2000s Broadway Musical Logos Bracket Tournament - The Final 4!

The first decade of the new millennium was a big one for Broadway, with Disney and vampires, jukebox musicals coming into their own, and movie-to-musical adaptations threatening to take over. It was also a time of new voices, like Kitt and Yorkey and Lin Manuel Miranda. As usual, there were big hits and even bigger flops. In other words: business as usual!

But how were the show logos? That's up to you to decide. We've created a bracket of 64 Broadway shows from the decade. The Tony winners and hits and flops have been evenly distributed over four 16 "team" regions. So far, you've already narrowed down field to The Elite 8, and this week, you'll be choosing your favorites from The Final 4! That's right - this week, your votes will determine which logos will compete in next week's Championship! 

For the current winners to date, see the full bracket below:

#2482

2000s Broadway Musical Logo Madness!

The Final 4

HOW IT WILL WORK:

• Each week, we'll open the voting for a different segment of the bracket, and you will select your favorite from each pairing.
• Your selection should be based on the logo/window card ONLY. We are NOT looking for your favorite show! It is possible to like a logo from a show you've never heard of before!
• We will provide pictures of the full window card (in most cases) or logo above each week's ballot, then you scroll down and make your selections. You MUST click/tap the "Click Me to Count Your VOTES" button at the bottom of the survey.
• THIS ROUND WILL CLOSE ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 29TH AT 5 PM!

Here we go again! May the best logo win! BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE FULL LOGOS BEFORE YOU VOTE! THE ACTUAL BALLOT IS BELOW THE FULL-SIZE LOGOS/WINDOW CARDS!

GAME 1:                                                                    GAME 2:

                          

Broadway Games: 1st Letters to Song Title

BROADWAY GAMES:

1st Letters to Song Title

 

Directions:  Unscramble the first letter of each answer below to reveal the title of a showtune.

Hint:  It's a hell of a trip.

1. Show where the characters lose if they stop touching a vehicle.
2. Show that asks, "What if you could live forever?"
3. So much happened before Dorothy dropped in to this show.
4. Name of the real-life heroine of a Pulitzer Prize-winning play; she believed that despite everything, people were good.
5. She was adopted by Daddy Warbucks.
6. The show where Diana sees Gabe, and Natalie feels like The Invisible Girl.
7. He won a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize for Lost in Yonkers.
   
8. Lucy, Linus, Snoopy join their titular friend in this family-friendly musical
9. She's Sophie's "Dancing Queen" mamma.
10. This "Solve-It-Yourself Broadway Musical" won the Best Musical Tony, and changed its title to this one word.
11. In this musical, Guy meets Girl and they start falling slowly.
12. Don't cry for her, Argentina. She's on a rainbow high.
13. A little boy gets mixed up with the Artful Dodger and Fagin in this classic Lionel Bart musical.
14. The Lost Boys want Peter to keep her in Neverland.
15. The Andrew Lloyd Webber choo choo musical. Race time!
16. Ivo most recently directed a controversial take on this classic American musical.

Answers to Last Week's Game

Broadway Games:

Broadway Math

1. Street number where you meet those dancin' feet MINUS the hour Mark Cohen starts filming = The number of Variations in the 2009 Jane Fonda-starring play.

42 - 9 = 33

2. Angry Men MINUS the number of queens at the Brooks Atkinson = How many months of the year the wives suffer in Damn Yankees

12 - 6 = 6

3. A Chorus Line: The number of "Singular Sensations" PLUS "Hello, ____ ... = ... Hello, _____, Hello Love"

1 + 12 = 13

4. (Hill's trombones divided by Jews in a room bitching)  PLUS  (the number of days to Christmas in She Loves Me minus the number of "Last Kisses" in Bye Bye Birdie) DIVIDED by Val's dance score = Val's "looks" score.

(76 / 4) + (12 - 1) / 10 = 3

19 +11/10=3

30/10=3

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CONTEST: Broadway Collections Photos (CANCELLED)

UNFORTUNATELY, WE HAVE HAD TO CANCEL THIS CONTEST AT THIS TIME. CHECK BACK SOON!

If you're a regular reader of this site, you know we are big time collectors of all things Broadway. We are pretty sure many of you are, too. Perhaps, like me, you collect Playbills and window cards. Or cast recordings on vinyl, books, scripts...magnets, key chains, mugs or t-shirts. On the other hand, maybe you collect everything you can get your hands on from your favorite shows. In any case, there's a ton of memorabilia out there to keep any collector busy.

So, we'd like to share some of our collections with you, and see some of yours in return! And you might win something!

Broadway Collections Contest

First, some of our collections:

Here are but a few of my window cards and special Playbills, and my quilt made from some of my t-shirt collection. As you can see, my collections cover a lot of Broadway shows.

Mike has collections from his favorite shows, Avenue Q and Fun Home!

#2480

Broadway Who's Who: Dick Van Dyke

With the new year, we are trying new things. Since Broadway remains "on pause," we are going to pause our traditional Mr. and Ms. Broadway and Standing @ Zero columns. In place of those, we'll take a look at some of Broadway's Who's Who - people who made the theater scene their home in front of the footlights and behind the scenes, making the art form all the better for their being a part of it. 

Our first in the series goes to a true entertainment icon, who, even at 95 years of age is still making headlines. Last week, it was revealed  that he would be a 2021 Kennedy Center Honors recipient. I'm speaking of the great Dick Van Dyke, star of the big screen, the little screen and the stage. That my young niece and nephew know him from Mary Poppins, my sister knows him from TV's Diagnosis Murder and a particularly fun episode of The Golden Girls, my parents know him from one of the greatest sit-coms of all-time, The Dick Van Dyke Show, goes to show you that he is truly a multi generational legend, whose gift just keeps giving. He's a real "who's who."

We, of course, will be focusing on his contributions to theater.

The Broadway Who's Who:

Dick Van Dyke

DID YOU KNOW?...

• BIRTH DATE: December 13, 1925
• BIRTHPLACE: West Plains, Missouri
• FAMILY: married twice, four children, seven grandchildren
• MILITARY SERVICE: World War II, United States Army Air Forces, Staff Sergeant, ret., recipient of Good Conduct Medal. After being denied for pilot training four times for being underweight, he was assigned to Special Services in the American Theater, where he entertained the troops. This service became a big part of his role as Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
• EDUCATION: At age 78, he received his high school diploma. He quit high school to join the army for World War II.
• HONORS: 5 Emmy Awards, 1 Grammy, Television Hall of Fame (1995), SAG Lifetime Achievement Form (2013), Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, named a Disney Legend.

BROADWAY CAREER:

The Girls Against the Boys (debut): November 2, 1954, Alvin Theatre. A musical revue that also starred Bert Lahr and Nancy Walker. 

⭐He was honored with a Theatre World Award.

     

Bye Bye Birdie  (Albert Peterson): April 14, 1960 - April 8, 1961, Martin Beck Theatre/54th Street Theatre/Shubert Theatre. Co-starred Chita Rivera, Paul Lynde, Kay Medford, Susan Watson and Dick Gaultier. 

⭐He won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

The Music Man (Harold Hill): June 5 - 22, 1980, City Center. Co-starred Meg Bussert as Marian, and a young Christian Slater as Winthrop. There was a pre-Broadway national tour.

Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life (Guest Star): January 24 - 26, 2006, Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. His final Broadway performance to date, reunited him with his Bye Bye Birdie co-star and friend.

#2479

This Week in Broadway History: January 17 - 25

This Week in Broadway History:

January 17 - 25

(Starting next week, weeks will run Tuesday - Monday for this column.)

🎭OPENING NIGHTS🎭

• January 17, 2008: David Mamet's political play, November, starring Nathan Lane opens its 205 performance run at the Barrymore Theatre.

• January 18, 1998: Ragtime, the epic musical starring Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Marin Mazzie and Judy Kaye opens at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, where it will play 834 performances and win 4 Tony Awards.
• January 19, 2017: The final play in August Wilson's play cycle to arrive on Broadway, Jitney, opens at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater for a limited run of 62 performances. The play wins the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.
• January 20, 1954: Henry Fonda stars in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial which opens at the Plymouth Theatre.
• January 21, 1903: The very first Broadway adaptation of The Wizard of Oz opens with a book and lyrics by L. Frank Baum himself.
• January 22, 1953: Arthur Miller's The Crucible makes its Broadway debut at the Martin Beck Theatre.

• January 23, 2005: The musical adaptation of Little Women starring Sutton Foster as Jo March and Maureen McGovern as Marmee opens at the Virginia Theatre.
• January 25, 1968: Lillian Gish, Hal Holbrook and Tony-nominee Alan Webb opened in I Never Sang For My Father at the Longacre Theatre.

📰 BROADWAY HEADLINES📰

• January 18, 1974: Michael Bennett holds a meeting with Broadway ensemblists who share their stories. It is recorded and becomes the basis for A Chorus Line.
• January 20, 2003: Broadway artist, and later theater namesake, Al Hirschfeld passed away at age 99.
• January 25, 1996: Many of history's great artists did not know success during their lifetimes. Jonathan Larson, who passed away on this date one day before the first preview of Rent was one such artist.
• January 25, 2003: The Michael Crawford Gothic musical Dance of the Vampires closed at an estimated loss of $12 million.

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY🎂

Jesse L. Martin     Katie Finneran     

Eartha Kitt     James Earl Jones

January 17: legendary actor James Earl Jones, director and subject of Mack and Mabel Mack Sennett, legend Eartha Kitt, Tony-winning actor Denis O'Hare  January 18: actor Danny Kaye, actor Mark Rylance, Rent actor Jesse L. Martin  January 19: the original Phantom Michael Crawford, 9 to 5 composer Dolly Parton, actress Veanne Cox  January 20: comedy icon George Burns   January 22: two-time Tony-winner Katie Finneran  January 23: designer Irene Sharaff, Broadway icon and legend Chita Rivera  January 24: playwright Sarah Ruhl, actor Carrie Coon, Rony-winner Daveed Diggs  January 25: Company's original Bobby Dean Jones, actor and bullet ArianaDeBose, Tootsie actor John Behlmann

📆ON BROADWAY THIS WEEK IN 1991📆

The winter blues definitely hit Broadway this week. It would be your final chance to catch Cathy Rigby's debut as Peter Pan at the Lunt-Fontanne, James Clavell's Shogun: The Musical (including a shipwreck, earthquake, and ninja-prostitutes) at the Marquis, and the Tony-winning revue, Black and Blue at the Minskoff, all three of which closed on January 20.

Aspects of Love & Buddy on Broadway

Still, there were some things to see, like the award-winning revival of Fiddler on the Roof, starring Topol and Marcia Lewis. If rock and roll nostalgia is your thing, you could catch Paul Hipp as Buddy Holly in Buddy. And the brand new Ahrens-Flaherty musical Once On This Island was making a star of LaChanze at the Booth Theatre. Both the long-running A Few Good Men and the not so long-running Aspects of Love were finishing up their runs at the Music Box and Broadhurst Theatres, respectively.

#2478

2000s Broadway Musical Logos Bracket Tournament - The Elite 8!

The first decade of the new millennium was a big one for Broadway, with Disney and vampires, jukebox musicals coming into their own, and movie-to-musical adaptations threatening to take over. It was also a time of new voices, like Kitt and Yorkey and Lin Manuel Miranda. As usual, there were big hits and even bigger flops. In other words: business as usual!

But how were the show logos? That's up to you to decide. We've created a bracket of 64 Broadway shows from the decade. The Tony winners and hits and flops have been evenly distributed over four 16 "team" regions. So far, you've already narrowed down field to The Sweet 16, and this week, you'll be choosing your favorites from The Elite 8! That's right - this week, your votes will create The Final 4! 

For the current winners to date, see the full bracket below:

#2477

2000s Broadway Musical Logo Madness!

The Elite 8

HOW IT WILL WORK:

• Each week, we'll open the voting for a different segment of the bracket, and you will select your favorite from each pairing.
• Your selection should be based on the logo/window card ONLY. We are NOT looking for your favorite show! It is possible to like a logo from a show you've never heard of before!
• We will provide pictures of the full window card (in most cases) or logo above each week's ballot, then you scroll down and make your selections. You MUST click/tap the "Click Me to Count Your VOTES" button at the bottom of the survey.
• THIS ROUND WILL CLOSE ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 22ND AT 5 PM!

Here we go again! May the best logo win! BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE FULL LOGOS BEFORE YOU VOTE! THE ACTUAL BALLOT IS BELOW THE FULL-SIZE LOGOS/WINDOW CARDS!

GAME 1:                                                                    GAME 2: 

                         

GAME 3:                                                                    GAME 4: 

                         

Broadway Games: Broadway Math

It's Friday, and you know that means it's Broadway Game Day! This week, let's do a little math...

Broadway Games:

Broadway Math

1. Street number where you meet those dancin' feet MINUS the hour Mark Cohen starts filming = The number of Variations in the 2009 Jane Fonda-starring play.

_____ - _____ = _____

2. Angry Men MINUS the number of queens at the Brooks Atkinson = How many months of the year the wives suffer in Damn Yankees

_____ - _____ = _____

3. A Chorus Line: The number of "Singular Sensations" PLUS "Hello, ____ ... = ... Hello, _____, Hello Love"

_____ + _____ = _____

4. (Hill's trombones divided by Jews in a room bitching)  PLUS  (the number of days to Christmas in She Loves Me minus the number of "Last Kisses" in Bye Bye Birdie) DIVIDED by Val's dance score = Val's "looks" score.

(_____ / _____) + (_____ - _____) / _____ = _____

#2476