Museum of Broadway opens Tuesday in Theater District
NEW YORK -- It is curtain up on the Museum of Broadway, an elaborate new destination on West 45th street with room after room celebrating shows and the theater makers who enhanced and pushed American culture forward.
CBS2's Dave Carlin was at the long-awaited grand opening of the Museum of Broadway with a VIP ribbon-cutting.
First stop in the museum: The glamour and exuberance of Ziegfeld Follies, and then the landmark "Show Boat," with some classic lyrics at your fingertips. At the museum, you get to step inside the shows you love.
"I think Broadway takes a lot of chances," said Julie Boardman, co-founder of the Museum of Broadway. "The art kind of reflects the times."
"They were shows that pushed boundaries whether that be culturally or the actual art form," said co-founder Diane Nicoletti.
A highlight is the artwork of the great Al Hirschfeld throughout, and in its own dedicated gallery.
"He could say in a line what it took writers to do in paragraphs," said David Leopold, Hirschfeld archivist and author. "He drew more Broadway posters than any other artist. He was in the newspaper, the New York Times, on average every other week for 75 years."
You can mix and match a Hirschfeld caricature using a touchpad.
"Broadway and the American musical are very much a reflection of American consciousness," said Museum of Broadway historian Ben West.
Now open to the public, everything Broadway in this one place.
Several rooms also celebrate how a Broadway show is crafted, with the behind-the-scenes professionals who make it happen.
The museum of Broadway is open from 10 a.m.- 10 p.m., seven days a week.
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