S is for Sondheim (1930-2021)
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HOW TO TALK LIKE
A SOPHISTICATED THEATER PERSON
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IN THE WORLD of theater, "the book" is not a novel or a memoir, "transfer" doesn't mean switching colleges, and the "eleven o'clock number" almost never comes an hour before 12. Even more important, the difference between Broadway and Off Broadway isn't geographical, and a lot of people don't know that. Let us help.
Updated on June 13, 2022
A
“ACT ONE”
“The greatest showbiz book ever written.” That's what the headline for Frank Rich’s 2014 article in New York magazine said. It’s an autobiography by the playwright and theater director Moss Hart (1904-61), it was published in 1959, and nobody has topped it yet.
ACTORS' EQUITY ASSOCIATION The union that represents stage actors and stage managers. It was founded in 1913 at the Pabst Grand Circle Hotel (which was in Columbus Circle, where the Time Warner Center now stands) and today has more than 50,000 members.
ACTORS FUND The Actors Fund of America (actorsfund.org), founded in 1882, is a nationwide charity that assists people in the performing arts and entertainment industries with, among other things, finances, housing, health care counseling and eldercare. It benefits are available to onstage, onscreen and behind-the-scenes workers, not only actors. Which is probably why it changed its name recently to the Entertainment Community Fund. Yeah.
ALS, HILTON A theater critic for The New Yorker since 2002. A New York City native, Mr. Als won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2017 and told the London newspaper The Guardian he believed in “half-living life so I can get down to really living it by writing about it.” Als is also the author of "White Girls" (2013).
AMERICAN THEATER WING Sponsor of the Tony Awards. Founded in 1917, as the United States entered World War I, it later became known for sponsoring “stage door canteens” for servicemen during World War II. Today the organization’s focus, in addition to the Tonys, is education.
B
BARRYMORE, ETHEL. The Philadelphia-born actress long known as the first lady of the American theater. Barrymore (1889-1959) was the sister of John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore, and her mother’s maiden name was Drew.
BARRYMORE THEATER See Ethel Barrymore Theater.
The Bishop
David Belasco
BELASCO, DAVID Producer, director, playwright and namesake of the Belasco Theater. Belasco (1853-1931) was a multitasker (he also dabbled in lighting design), originally from San Francisco, and a particularly colorful character. He loved his theater so much that he lived in a 10-room duplex apartment upstairs, alongside his office space. He also liked to dress like a priest, which led to his nickname (the Bishop of Broadway), and the many people who say they’ve seen his ghost in the theater describe it as being in white collar.
BELASCO THEATER One of Broadway’s most beautiful. It opened in 1907 as the Stuyvesant, only because David Belasco already had another theater with his name on it. In 1910 it became the Belasco, and in 2010 it underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation — well, a restoration, really. The murals, Tiffany lighting and rich woodwork are still there. The first production there, “A Grand Army Man,” starred Antoinette Perry. Seating capacity: 1,059.
BLACK BOX THEATER A black box theater is an extremely simple, plain, stark and flexible space. We like wisegeek's description: "The room which contains the theater is typically square and painted black, because black is a neutral color which will not clash with costumes, sets, and lighting. The floor is flat and open, allowing people to arrange seating however they desire, and many black box theaters are designed to accommodate risers and platforms to create a raised stage, if desired."
BOOK It refers to the dialogue – the spoken words – in a musical. Example: “Cats” is often spoken of as an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. In fact, the music is by Sir Andrew, the lyrics are by Charles Hart, and the book is by Sir Andrew and Richard Stilgoe. /// Clearer example: Tina Fey in a 2018 promotional video for "Mean Girls," whose book she wrote. "I was in charge of the talking parts," she explained. /// If you hear someone refer to a show as a “book musical,” that simply means that it has dialogue and a plot. What’s not a book musical? A concert passing itself off as a “real” Broadway show. (The opinions expressed here are those of the founder, editor and publisher.) Also see: Off-book.
BRANTLEY, BEN Theater critic of The New York Times, now and forever. Well, we have to take that part back: Brantley retired in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic that had shut down New York theater. A native of Durham, N.C., he was made chief critic in 1996. Brantley's power was such that an entire (unaffiliated with The Times) website, Did He Like It?, existed simply as a roundup of his -- and only his -- reviews of the big shows.
BROADWAY An avenue in New York City that runs from Lower Manhattan (the financial district, a.k.a. Wall Street) through the northern tip of Manhattan, through the Bronx and a few miles into the suburbs (Westchester County). It is one of the oldest roads in the city, having begun as an Algonquin-tribe trail. Early Dutch settlers named it Brede Weg (yes, Broad Way). The area from roughly 41st Street to 54th Street is considered the Broadway theater district.
BROADWAY BARKS The annual dog adoption event sponsored by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS since 1998. Bernadette Peters, a co-founder of the program, usually hosts. Other performers turn out to introduce adorable, adoptable shelter animals to those who attend.
BROADWAY LEAGUE, THE A national trade association with more than 700 members, founded in 1930. The league sponsors IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) and tells theaters when to close and when to reopen in case of a pandemic.
Missionary Positions
"The Book of Mormon" opened at the 1,000+-seat Eugene O'Neill Theater in 2011.
BROADWAY SHOW
In general, a Broadway production is one that takes place in New York City in a theater with 500 or more seats. (Also see Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway.) Most Broadway theaters are not, in fact, on the avenue but on side streets between Broadway (or Seventh Avenue) and Eighth Avenue. Example: The Shubert is at 225 West 44th Street. The Gershwin is at 222 West 51st.
Don't Buzz at Me
Patti Lupone, anti-cellphone activist, in her "Evita" days.
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CELLPHONES
Seriously, turn yours off before Act I begins. Don’t just put it on silent. And don’t forget to do the same thing after intermission. Should your device “go off” during the performance, everyone in the theater will hate you. And God help you if you’re seeing a show with Patti Lupone; at Lincoln Center, she once snatched a phone right out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance. Lupone was hailed as a hero. See also: Mask.
CHEKHOV, ANTON (1860-1904) Russian playwright, short story writer and physician. His best-known stage works, most of them first presented in the 1890s, included “Uncle Vanya,” “The Seagull,” “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard.” He was 44 when he died of tuberculosis. The adjective for his work and style is Chekhovian (pronounced, roughly, check-OH-vee-an).
CORONAVIRUS See Covid-19.
COVID-19 No additional comment this month. Onward!
But here’s the back story:
On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, WHO (the World Health Organization) declared Covid-19, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, a pandemic. On Thursday, March 12, 2020, all Broadway theaters (each of which, by definition, seats 500 people or more) were closed. At the time, there were almost 100 Covid-19 cases in New York. The original plan was for theaters to reopen a month later, on April 12.
By April 1, 2020 (less than three weeks later), there were 83,000 cases. As of May 1, 2021, there were more than 32 million cases in the United States.
But a Covid vaccination campaign began in January 2021. Broadway is back, but nobody knows the future.
CURTAIN It seems like a simple word. “It’s an 8 o’clock curtain” means that’s when the stage curtain (real or metaphorical) goes up and the action of the show begins. But if you are going to a play or musical or whatever with an 8 o’clock curtain, you do not — repeat, do not — have an 8’o’clock curtain call. The curtain call takes place at the end of the show, when all cast members present themselves downstage to the audience and take their bows.
CURTAIN CALL See Curtain.
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DARK
When an actor or a crew member says, "We're dark on Mondays," that means that particular production has no performance on that night of the week. The theater is closed. The lights aren't turned on. Therefore it's dark. Monday is the most common night of the week for Broadway musicals and plays to be dark.
DELACORTE THEATER
The open-air theater in Central Park where Shakespeare in the Park productions are performed. The closest entrance is at 81st Street and Central Park West. The Delacorte opened in 1962 and seats 1,800.
DOWNSTAGE
If you’re standing on a stage, “down” is closest to the audience.
DRAMA DESK AWARDS Given since 1955 by the Drama Desk organization, which was founded in 1949. The Drama Desk Awards, originally named the Vernon Rice Awards (in honor of a theater critic for The New York Post), are distinguished by including Broadway, Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway productions, in competition with one another. The annual ceremony has been held in recent years at Town Hall.
DRAMATURG (Sometimes spelled dramaturge) There’s a good deal of disagreement on exactly what a dramaturg does. Possible duties include in-house critic, text analyzer, diplomat, researcher, ego-smoother, critical thinker who provides “literary, cultural and artistic” insight. This Huffington Post article examines the job in detail.
DREAM BALLET An all-dancing, non-singing production number in a stage musical, usually performed by expert dancers rather than the actors who play the characters in the rest of the show. The first is believed to have been in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" in 1943, choreographed by Agnes de Mille.
Queen of Cups
Photograph from the collection of the publisher. Lids stored separately.
DRINKS
Thanks to the introduction of sippy cups for grown-ups some years ago, many New York theatergoers are able to take their wine or whiskey or other favorite beverage from the theater bar back to their seats and enjoy it during the performance. In many theaters (including those owned by Shubert), you can bring back your sippy cup to the next show you see (at any theater owned by the Shubert organization) and get a considerable discount (e.g., a $15 small white wine may be only $10 if you bring your special cup).
Wig Moment
Douglas Hodge belting out "I Am Wht I Am" in "La Cage aux Folles."
E
ELEVEN O’CLOCK NUMBER (THE) The big song near the end of the show that knocks everybody’s socks off. Something of a misnomer now, because Broadway curtains used to go up at 8:30 p.m. Now they can be 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., depending on the night of the week, and hardly any shows are four hours long. (That's Douglas Hodge in the photo, belting out "I Am What I Am," the indisputable eleven o'clock number in "La Cage aux Folles.")
ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNITY FUND See Actors Fund.
ENTRANCE APPLAUSE All that some big stars have to do to get applause is to walk onto the stage for their first scene. You can usually tell a lot about that night's audience by whether people known for their stage work are welcomed with as much entrance applause as visiting movie and TV stars. Sometimes people even applaud the set; that is a very good sign for the designer's awards chances.
EQUITY See Actors' Equity Association.
EQUITY HOUSE "House" means theater, of course, and "Equity," in this case, refers to Actors' Equity Association, the union. When a small or new theater becomes an Equity house, it's a big deal (and the rules are a little complicated), as explained in this article from The Cleveland Plain Dealer. But the term is pretty much synonymous with theater professionalism.
ETHEL BARRYMORE THEATER Opened in 1928. Its first production,“The Kingdom of God,” starred — yes — Ethel Barrymore. Seating capacity: 1,096. (See also Barrymore, Ethel.)
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GHOST LIGHT A theater tradition that dates to the late 1800s. When a theater closes for the night and the lights go out, one light — usually a bare bulb on a floor lamp onstage — stays on all night long. This makes Actors’ Equity happy, because now anyone working after hours (or just hanging out in the dark, for whatever reason) is much less likely to fall into the orchestra pit. And reportedly it makes any ghosts or spirits in the building happy, because it shows we acknowledge their presence.
GREEN, JESSE Theater critic for The New York Times since 2017. When Ben Brantley retired in 2020, during the first year of the Covid pandemic, Green became the newspaper’s chief theater critic. A Yale man with a degree in English and theater, he had been New York magazine’s theater critic since 2008.
GYPSY For as long as anyone here can remember, the dancers in any Broadway musical’s chorus have been referred to as gypsies. Although most of those dancers don’t spend their lives wandering from city to city (the stereotype that inspired the name), they do wander from show to show, often making long, fruitful careers. Some times are harder than others (witness the characters in "A Chorus Line"). The nickname was an affectionate one and a point of pride, but as the 2017-18 Broadway season neared its close, Equity called for its retirement. Many Romany people who immigrated from India centuries ago — and have long lived with the name — consider it an ethnic slur.
GYPSY ROBE The ceremony began back in 1950, according to The New York Times. On opening night of any musical with a chorus, a particularly colorful robe is presented to the dancer (see Gypsy, above) who has appeared in the greatest number of Broadway shows in the chorus. Various good-luck rituals ensue, and then the robe is passed along to the next chorus musical that opens. The name of the ceremony -- and the garment -- was changed in 2018. It is now known as the Legacy Robe. We’re still waiting to see if that catches on.
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HOLDREN, SARA Former theater critic (briefly) at New York Magazine. She was named to the job in July 2017, two years after receiving her Yale School of Drama degree in directing. She had never worked as a critic before, and she resigned two years and three months later to return to full-time directing.
HOUSE LEFT
If you’re sitting in the audience, you’re in the house. So this is your left. (Also see Stage Left .)
HOUSE RIGHT
Sitting in the audience = being in the house. House right is your right as you sit there and face the stage. (Also see Stage Right.)
HOUSE SEATS
Sold out, they say? Theaters hold on to a certain number of seats (usually really great ones in the orchestra) for special friends and whatever kind of V.I.P. you are or can pretend to be. A journalist, for instance, may be able to call a show’s publicists a month or so ahead of time and order house seats for you for your visit. You’ll pay full price, but they’ll be fabulous seats.
15 Minutes
The second-floor bar at 59E59 Theaters.
I
INTERMISSION
The break (usually about 15 minutes) between Act I and Act II, during which theatergoers usually go to the bathroom or the bar, check their cellphone messages or smoke. Referring to intermission as “halftime” will not make you seem like a seasoned theater type.
INTERVAL
What the Brits say instead of “intermission.”
IN THE ROUND
The term “theater in the round” describes any setup in which the audience surrounds the stage or stage area.
Honey, Honey
"Mamma Mia!" is all about Abba.
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JUKEBOX MUSICAL
A show built around the music of a particular singer, musician or period. Something of a derogatory term, although there have been worthwhile jukebox musicals. They include “Mamma Mia!” (Abba), “Jersey Boys” (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) and “Ain’t Too Proud” (the Temptations).
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LEGACY ROBE See Gypsy Robe.
LIMITED RUN You can sometimes recognize limited-run productions by their ads. "16 weeks only!" "7 weeks only!" The default position for most big stage productions in New York is an open-ended run, which means the show keeps playing until people stop buying tickets and it isn't making money anymore. (Or it never was, and the backers are finally giving up.)
LUNT AND FONTANNE Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, the unchallenged greatest theater acting partnership of the 20th century. Lunt (1892-1977) was from Milwaukee; Fontanne (1887-1983) was born in London. They met in 1917, married in 1922 and appeared together in more than two dozen Broadway productions, from “Sweet Nell of the Drury” (1923) to “The Visit” (1958).
LUNT-FONTANNE THEATER Built in 1910, it was originally the Globe Theater. It was renamed to honor Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1958, the year of their official retirement. Seating capacity: about 1,500.
LYCEUM THEATER Built in 1903, the Lyceum is one of Broadway’s three oldest theaters. It’s also the longest continuously operating legitimate theater in the New York theater district and one of the few still operating under its original name, Architectural style: Beaux-Arts. Seating capacity: 922.
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MARKS, PETER Chief theater critic of The Washington Post from 2002 until he retired in 2023. A Yale graduate, he began his career in theater criticism at The New York Times.
MASK If the theater asks you to wear one, wear one. Otherwise, Patti Lupone may chastise you in no uncertain terms.
MEMORY PLAY A work based on the memories of one of the play’s major characters, who doubles as the narrator. Tennessee Williams, it is said, coined the term to describe “The Glass Menagerie.”
MILLER, ARTHUR. American playwright (1915-2005) best known for his 1949 drama “The Death of a Salesman,” which won both a major Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. His other best-known plays, introduced between 1947 and 1955, included “All My Sons,” “The Crucible” and “A View From the Bridge.” A native New Yorker (born in Harlem), Miller married three times, most famously to the film star Marilyn Monroe, from 1956 to 1961.
MIRANDA, LIN-MANUEL The creator and star of “Hamilton,” the 2015 musical about Alexander Hamilton that won the Pulitzer Prize and an armful of Tony Awards. Miranda was born on Jan. 16, 1980, in New York City; grew up in Inwood (far-north Manhattan); graduated from Wesleyan; and would be the grand old man of Broadway now if he weren’t so — youngish. His first Broadway hit was “In the Heights.” When he saved and reimagined the Drama Book Shop (during the pandemic!), it was just a side gig. Link: Great Smithsonian article on LMM.
MOBILE PHONES
See cellphones.
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NEIL SIMON THEATER
Formerly the Alvin Theater. (There was never an Alvin. The name was derived from the first names of two producers: Alex Aarons and Vinton Freedberg.) It opened in 1927 with a Gershwin show starring Fred and Adele Astaire. The theater was renamed in 1983 for the playwright Neil Simon (1927-2018) — who was coincidentally born the year the theater was built. Seating capacity: about 1,400.
O
OFF-BOOK When actors turn up at the theater or rehearsal hall off-book, that means they have learned their lines and cues and no longer need to refer to the script. It was said that the first time the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman worked in London, he was shocked (and sort of horrified) when the entire cast turned up at the first rehearsal off-book.
OFF BROADWAY
An Off Broadway production, in general, is any one in a New York City theater with between 100 and 499 seats. It has nothing to do with geography. Some Off Broadway theaters, for instance, are actually on Broadway, like the intimate McGinn Cazale (2162 Broadway, just north of 76th Street).
OFF OFF BROADWAY
It’s an Off Off Broadway production in New York if the theater has 99 seats or fewer. Some of those theaters are at 59E59, the Wild Project, La MaMa (in photo) and the Flea.
OLIVIER AWARDS
Britain’s equivalent of the Tony. Named for Sir Laurence Olivier (1907-89) and usually presented in London in the spring.
ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM Do not call it a soundtrack. Soundtracks are from films.
OVERTURE
A piece played by the orchestra just before a musical begins and intended as an introduction to the show’s music.
P
PERRY, ANTOINETTE Maybe that special night in June should be called the Toni Awards. The Tonys were named for Perry (1888-1946), a Denver-born actress, director and producer. She made her Broadway debut in “Lady Jim,” a 1906 comedy, and her Broadway acting farewell as Clytemnestra in “Electra” (1927). She became a Broadway director the next year, and her biggest success in that capacity was “Harvey” (1944), the Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy about a happy alcoholic and his invisible rabbit.
Sense of Place
From the "Present Laughter" revival starring Kevin Kline as Noël Coward's brazen alter ego.
PLAYBILL
A publication that lists the cast and crew members of the Broadway show you’re about to see, along with the number of acts, sometimes the setting (e.g., "New York, 1958," "the present day") and in the case of musicals, the rundown of musical numbers. There are also articles and ads. The usher will give you one. It's free and makes a nice souvenir.
PLAYS IN THE HOUSE See Stars in the House.
PRESS NIGHTS
Certain performances shortly before or shortly after opening night to which critics and other members of the press are invited as part of the regular audience. Reviews are usually based on this performance. For a more detailed explanation of the practice and its development, see “About Press Nights.”
PREVIEW A performance of a stage production before its official opening night. As in “The show is still in previews, so they have time to make it work.”
PRONUNCIATION It matters. When you’re discussing the Tony-winning playwright of “Hurlyburly” and “Stick and Bones,” remember that it’s David Rabe (rhymes with babe — not with bobby). The same goes for Lily Rabe, his daughter. The Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote “Glengarry Glen Ross,” among other things, is David Mamet (rhymes with damn-it, not with lamé). As for the man who gave us “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” I learned the hard way (Marian Seldes corrected me in front of hundreds of people at the 92nd Street Y), that Edward Albee rhymes with doll-bee, not pal-bee.
PROSCENIUM STAGE
Technically, the proscenium (often the “proscenium arch”) is the part of the stage that frames the action of a play. Today it has come to refer to any configuration in which the audience faces the stage directly.
PUBLIC (THE)
The Public Theater, at 425 Lafayette Street in downtown Manhattan. Founded by Joseph Papp in 1967, when he saved the old Astor library from demolition. (Papp had already created the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1954.) The Public also produces Shakespeare in the Park, free summertime stagings of Shakespeare plays at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.
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REGIONALS
American regional theater exists across the United States. Most references to the regionals mean Equity houses, not community theaters that employ amateurs. Some of the best-known regional theaters near New York City are Yale Repertory and Long Wharf, both in New Haven, Conn.; the McCarter in Princeton, N.J.; George Street Repertory in New Brunswick, N.J.; Goodspeed in East Haddam, Conn.; and the Westport Country Playhouse (in photo) in Westport, Conn.
RICH, FRANK The New York Times chief theater critic from 1980 to 1993. He became an editorial columnist for The Times until 2011 when he left the newspaper to join New York magazine as an essayist. Now he’s a producer.
RIEDEL, MICHAEL A theater columnist for The New York Post from 1998 to 2018. He gave that up to begin a career in radio. His last name rhymes with "needle."
RUDIN, SCOTT A theater producer with 17 Tony Awards. His behavior as an emotionally and physically violent boss and associate was well known for decades but was finally acknowledged in public in early 2021.
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SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK A glorious New York City tradition that we all pray will go on forever. Each summer — at least when there isn’t a worldwide pandemic — the Public Theater presents two major, splashy productions (usually but not always by Mr. Shakespeare) in the open-air Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Tickets are free (that was Joe Papp’s idea) but do require waiting in line, perhaps for hours and hours, to obtain. Major stars like Meryl Streep and Al Pacino (in photo, as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice") have been known to turn up in the casts.
SHAVIAN One of our favorite adjectives. Pronounced SHAY-vee-uhn, it means relating to Shaw. George Bernard Shaw.
SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD Irish playwright, critic and sociopolitical activist. Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin but moved to London when he was 20 to seek his fortune. Best known for “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” “Arms and the Man,” “Candida” (all produced in the 1890s), “Man and Superman,” “Major Barbara,” “Pygmalion” and “Heartbreak House” (all from the early 20th century). He won the 1925 Nobel Prize in literature for his body of work, “its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty.” He also enjoyed using archaic spellings and eliminating apostrophes.
SHAW, HELEN New York magazine’s theater critic since October 2019. She formerly reviewed theater for Time Out New York, was president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club and grew up in Lawrence, Kan. According to The Clyde Fitch Report, her favorite dead critic is Mary McCarthy.
SIMON, JOHN The meanest man who ever reviewed legitimate theater died on Nov. 24, 2019. The obituary in The New York Times called him “one of the nation’s most erudite, vitriolic and vilified culture critics.” He was the theater critic for New York magazine from 1968 to 2005 and wrote theater reviews for Bloomberg News from 2005 to 2010. A fact not universally known: Simon was born in 1925 in Serbia, living as a child in Belgrade. English wasn’t even his first language.
SIMON, NEIL The king of 20th-century urban Broadway comedy. Simon (1927-2018), a native New Yorker, won three regular Tony Awards – for “The Odd Couple” (1965), “Biloxi Blues” (1985) and “Lost in Yonkers” (1991) – and one special Tony, just for being himself. A number of his other plays are equally famous, among them “Barefoot in the Park,” “Promises, Promises,” “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” and “The Sunshine Boys.” The Neil Simon Theater (formerly the Alvin), on 250 West 52nd Street, was renamed for him in 1983.
SONDHEIM, STEPHEN Lyricist, composer, author and suspected god. Born in New York City on March 22, 1930. Died in Roxbury, Conn., on Nov. 26, 2021. His Broadway credits, roughly in chronological order, include “West Side Story,” “Gypsy,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” “Pacific Overtures,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Into the Woods” and “Passion.”
SOUNDTRACK See Original Cast Album. Please.
STAGE DOOR
Theaters still have them. Fans still stand by them after the show. Actors still emerge from them, sometimes giving autographs and agreeing to embarrassing selfies.
Who's on Right?
Chris Cooper, left, is stage right in this scene from "A Doll's House: Part 2." Laurie Metcalf, right, is stage left.
STAGE LEFT
If you are an actor standing onstage (or are on the stage for some other reason), your left is stage left. As opposed to house left. In this photo from "A Doll's House: Part 2," Laurie Metcalf is stage left.
STAGE RIGHT
Again, if you are standing onstage, your right is stage right. As opposed to house right. In the "A Doll's House: Part 2" photo, Chris Cooper is stage right.
STALLS
The British term for what Americans call the orchestra section of the theater. "The stalls," that is.
STANDING OVATION
Once considered a special tribute paid to a truly outstanding performance or production, a standing ovation is now pretty much standard in Broadway theaters. This leaves no way, unfortunately, for an audience to express an opinion that it has just seen true greatness. And once everyone in front of you stands up, you have to stand too; otherwise you can’t see what cute things the actors are doing during their curtain calls. The Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks lamented this back in 1996 (when he was still at The New York Times), but after 26 years, the article appears to have had no effect.
STARS IN THE HOUSE. An organization founded in 2020 to present live-streamed interviews with stage and screen performers. Plays in the House, a division, presents live-streamed plays, often featuring the original New York stage casts (performing from their homes). Seth Rudetsky of Sirius XM and his husband, James Wesley, are the hosts. Donations benefit the Actors Fund of America.
STRATFORD FESTIVAL The pride of Ontario, Stratford is the largest classical repertory theater company in North America. But don’t call it the Stratford Shakespeare Festival; it presents the work of numerous other playwrights too. Founded by Tyrone Guthrie (British director) and Tom Patterson (Canadian journalist) in 1952, it offered its first productions in 1953. They were “Richard III,” starring Alec Guinness, and “All’s Well That Ends Well,” starring Irene Worth.
SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF It was an important concept in Aristotle’s principles of drama (accepting fiction as reality in order to experience a catharsis or purification). At one point in literary analysis, though, the term referred only to believing that the likes of ghosts and demons were real when reading a work of fiction about them. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth battled over the term’s exact meaning. In 1817, Coleridge equated “willing suspension of disbelief for the moment” with poetic faith. Seems simple enough to us. At a performance of “Tina,” for instance: “That’s not really Adrienne Warren, a Virginia-born actress who went to Marymount, up there. It’s Tina Turner. And all of us have just traveled back to the 1960s.”
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TDF
Short for Theater Development Fund, a nonprofit group for the performing arts, best known for running the TKTS booths. (That's the Times Square booth in the photo.) You can also join TDF (if you’re any of the following: student, teacher, union member, senior citizen, clergyperson, government employee, nonprofit employee, member of the military) and order discounted tickets ahead of time.
THRUST
A thrust stage extends into the audience on three sides. (Fashion runways and beauty pageant runways work this way too.) The thrust style was used as long ago as in ancient Greece but fell out of favor. The Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada is credited with bringing it back in 1953.
TKTS
The main TKTS (pronounced “tickets”) booth is in Times Square, at Broadway and 47th Street. Discounted tickets for both Broadway and Off Broadway productions (sometimes 50 percent off) are available on the day of the show. It involves standing in line. Branch TKTS locations are near Lincoln Center (61 West 62nd Street), at South Street Seaport (190 Front Street) and in Brooklyn (1 Metro Tech Center).
Six of One
Audra McDonald has won six Tony Awards, and she's only in her late 40s.
TONY AWARDS
The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theater, presented annually in New York since 1947. Only Broadway productions are eligible for most of the awards. Named for Antoinette Perry, a 20th-century actress, director and producer. In recent years, the Tonys ceremony has been held most often at Radio City Music Hall and televised on CBS.
TRANSFER
“Oh, yeah, ‘Hamilton’ is going to transfer,” said almost everybody we know when that piece of hip-hop theatrical history opened at the Public in early 2015. That is a theater person’s shorthand way of saying: This show is so good and is being so well received that they’re going to move it to a Broadway theater.
TWO-HANDER Theater term for a play with only two characters onstage. Examples: “Venus in Fur,” “Love Letters,” “Red,” “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.”
U
UPSTAGE
If you’re standing on a stage, “up” is closest to the back of it and farthest from the audience. “That actress really upstaged her co-star” means that the actress stood farther upstage than she was supposed to, forcing her fellow cast member to face her and turn his/her back to the audience. Not nice.
USHER
The usher is a nice person who will look at your ticket, show you where your seat is and hand you a Playbill. It is considered polite to wait at the back of the aisle for him or her to approach you and offer to help. Some people, however, will always barge forward on their own. Glaring at them may or may not help modify their behavior.
Eat Your Heart Out, 'Phantom'!
This murder mystery first opened on the West End in October 1952. Harry S Truman was president, and the young Queen Elizabeth II had just ascended the throne.
