Broadway on the brain? Test your knowledge of the Great White Way with these trivia questions!
"Do you know..."
Q: ...what Broadway's original street name was?
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A: Broadway was originally an old Algonquin trade route named the Wickquasgeck Trail. (We could be Rosie's Wickquasgeck Trail Kids!)
Q: ...what show, currently on Broadway, is also the longest running Broadway show in history?
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A: Phantom of the Opera has played more than 10,000 performances.
Q: ...what the Tony Awards are?
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A: The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards are the Broadway community's annual celebration of excellence in theatrical achievement. Awards are given out in a variety of categories for Broadway shows. Categories include best actor/actress, best play, best musical, best set design, and best costume design, to name a few.
Q: ...why they are called Tony's?
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A: Tony --actually Toni-- was the nickname of Antoinette Perry, an actor, director and producer who died in 1946. It was in her honor that her friends established an award for distinguished achievement in theater. At the initial presentation in 1947, one of the presenters, Brock Pemberton, as he handed out an award, called it a Tony, and the tradition was born.
Q: ...who hosted the 1997, 1998, and 2000 Tony Awards Ceremony at Radio City Music Hall?
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A: Rosie O'Donnell--who is tied in second place with Julie Andrews, Robert Preston, Hugh Jackman, and Neil Patrick Harris in hosting the Tony Awards telecast three times.
Q: ...who holds the honor of hosting the Most Tony Awards telecasts?
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A: Angela Lansbury holds the current record with five.
Q: ...which Broadway musical featured a helicopter landing on stage?
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A: Miss Saigon
Q: ...what a proscenium stage is?
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A: Most Broadway stages are proscenium stages. This means that the audience sits in front of the stage, looking at the actors, and not on either side or behind it. The stage is framed with an arch, and a curtain usually hangs from that arch. The actors typically present the show from behind the frame, and sometimes perform on a small piece of stage sticking out in front of it, called the apron. Other stages are different. Some stages are thrust stages, in which case the audience sits on three sides of the stage, and some are theatre-in-the-round, where the audience sits on all four sides.
Q: ...what a theater's "green room" is? Do you know why it's called a "green room"?
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A: A green room is typically an off-stage room where actors can rest and relax between their cues. There are quite a few theories as to where the name "green room" originated. Some say the room was originally painted green to soothe an actor's eyes after they had been exposed to the bright stage lights. Some say it began in Shakespeare's time, when actors may have rested outside, among the grass and greenery, while they waited for their cues. Some even say there used to be a room solely for storing the set's shrubbery right off stage, and that is where some actors took a small rest in between scenes.
Q: ...what the first Broadway Show Rosie saw was?
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A: In 1975, Rosie was 13 years old when she saw Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue at the Minskoff Theatre. Although not a traditional musical, this was a legendary production that set a Guinness Book of World Records for most tickets sold in the shortest time.
Q: ...the names of the eight musicals that have won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for DRAMA?
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A: Of Thee I Sing (1931)
South Pacific (1949)
Fiorello! (1959)
How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (1961)
A Chorus Line (1975)
Sunday in the Park with George (1984)
Rent (1996)
Next to Normal (2010)
Q: ...which US President appears as a character in ANNIE?
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A: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was featured in the Broadway musical ANNIE.
Q: ...which Peanuts character does not appear in the musical YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN?
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A: Woodstock
Q: ...what the "11 0'clock number" in a Broadway show is?
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A: Not all Broadway shows have an "11 o'clock number" and there is some discussion as to a definitive definition. Shows used to begin at 8:30 pm so the creators would put in a number to give the show, and the audience, a jolt as it moved towards the finale (which would happen around 11 pm). It has come to refer to a song towards the end of the show that includes a revelation for a character and pulls the show together. The classic example is "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy. "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line and "Memory" from Cats are two more well known examples.