Broadway Up Close

Though I know a lot about Broadway, I still have more to learn, and I recently had the chance to do that on a Broadway Up Close walking tour, which caters to all prior knowledge levels. Our tour guide John Scacchetti is a dancer/actor who made his Broadway debut in 42nd Street. He was also in Patti LuPone Gypsy, so I've actually seen him on Broadway. I did Act I of the tour, which you have to complete before taking Act II and Act III. Act I only covers 41st through 44th Street. I expected to cover more ground, but there was a lot to see in those four blocks.

We started in front of the Nederlander and continued to other current and former theaters. As long as I've been coming to Times Square to see shows, there were some buildings that I had no idea used to be theaters. John used an iPad to show us what the inside of some of them looked like. My favorite stop was the final one, the Belasco. We learned about how it is haunted by the ghosts of producer David Belasco his former lover, the woman in the blue dress. Other than Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the theater's current tenant, the only two successful shows there have been Shakespeare revivals. And the architect George Keister was apparently a huge Shakespeare fan. We also learned that the word drag queen comes from Shakespeare. When all roles would be played by men, those playing women would be labeled on the cast sheet with the letters DRAG (dressed as a girl) so that the costume designers would know.

I don't want to give away too many fun facts. I'll save that for John and the other tour guides. If you're interested in booking, you can fill out a form on the website (there is a not a set schedule).