BWW Exclusive: Counting Down to Jennifer Ashley Tepper's THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY, VOLUME 2 - The Nederlander Theatre

To celebrate the publication of The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 2 on November 18 by Dress Circle Publishing, Jennifer Ashley Tepper will be sharing three short excerpts about each of the Broadway theaters featured in the book-countdown style! Today: The Nederlander Theatre!

The second book in a multivolume collection examines eight Broadway theaters and over 70 years of theatrical history through the voices of such Broadway greats as Jason Robert Brown, Joanna Gleason, Jonathan Groff,Jeremy Jordan, Laura Linney, Joe Mantello, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robert Morse, Harold Prince, Charles Strouse, Alex Timbers, Julie Taymor, Robert Wankel, George C. Wolfe and more. The eight Broadway theaters featured in the second book are the Palace Theatre, the Barrymore Theatre, the Gershwin Theatre, the Circle in the Square, the Shubert Theatre, the Criterion Center Stage Right, the Vivian Beaumont Theatre and the Nederlander Theatre.

Have you ever wanted to sneak behind the curtain of some of Broadway's greatest hits, including Wicked, Rent, and A Chorus Line? Do you wonder what secret Tom Bosley told Robert Morse about Sardi's or what Patti LuPone revealed to Raúl Esparza about Broadway dressing rooms? Are you dying to know what Laura Linney learned as a young understudy, watching Stockard Channing on stage each night?

From opening nights to closing nights. From secret passageways to ghostly encounters. From Broadway debuts to landmark productions. Score a front row seat to hear hundreds of stories about the most important stages in the world, seen through the eyes of the producers, actors, stage hands, writers, musicians, company managers, dressers, designers, directors, ushers, and door men who bring The Great White Way to life each night. You'll never look at Broadway the same way again. The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 2 is the second book in a multi-volume series that will tell the stories of all of the Broadway houses.

The Nederlander Theatre

Did You Know:

Harold Prince's Ascent To Legendary Broadway Producer Was Not An Easy One?

Harold Prince, Producer/Director

A Family Affair was at the Billy Rose, which is now the Nederlander. It was my first directing job. I went to Philadelphia because the show needed help, and I agreed to take over for Word Baker. We opened on Broadway a few weeks later... and then we found out the show would close after just a couple days.

Somehow, the producers got their affairs together to run for another week, and during that time, I kept working on the production. It picked up some momentum and ended up running for eight weeks!

I had said I wouldn't take billing at first. Then, I got so immersed in the show, and excited from working on it, that I took my first billing as a director. The show got quite good reviews, even though it didn't run. That was swell and, immediately, the word was out: Oh, there's a new young director out there.

I had been such a successful producer that everyone said, "Oh, why doesn't he just do that? Why doesn't he just settle and produce? Why does he have to have directing, too?"

Did You Know:

The Nederlander Was Once The Seediest Part Of Old Times Square?

Alex Rybeck, Musical Director

When Lena Horne did The Lady And Her Music, hers was the first big show to play The Nederlander in a long time. That block had deteriorated dramatically, and had become the territory of hookers and pimps.

As Lena herself told her audience, she made a point of meeting the ladies who worked the street, and said to them, "I just want you to know, I'm working here now. I respect you've got your job and I hope you'll respect mine. So I'm not going to work your side of the street, and I'd like you to respect MY customers between 7:30 and 8pm as they're coming into the theater."

And they did!

Did You Know:

Rent "Saved" The Nederlander?

Kevin McCollum, Producer

We had this show called Rent that was about to open, off-Broadway. Then we lost the writer, Jonathan Larson, which was absolutely devastating. My producing partner, Jeffrey Seller, and I had known Jonathan for years. I went to a few dinner parties with Jonathan where people would ask him about his work, and he'd say, "I'm writing the next Hair." I would turn to him and whisper, "Let other people say that. That's why I'm here!" He was brilliant and everyone who knew him was just waiting for him to have that breakthrough opportunity to prove it.

On opening night off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, New York Times critic Ben Brantley said Rent "shimmers with hope for the future of the American musical." He ended his New York Times review: "People who complain about the demise of the American musical have simply been looking in the wrong places." Every news outlet was telling people to remember Jonathan Larson's name because he wrote this landmark show. We knew we needed to move the show to Broadway, and we needed to open before the Tony cut-off that year.

While searching for a Broadway home for Rent, we looked at this broken-down theater on 42nd Street called the Selwyn. Jujamcyn, MTC, and Roundabout were looking at it, too. Roundabout made a bid on the theater and eventually turned it into the American Airlines, so that was out of the picture for us. We saw the Broadhurst, but it turned out that wouldn't be available to us. The Shuberts had another show they wanted to move into it.

Then we looked at the Nederlander. No one played the Nederlander. The last real show they'd had there closed after a few weeks four years earlier. But the Nederlander did have a tenant: mice and mold and leaking ceilings. Plus, the Nederlander was run on DC power. They had never changed over to AC power; that's how behind that house was. In order to bring in the equipment to do Rent there, millions of dollars would need to be spent to renovate the theater. After discussing, we got a commitment from the Nederlanders that they would do that. So not only were we moving Rent to Broadway, we were rebuilding this theater together...

The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 2 can be pre-ordered by visiting Dress Circle Publishing and will officially release on November 18, 2014. For more information please visit www.dresscirclepublishing.com.

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