Imagine walking down one of the most crowded streets in Times Square, and looking up to see marquees with black and brown faces plastered over some of the most historic theaters? Well, that’s a reality as 45th has received a Broadway Black makeover. We hereby declare 45th Street Broadway Black Street!
The theatre district’s 45th street is filled with so much Black star power I may just have to make the trip to Manhattan to feel the energy. This spring six out of nine theaters on 45th street are occupied by Broadway Black shows, how cool is that? For as long as I’ve been attending Broadway shows, I don’t think I’ve ever seen something quite as cool as this. The Music Box Theatre (Shuffle Along) , The Golden Theatre (Eclipsed), The Minskoff Theatre (The Lion King), Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (The Color Purple) and Al Hirschfeld Theatre (Kinky Boots) all playing at the same time on the same street and I cannot take it!
Three of the theaters are owned by the Shubert Organization, one to the Nederlander, and the other to Jujamcyn Theaters. In my ideal utopian theatre world, the theaters playing these shows would also be black owned to make it that much sweeter, but this will do for now. In the future, I’d hope to see more black-owned theaters taking over Times Square because I’m starting to think to call Broadway ‘The Great White Way” won’t seem to be applicable anymore at the rate we’re going.
(Just an FYI, I’m very aware that the phrase “The Great White Way” was originally created due to the fact that Times Square was the first section of Manhattan to be fully illuminated by electric light, but one can’t help call out the irony of the phrase given the industry it represents.)
