New York is the only city I know of whose streets are not just locations but synonyms for whole industries — Wall Street and Madison Avenue (hence “Mad Men”); or even for an entire way of life — Fifth Avenue and (once) The Bowery. Broadway is short-hand for both an industry and a way of life. But Broadway means something different to different people.

This was brought home to me in at least three ways while attending a recent performance of “In The Heights.” First of all, to people who write about the theater, a show like this Tony-winning musical is no longer really a part of their Broadway. It opened off-Broadway in February, 2007 and moved to Broadway in March, 2008 – just last year to most people, but three seasons ago to theater people, at least technically: The new 2009-2010 Broadway season has already begun, since “Burn The Floor” opened on August 2nd.

From the very start of “In The Heights,” the audience is brought cheekily into another Broadway – the street that runs through Washington Heights:
“Now you’re probably thinking ‘I’m up shit’s creek, I never been north of Ninety-sixth Street,” the main character, a bodega owner named Usnavi raps before the looming backdrop of the George Washington Bridge. “Well, you must take the A train even farther than Harlem to Northern Manhattan…get off at 181st, and take the escalator.”

We are in a Broadway of Puerto Rican, Dominican and Cuban residents who are struggling with rising rents and paltry paychecks and a blacked-out, broken down city, but also a neighborhood of exuberant aspiration, the neighbors’ stories told in a score infused with rap, salsa and meringue, “sounds that are an ear-tickling novelty on Broadway,” wrote the New York Times reviewer. He did not mean Broadway at 181st Street, where they are anything but a novelty.

When it first opened, some called “In The Heights” a breakthrough musical — a breakthrough for Latin music and Latino performers and for Lin-Manuel Miranda, the original star, lyricist and composer who conceived the idea for the show when he was a sophomore at Wesleyan College. (The role of Usnavi since February has been undertaken by Javier Munoz, who was the understudy). However, just as many reviewers explicitly said it was not a breakthrough musical, e.g.: “In the Heights” is not another break-through tribal musical like, in their respective days, “West Side Story,” “Hair” or “Rent,” but it gets its electricity from the same source.” The plot, such as it was, was conventional, some critics said; the music in Broadway musicals has long traveled outside the Ethel Merman Beltway.

Both sides have a point. Sometimes it seems there have been so many “breakthrough musicals” on Broadway — yes, “West Side Story,” “Hair” and “Rent” but also “A Chorus Line” and before that “South Pacific” and before that “Oklahoma” and before that “Of Thee I Sing” (the first Broadway musical to win a Pulitzer) and before that “Show Boat” — that “Broadway” is synonymous with “breakthrough.” If the story in “In The Heights” is (as some critics put it politely) familiar, the story of “In The Heights” is familiar too…and thrilling. Breakthrough productions and star-making performances are a large part of Broadway lore…a large part of what Broadway is .

The first Broadway musical that anybody ever called a Broadway breakthrough was “The Black Crook”, because, some claim, it was the very first Broadway musical — in 1866.

Fire had destroyed the largest theater in New York, the Academy of Music, which was on Union Square, leaving the impresario with no place to present a troupe of ballet dancers he had brought over from Paris. The producer went over to the owner of the second largest theater in New York, Niblo’s Garden, which was on Broadway (and Prince Street). The manager of Niblo’s was about to put on a melodrama called “The Black Crook.” The ballet producer convinced the melodrama manager to combine theatrical forces…and the Broadway musical was born, a uniquely American art form; a true breakthrough. I got this unlikely but possibly true story from an old book produced by the Museum of the City of New York as a companion to an exhibition entitled “Broadway!” The book and the exhibition focused exclusively on Broadway musicals.

Of the 22 shows planned for this season whose opening nights are already scheduled, only eight are musicals, three of these revivals. This is in sharp contrast to the annual output of some 50 musicals during the 1920’s. But still, to a large slice of the public, “Broadway” is synonymous with “Broadway musical.”

Right before the performance I saw of “In The Heights” began — the announcer telling us first in English and then in Spanish to turn off our cell phones — I noticed two men flirting with two women whom they obviously had just met. All four were communicating in American Sign Language. This was an “open captioned performance” — During the show, all the lines of dialogue, lyrics and sound effects were written on a display box off to the side of the stage. The Theater Access Project, a program of the Theater Development Fund (the same organization that operates the TKTS half-price ticket booths), has been providing Broadway audiences with this service since 1997, and sign language interpreted performances since 1980. (See the schedule of open captioned performances this season).

To a growing number of people, then, Broadway is….

What is the sign for Broadway?

“Broadway” in ASL is your right hand with the palm facing left, spelling the letter B (hand up, thumb slightly towards the center), and then waving it back and forth, as if giving your regards to Broadway. (Demonstration courtesy of sign language interpreter Bruce G. Smith.)

(Photographs of “In The Heights” courtesy of The Hartman Group. Photograph of open captioned performance of “Movin’ Out” from Caption Coalition )

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