BWW Book Club: Read an Excerpt from THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY: The Marquis Theatre

BroadwayWorld Book Club is officially off and running! Or should we say, reading!

The first BroadwayWorld Book Club selection is Jennifer Ashley Tepper's The Untold Stories of Broadway Volume 1. Tepper has just released the first volume of the book for free on Kindle!

Join the Discussion:

Author Jennifer Tepper will be hosting a Facebook Live Q&A today at 12pm ET so be sure to tune in! You can post questions for Tepper on our Message Board HERE and on all BroadwayWorld social media!

Recap of Chapter Three: The Marquis Theatre

If you would like to join the discussion, you can find a round-up of excerpts and fun facts from the third chapter of the book below:

Did You Know:

To this day, the longest-running show to ever play the Marquis (Me and My Girl) is the first!

Me and My Girl was the first Broadway show at the Marquis Theatre and it was a smash hit, running for three and a half years...

The second never happened. The Sequel to Annie, called 'Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge', was set to start previews at the Marquis in February of 1990. It had a four million dollar advance, an impressive amount at the time.

The Marquee went up, but the show never came in.

Did you know:

The Marquis Theatre has a three-decade history of neighborly relations with the Minskoff.

The two theaters treat their proximity much like kids at summer camp would treat neighboring bunks. The inhabitants of the chorus dressing room on the 45th Street side of the Marquis are always waving at the cast at the Minskoff out the row of windows that overlooks the street below.

Liz Larsen mentions the Damn Yankees cast hollering at Sunset Boulevard in 1995. During the 2004 revival of La Cage Aux Folles, Harvey Fierstein, the show's librettist, was also starring at the Minskoff in Fiddler on the Roof. Dressed as Tevye, he would make colorful signs and hold them up for the Cagelles. The Me and My Girl dancers did synchronized dances with the Sweet Charity company in 1986.

Did you know:

The Cast of The Drowsy Chaperone had a $50 dare tradition.

Casey Nicholaw, Director/Choreographer/Actor

Every single show had traditions. However, Drowsy (2006) had one tradition that as the director, I only sometimes enjoyed. That was the "$50 dare." On each person's last night, Troy Johnson would "$50 dare" that actor to do something outrageous on stage. Bob Martin had a "$50 dare" that on his last night, instead of hugging Troy's character at the end, he had to kiss him. He did it! It was really funny.

Now join the discussion!