerts have been mounted in nearby New Jersey and Upstate New York. The remainder of the 2022 tour includes stops in Red Bank on the New Jersey shore, and Brookville, New York, on Long Island.)
On Friday afternoon, the 8th, there was the “BroadwayCon First Look” presentation, a showcase of the newest and most talked-about shows of the season. Many a Broadway performance débuted at BroadwayCon’s sneak peek, in this case, David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori’s Kimberly Akimbo, due at the Booth Theatre in November.
Also at “First Look” was an introduction of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, coming to the Hudson Theatre in October, presented by actors Wendell Pierce and André Deshields, who will be appearing as Willy Loman and Uncle Ben in the production which looks at the story from the perspective of an African-American family. (Pierce won an Olivier Award for his performance in the 2019 London run of the production.)
As of now, there’s no official word on BroadwayCon 2023, not even the dates, much less the guests or the schedule. It looks like the confab will take place in summer again, and at a different location from the New Yorker Hotel/Manhattan Center, but that’s all I’ve been able to suss out for the present. The best source of information is the website, https://www.broadwaycon.com/, which promises that details about the next BroadwayCon will be coming soon. Interested theater fans can sign up for news and updates by e-mail.
New York Theatre Guide’s Friedman observed after he wound up his BroadwayCon turn in 2016 that “it is hard, even for a New York theater critic, not to leave BroadwayCon without an overwhelming sense of optimism about the future.” His conclusion may well apply to all the BroadwayCons that followed:
Broadway, by definition, is a small planet, with a population only as large as the 40 professional [Broadway] theaters in Manhattan can employ. [There are also 62 Off-Broadway theaters in New York City that employ theater pros.] But this conference has shown it to be a planet with a million moons: retirees from Iowa, fangirls from Texas, community theater techies, Ivy League scholars, podcasters and future chorus boys. All of them hungry as Audrey II [the carnivorous plant from Little Shop of Horrors] to taste whatever comes next on the Great White Way. Here’s hoping that BroadwayCon finds a path to a long run, to keep everybody fed.
In other words: There’s no business like show business / Like no business I know!
