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

Did You Know:

The Beaumont Is Part Of A Community Unto Itself?

John Weidman, Writer

I have loved working at Lincoln Center Theater. For a couple of reasons.

The most important one is that it's not like working in a rented space. Because it's an institutional theatre, it's got a life and a vitality that's constantly going on all around your show. There's usually something on the stage below you or above you, depending on whether you're in the Mitzi Newhouse or the Vivian Beaumont. And there's a whole staff which is dedicated not just to your project, but to a larger idea of what the season's about, and what the next season's going to be about.

It's very comforting. There's something very satisfying about having the boundaries of your particular show expanded, to include more theater. Greg Mosher was the artistic director there when we did Anything Goes, and André Bishop when we did Contact and Happiness. And Bernie Gersten was there the entire time. The personnel, the staff there are wonderful. You feel you have a connection with the creative teams and the business staffs throughout the building, so that I always felt like I was part of a family that embraced not just my show, but me as an artist and what I was interested in. You don't get that if you're in a commercial Broadway house. Some may, but I haven't. I feel no relationship to the Winter Garden-except as a member of the audience-when I return to it.

And there's another thing that's great about the Beaumont. If you have a hit, you can stand just inside the doors at the head of the aisle and watch, not just the show, but the audience watching the show. You're not standing behind them, as you would be in a proscenium house, you're actually looking into their faces as they look at the stage.

With shows that were designed to make people happy-shows like Anything Goes and Contact-it was especially great to be able to have that experience. Often, with Anything Goes and then later on with Contact, I would conspire to find myself in the neighborhood during show time and I would slip into the theater and stand in the back and just watch people watching the end of the show or the end of the first act.

They'd feel good, I'd feel good, and then I'd leave. And often, when I did that, I'd look across the theater and see that Bernie Gersten had come down from his office, and was standing at the head of an aisle having the same experience I was.

So it was like that. Everybody's in the same building, the producers are down the hall, they're working on other things, but they're also taking care of your show. It's a great place to work.

Did You Know:

Today's Authors For Kids Were Yesterday's Broadway Kids?

Tim Federle, Actor

I was a spastic theatre kid growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When I was 14 years old, my mom flew us to New York to see Carousel at Lincoln Center.

Eddie Korbich and I had done Oliver! together at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and I had kept in touch with him. I told him, "My mother is taking me to see a Broadway show." And he responded, "You should come see our show, it's in previews!" Because of Eddie, I actually had house seats to the very first Broadway show I ever saw.

I was excited, but I thought that Carousel might be kind of a stodgy, old-person show. It was anything but. Seeing that revival informed my career. I learned that with the right lens and the right kind of respect for the material, you can inject modern relevance and a big breath of fresh air into a show that happens to be old.

Up until that point, my theatrical life had taken place in a series of very straightforward, Midwestern proscenium theaters, with red seats. My mind was blown by the Vivian Beaumont, with its thrust stage, extraordinary slanted audience area, and neon set. "Oh my God. Broadway is so different than theatre back home." That's actually not true. Of course, Broadway had a lot of very traditional shows running in traditional spaces. But at the time, I thought all of Broadway would be like the Vivian Beaumont.

My mom and I started elbowing each other during "Mister Snow". Who is this Audra Ann McDonald? The show had not yet been reviewed, and it felt like we were watching a star being born.

Afterward, we got a backstage tour, and I was astonished to see that this Broadway theater backstage was kind of clunky and rundown and cement-lined. I thought I was supposed to turn a corner and see Liza Minnelli playing the harp.

Did You Know:

There's A Secret Passageway From Juilliard To The Beaumont?

Michael Arden, Actor

When I was in school at Juilliard, I found a secret passageway underneath the school into the Beaumont.

During my first year of school, we were working on A Winter's Tale. And every night, after rehearsal, my friend and I would sneak over to the Beaumont and pretend to be in line at the bathroom. We would grab a Playbill, and we would walk in and we would second-act Contact. I think we saw "The Girl in the Yellow Dress," that whole section, probably... I wanna say 25 times. The cast started to recognize us, and they would wink at us during the show! I loved it. I could probably do the dance for you!

We just found a way in through the parking garage. I don't think it exists now that they've done the remodeling, but we went every night. I loved it. I loved it so much. And I thought, I'm here at Juilliard, and I can end my night, every night, by being in the theater?! It was such fun.

My dream is absolutely to work at the Beaumont, because I love the space itself. As an actor, the three-quarter thrust means that you always have to be aware of your audience, and make every angle of your body available to them. It's truly the closest thing we have to the first theaters.

But I also want to work there someday because I just love Lincoln Center.

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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