Bowery v broadway
Broadway has always been identified as the symbol of Manhattan’s theatrical life. Here stars were born and careers were made. The idea of the dramatic play was reinvented and refined, and the theater as people knew it was transformed. Yet, almost simultaneously, another area in New York was coming into its own in the area of theater life. The Bowery, a dark haven for the poor and newly arrived, was the last place one would expect to find a thriving art life. Known for its saloons and fistfights, it became the symbol of the destitute immigrant population that had infected New York City. Only the upper class looking for some kind of adventure frequented its alleys, returning to their homes on 5th Avenue in the morning hours. Plays performed on the Bowery were seen as entertainment, whereas plays performed on Broadway were viewed as art. The Bowery in essence provided a dark contrast to Broadway and this polarity between the two became the symbol for class distinction. Like poor immigrants who strove to make money and move upwards, towards Fifth Avenue, many artists and performers also saw the move upwards from the Bowery to Broadway as a symbol of success. In this way the idea of upward mobility was not so much a phrase as a
One of Broadway’s first hit plays was called the Black Crook. It was five and a half hours long and Luc Sante, author of the book Lowlife, describes it as “..the most preposterous concatenation of ill-fitting elements.” Although it lacked some of the audaciousness of Bowery plays, it did feature scantily dressed young ballerinas, which provided the main attraction to the audience. Broadway was a place of lights and glamour, favoring its citizens on Fifth Avenue, while the Bowery was a place of cheap flash, catering to the desires of the immigration population that crowded the tenements nearby. There was need for such distinctions, especially by “native” New Yorker’s who felt especially threatened by this growing immigrant population. Broadway plays were grander in scale and more expensive to produce, generally because the people who went to such performances could afford to pay more to see them. Plays on Broadway were seen as great expressions of artistic value, while plays on Bowery were simply acts that required eyes and ears, and no mind to understand them, since these plays had no story anyway. While it is true that many shows were shows of mere spectacle, many theater houses continued to put on Shakespearian plays, like Richard III and Othello. Broadway and Bowery are not really contrasting elements, if one looks closely enough, but rather reflections of the other. What one did, the other imitated. What one had, the other wanted. The simple connotation that went along with any kind of entertainment depending on where it was displayed had little to do with the actual context of the performance, but rather with the perpetuated myth of the Bowery created by the upper class. Today Broadway remains the center of theatrical life, and the idea of the Bowery as a place to see performing arts has all but died out. The advent of World War I and the drafting of anyone of age killed the nightlife within its realms. The gentrification of the Lower East Side and the Bowery further killed it off, as the upper classes moved in and forced people of lower incomes out. Although most of these people came looking for adventure and believing that they were “people of the people” they continued to frequent shows of the upper classes, presumably on Broadway, putting what was left of the Bowery theaters out of business for lack of clientele. The beginnings of theater on the Bowery began in the 1820’s at Bowery Theater and mostly catered to an educated middle-class. As the immigrant population grew in the 1830’s and
Some topics in this essay:
Bowery Broadway,
Luc Sante,
George Macready,
Bowery Theater,
York City,
Tammany Hall,
Broadway Bowery,
,
Houston Street,
George Washington’s,
immigrant population,
theatrical life,
life bowery,
tammany hall,
bowery broadway,
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upper class,
theater life bowery,
york city,
theater life,
association tammany,
association tammany hall,
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Approximate Word count = 1718
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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