You will need JavaScript enabled for full functionality on this website - photos, audio and video may not work as a result.
Click here to find out how to turn JavaScript on.

Broadway or Bust

Broadway or Bust was performed at Round Hill Primary School between Thursday 23rd October and Saturday 25th October 2008.

An evening of music, song and dance featuring all the biggest and best Broadway hits - a fully staged, costumed and choreographed review featuring songs from 42nd Street, Chicago, Sweet Charity, La Cages Aux Folles, Sunset Boulevard, A Chorus Line, Kiss Me Kate, Little Shop of Horrors and Hairspray.

The History of Broadway

The beginnings of Broadway go back to 1882, and the construction of The Madison Square Theatre at 24th Street. The Mallorys, who had built the theatre, had employed a young actor-manager, David Belasco, from San Francisco, along with two brothers ,Charles and Daniel Frohman, from the lower Eastside to help manage the first theatre. The first sign of the expanding transformation we know today as Broadway occurred when producer Rudolf Aronson decided to build a theatre of his own. At the time, new theatres was concentrated between Union Square and 24th Street. While looking for space in the area, Aronson was approached by a friend who had a vacant lot "way up-town", at Broadway and 39th Street. Procuring financing from some of the wealthiest finance wizards of the day, the Goulds, Roosevelts, Vanderbilts and Morgans, Aronson built a splendid theatre on that site. By the turn of the 20th Century the street had an entirely different look, with as many as sixteen theaters on Broadway itself and many others located on the side streets or other avenues. Broadway was much more than a mere twelve blocks. It started at 13th Street and wound its way a mile and a half up the Avenue to 45th Street, ending in the heart of Long acre Square. This first decade of the century also saw the construction of many theatres, most notably the New Amsterdam on 42nd Street in 1903, along with four others in that same year, that are still standing today!

Old Broadway

Music has always given its regards--and its talents--to Broadway, playing the key role in the past, present, and so far as one can tell, future of the Broadway musical. After all it was 140 years ago that The Black Crook opened in New York City at Niblo's Gardens, making history not only as, just conceivably, the first Broadway musical, but also introducing a new and wide public to the glories of Music and Dance! Some notable performers of the time such as Maria Bonfanti and Rita Sangalli appeared in it, and when, years later in 1929, it had a deliberately somewhat campy revival on the other side of Broadway's Hudson, in Hoboken, New Jersey, it even provided the formidable Agnes de Mille with her first chance at big-time choreography.

After The Black Crook, showbiz and Broadway enjoyed various and varying relationships with the worlds best and most popular musicals. The longest running musical to date is still The Phantom of the Opera with over 8,000 performances.

Musical Numbers

Part 1

42nd Street
42nd Street
Dames
Go Into Your Dance
Shuffle off to Buffalo

Sondheim
Losing My Mind
Send in the Clowns

Little Shop of Horrors
Somewhere that's Green
Suddenly Seymour

Sweet Charity
There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This
If My Friends Could See Me Now
Too Many Tomorrows
Rhythm of Life

Part 2

Hairspray
Good Morning Baltimore
Nicest Kids In Town
Mama I'm a Big Girl Now
I Can Hear The Bells

A Chorus Line
One
What I Did For Love

La Cages Aux Folles
I Am What I Am
The Best of Times

Sunset Boulevard
As If We Never Said Goodbye
With One Look

Chicago
Cell Block Tango
And All That Jazz

Jekyll And Hyde
This is the Moment

Kiss Me Kate
Too Darn Hot

The Choreographer, Craig Butterworth, leads dance rehearsals

Photo Gallery

There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This!

The Band

Drums - Ben Miles
Flute - Jennie Artiss
Guitar - Richard Hair

The Production Team

Musical Director - John Maddison
Wardrobe - Mina Machin
Props - Jane Hough
Sound - David Hinchliffe
Stage Manager - David Artiss
Assistant Production Manager - Jane Hough
Production Manager - Mike Cottee
Dance Captain - Mina Machin
Choreographer - Craig Butterworth
Chorus Mistress - Jennie Artiss
Wardrobe - Lisa Green

If you took part in this show and have memories to share or don't have a profile, and would like one, we'd love you to contact us.

Newspaper Clippings

Nottingham and Long Eaton Record, Thursday October 23, 2008

Nottingham Evening Post, Tuesday 28th October 2008

Broadway or Bust

The History of Broadway

Musical Numbers

Part 1

Part 2

Photo Gallery

42nd Street

42nd Street Tappers

All that Jazz

As If We Never Said Goodbye

Cell Block Tango

Good Morning Baltimore

Hairspray Dancers

I Am What I Am

I Can Hear The Bells

If My Friends Could See Me Now

Losing My Mind

Mama I'm A Big Girl Now

Nicest Kids In Town

Rhythm Of Life

Somewhere That's Green

Sondheim

Suddenly Seymour

There's Gotta Be Something Better

Too Many Tomorrows

What I Did For Love

With One Look

The Band

The Production Team

Newspaper Clippings