BWW Book Club: Read an Excerpt from UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY: The Lyceum 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! Today's live stream will be the final live stream for the Untold Stories of Broadway due to next Monday, May 25th, falling on Memorial Day. There will still be a final round of discussion questions posted to the Message Board next Monday, May 25 for the Final Thoughts, Outtakes chapter, to wrap up the discussion.

Recap of Chapter Eight: The Lyceum Theatre

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

Did you know:

To this day, the Lyceum has been home to over 300 productions?

The Lyceum on 45th Street was build by producer Daniel Frohman in 1903, after receiving the news that his first Lyceum Theatre on 4th Avenue between 23rd and 24th Street would be demolished. That theater was build in 1885 and was the first theater to be lit entirely by electricity- under the guidance of Thomas Edison himself! Frohman received several offers of real estate on Broadway to build his new theater- which would at first be referred to as "The New Lyceum"- but he did not want a playhouse directly on Broadway since it was always filled with too much traffic!

Did you know:

The Lyceum was the first Broadway theater to ever be granted landmark status, in 1974?

It is also the oldest continuously operating Broadway theater! While the Lyceum and the New Amsterdam both opened in 1903, the New Amsterdam didn't house a Broadway show between 1937 and 1997.

The Lyceum has a 110-year history of nothing but shows- although, fascinatingly, the Lyceum [*at the time of the publishing of the book in 2013] has only ever housed ten musicals- and five of these were during the 1970s! [t around 950 seats, the Lyceum has typically been a better fit for plays-although several special musicals have com in through the cracks.

Did you know:

The longest running show at the Lyceum is Born Yesterday?

The longest-running show of all time at the Lyceum is not a musical, as is the case with every other theater in this book. The Lyceum's long-runner was the original production of Born Yesterday, written by Garson Kanin and starring Judy Holliday. Born Yesterday, about a corrupt businessman and his smarter-than-she-looks blonde mistress, ran for 1642 performances- no small feat in 1946.

Now Join the Discussion!