Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Off-Broadway shows, with links to buy tickets. Each offers an
online
theater club
that's free to join and can yield substantial discounts—
as much as 50%—on advance-purchase theater tickets for some
shows. You can also sign up for their regular email blasts.
For information on Broadway shows, visit
LiveBroadway.com
(
www.livebroadway.com
), the official website of Broadway, spon-
sored by the League of American Theatres and Producers.
2 Performing Arts: Major Concert Halls &
Companies
Apollo Theater
Built in 1914, this legendary Harlem
theater launched or abetted the careers of countless musical icons—
including Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Duke
Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, and Aretha
Franklin. Thousands lined the streets in December of 2006 to pay
their last respects to the Godfather of Soul on the Apollo stage, the
place where he performed some of the greatest shows of all time.
Currently, there's a $65-million restoration project going on, which
should be completed by 2009. The first phase—refurbishing the
terra-cotta facade, a new box office, and a high-tech marquee retain-
ing the original 1940s style and features—was unveiled in 2005. The
theater remains open during the renovations and is still internation-
ally renowned for its African-American acts of all musical genres,
from hip-hop to Wynton Marsalis's “Jazz for Young People” events.
Wednesday's “Amateur Night at the Apollo” is a loud, fun-filled
night that draws in young talent from all over the country with high
hopes of making it big.
253 W. 125th St. (btwn Adam Clayton Powell and Fred-
erick Douglass boulevards).
&
212/531-5300
or 212/531-5301. www.apollo
theater.com. Subway: 1 to 125th St.
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM is the city's most
renowned contemporary-arts institution, presenting cutting-edge
theater, opera, dance, and music. Offerings have included histori-
cally informed presentations of baroque opera by William Christie
and Les Arts Florissants; pop opera from Lou Reed; Marianne Faith-
full singing the music of Kurt Weill; dance by Mark Morris and
Mikhail Baryshnikov; the Royal Dramatic Theater of Sweden
directed by Ingmar Bergman; and many more experimental works
by renowned and lesser-known artists as well as companies from all
over.
Moments
Finds
