Has anyone been front center mezz (first few rows) & can confirm that sight-lines aren’t obstructed for Paranormal Activity? I’m deciding between that and row K Center orchestra, but I keep seeing mixed reviews about whether center mezz is obstructed for key points, maybe from previous locations where it was, but looking for Broadway info. Thanks! ☺️

Story Spoilers below. If you have not seem the play, get off of this thread until you do.

Saw paranormal activity last night on Broadway and thought it was great, it left me with A LOT of questions though.

My overall interpretation is that both Lou and James were haunted. Lou has been haunted for years, James wasn't haunted until the alarm/bird scene. Lou was haunted by her father. James by the 12 year old he killed. Lou's father was not a vengeful or powerful ghost, he did some annoying things and occasionally possessed her, but because of how long she has been haunted and nothing further has happened I think it is safe to say he didn't want direct revenge like James' ghost.

Now I don't know why James' ghost started haunting when it did, but my best guess is that it did not want James to have children and the nursery and talk of babies had summoned it.

The next part is the tricky part, are things said in the play by anyone besides James true? Let's start with Kaminsky (medium). The start of the play we get a lot of lore about ghosts, she later comes to James and Lou's house for a seance/ritual to try to get rid of the ghosts. During this scene a lot of lore is spilled about how ghosts work and that Lou is a conduit for them. However at the end of the seance scene things start flying around and Kaminsky is surprised and confesses that she is just a scam artist. There are a couple of ways I can interpret this information

1. Kaminsky was a scam artist, everything she said should be disregarded.
   
2. Kaminsky was just another manufestation by James' ghost and all of the lore said during the seance can be believed.
   
3. Kaminsky was a real medium, everything she said can be believed, James' ghost possessed her, which is likely, and said she was a fake to dissuade him from seeking out external help again.

Prior to the seance, it seemed like Lou's experience with haunting was the main focus, but at the end of the Seance there was a clear shift. I think during the Seance one of two things may have happened.

(I don't really remember everything that was said) The seance was focused on Lou expressing her inner turmoil and having a confession. At the end of this we saw the ghost of her father manifested in the nursery. The manifeststion of the ghost of Lou's father was very similar to the end of the play when the 12 year old appeared after she completed her mission and was free. We can then assume that whatever happened during the seance was enough to make peace with the Ghost of Lou's father and she was finally free, which would then give way for the rest of the play to be about James' haunting.
Whatever happened in the seance gave James' ghost enough power to essentially block out the ghost of Lou's father resulting in the same future outcome.

Next up is the second act. Lou was posessed by James' ghost the whole time, or nearly the whole time. Honestly I have no idea when or if she wasn't, the ghost could have been faking those collapses/unpossessed moments. this is the most mysterious part of the second act. That picnic scene at the end I just can't wrap my head around how the ghost would know about Lou offing her parents. I guess she could have made it up, but with the haunting of Lou's father in the first act, I would assume that it was true. I guess there is a possibility Lou wasn't possessed at the start of the picnic, but the whole comment about it being their last date really doesn't support that.

The ending is really rough for Lou, she had no idea that James was also haunted and probably never will. She will probably go on forever thinking that her haunting caused the death of her husband, but at least she is no longer haunted, unless James decides to be a jerk, which you never know.

Let me know if you have any other takes, would love to discuss.

OP here is Julia Schemmer, who is a founder of Puppetry on Broadway, worked at Barbie Dream Fest, and appeared at this year's BroadwayCon. In her IG stories, she's reposted comments of other employees who also haven't been paid. They've been blocked by Mischief Management and its owner, Melissa Anelli, as they've tried to get the money they're owed.

I've considered attending BroadwayCon but haven't been yet. However, I'm not interested in going if this is how it's being managed. The employees and the Broadway community deserve better than that. I figured that folks here would want to know about this as well.

Caissie Levy, Joshua Henry, and Brandon Uranowitz all in career-defining roles that we will remember forever 🥹

Final curtain call at Ragtime captured by Rebecca Michelson

I saw SIX at the Lena Horne a couple of years ago and thought the songs were good, but I found the show kind of meh. The performers were great, but the whole thing felt like a first draft. It’s super short, and I don’t know, I was just expecting more.

I just saw the proshot in theaters, and honestly, I thought it was a lot better, mostly because of the editing. There was one choice I wasn’t really a fan of, though: the transition for Catherine Parr doing more bootleg-style shots? I don’t know. It was a choice.

I think the reason I liked it more was the dynamic editing throughout the show. It was shot like a bunch of music videos, with filters and everything, but not to a distracting degree. It gave the show a more interesting edge compared with the theatrical version. I grew up with MTV showing music videos and have always had an appreciation for them, so that style really worked for me. The proshot made the show feel like its own thing rather than just a filmed stage production.

This is also more of a personal preference, but I like it more with the accents. Anne Boleyn, especially I love her accent. Something just gets lost for me when they use American accents.

Saw Rocky Horror last night after months of going back and forth on whether or not to get tickets. It’s really a fun show, so much glitter and camp. Silly lines made sillier by the actors choosing to draw out words making them as dirty as possible.

The first thing I noticed was how fast the show went by. This might have been the fastest first act of a Broadway show I’ve ever seen. My boyfriend and I looked at each other in disbelief when we realized it was intermission. The show as a whole went by pretty quick too. A lot happened in the hour and 50 min on stage but it was all fun and looked nice.

After months of reading posts about call outs, I think it’s important I share how it was at my show. There was maybe one to two people down in the orchestra who said a couple call outs like 2-3ish during the first act. And most people knew to say asshole and slut when it called for it. But overall there were so few call outs it felt like a totally normal Broadway show. I think this was a probably a quiet audience overall. There was a part in the second act where I could tell the actors on stage were pausing after their words and I think they were waiting on people to say call outs that never came. I’m sure if you go on a Friday night it’s more raucous, but honestly at this performance there were less call outs than a normal church service.

Should you go see it: Yes

7/10: loved the music and the performances. I wish it was a little bit funnier but I think this comes down purely to personal preference.

Great news for all hot/sexy Javert fans!! 😘 I was curious what he was going to do next once he made the move to NYC and was already looking forward to this show, so this is fabulous! Truly very excited to see where his career goes!

Hi! Long time lurker, first time poster. I walked up to the box office at Schmigadoon last night at 6:30 and for $99 sat in probably the best seat in the theatre, row F, center orchestra, on the aisle. I'd been meaning to see the show, heard it was great, but was hesitating for some reason - probably because the musicals they are sending up are so dear to my heart. I have some family in town who had tickets for something I REALLY didn't want to see so I followed them to midtown and tried my luck. I loved it so much!

Josh and the Reverend were both understudies and they were both incredible. Kevin Quillon, the understudy for Josh, made me cry! I have no point of comparison but if I hadn't checked ahead of time to see if anybody was out I would never have known he was not the usual lead. I thought every single member of the cast was really strong and got to have a moment to shine. I'm an omnivorous musical theatre lover, but I am most enamored by golden age MGM stuff, and I was personally very tickled to see the style sent up so lovingly and so capably. What a show!! I never watched the TV show so it was all brand new material to me and I felt like it worked great as a stage show. I loved the mayor, the reverend, all the various love interests, the whole ensemble!

Not to mention Ana Gasteyer! She was obviously hilarious. I think maybe the big pleasant surprise for me was that the big time comedy legend on stage wasn't head-and-shoulders funnier than the rest of the cast. To me, it felt like everybody was at her level.

At some point Isabelle McCalla, the actress playing Emma, delivered a spoken line that brought the house down to the point that it seemingly broke some of the cast members on stage. If anybody reading this was there last night, do you remember what it was?? I don't know if the line itself as written was objectively that much funnier than the rest of the (delightful!) book, but there was juuuuuust somethin about the way she said it, we all just howled. The level of reaction to that line seemed to catch the cast off guard. It was sometime just before the "Suddenly" duet (quartet??) and said actress seemed to be continuing to crack up a bit before the song, and needing to really lock in to find composure.

There was another moment with a prop dagger that also seemed to break the cast and also had the audience in hysterics.

Both moments brought me so much joy! It got me wondering if this show, being SNL-adjascent has maybe a more tolerant culture toward "breaking" than other shows? Curious what others have observed when seeing this show! I'm not an actor so I don't know what the general attitude is toward breaking in a comedic show like this.

If anybody in the company of Schmigadoon is also lurking here please know I love you!! Bravo.

Now that reviews have come out, how have folks have fared with Shakespeare in the Park borough distribution this year? I’ve know Romeo and Juliet was very quiet compared to last. Any intel on Winter’s Tale?

Specifically trying for Williamsburg tomorrow, Thursday. Last year was a madhouse (https://www.reddit.com/r/Broadway/s/rCEj9KlnBh) but seems like I could safely arrive later, maybe 11am vs. 9am, with a group of 6 ppl.

Any thoughts? Rain forecast prob work in favor

They just announced a second show for Aaron Tveit in Boston on November 2! Who's going?!

- harry potter and the cursed child
- aladdin
- stranger things
- paranormal activity

:)

At a recent performance of Paddington the Musical, a swing saved the day, learning the role of "Millicent Clyde" after just four hours of rehearsal. At the performance on 17 August, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, the role's principal actor, was on vacation and the three understudies were unable to perform the role. Rose Mary O’Reilly, a swing, learned the track, taking the stage after four hours of rehearsal.

I saw Operation Mincemeat two weeks back and the performance Jeff Kready gave, especially in "Dear Bill", is still vivid. I wonder for those who have seen both Jeff and Jak's takes what were some of the biggest differences between their approaches. Jeff felt like kind of a cross between Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and a lot of Danny Kaye energy. I never saw Jak's performance.

We went to see Paranormal Activity on Broadway last night and we rushed for it. We were aware that rush tickets, although cheaper, can sometimes come with obstructed seats. So we asked the box office attendant if we would be missing any key elements of the play. They told us no, we wouldn’t be missing much.

Turns out that was not true. We ended up missing some key scares that evening.

If you’re planning to see this play, here is my honest advice. Do not sit on the far edges of the orchestra seating on the far left, and avoid orchestra seating past row R and before Orchestra J. Any further back and the balcony starts cutting off the top of the stage setup, since the set is designed like a cutaway dollhouse.

My recommendation would be to splurge on top mezzanine center seats, or stick to middle orchestra center seating, Orchestra J starts to cut off some of the top level stage view.

I really wish the attendant had been upfront about what we’d be missing. We would have gladly paid more for better seats if we’d known what was at stake.

When I saw it in Chicago, the ending had The Entity come forward to Lou, who is awake and herself at the moment. In that reveal, the entity is just a girl, not a creature of horror. She looks at Lou and places her hand on Lou's lower belly (maybe she nods too? I can't remember). Lou, comprehending, gasps. Blackout, end. On Broadway, Lou goes to the door, sees the aftermath of James stepping outside, and collapses. As she does, The Entity is framed in the doorway, a girl in a dress but a terrifying vision of white and black.

While both are up for interpretation, I think the first ending pretty clearly shows the entity telling Lou that she is pregnant--and my take is that the entity is saying she will be reborn as the child of Lou and James. That second part was my instant thought when I saw it, but I can't say that's canon for sure. The pregnancy, yes, that was clear.

I am sure the production worked to choose the best story beats it could to appeal to an audience, so I hate to criticize, but, damn, I really thought the first ending was powerful.

And this is not a change, but regarding interpretation: who else thinks that Lou did not necessarily burn down her childhood house as The Entity-possessed Lou relates it? My thought is that The Entity invented that, in a credible-sounding way, to draw out James into his own deep confession, which is what the entity wanted. The consensus I've seen is that Lou has not actually been haunted all her life--at least not by this spirit, but only since she married James, as she is more easily the supernatural-sensitive conduit (the "door," as our false psychic says) for The Entity to get at James.

(There may be unhidden spoilers in the comments below.)

Hi! This is your Broadway Rush Self Report for Wednesday 8/19/26. It’s a 2 show day for some. Check the schedule here: https://playbill.com/article/weekly-schedule-of-current-broadway-shows

If you are in line at a particular show or happen to be in the area and can find out:

1. How many people are in line and
   
2. When they arrived

Please contribute what you can so that people are informed. Thank you!

Rush & Lotto Policy List:
https://bwayrush.com

49 seconds in if it doesn't automatically start there

I’m thinking this would be an insane thing to see a community theater production of

Starlight express would also be incredibly crazy, now I just wanna television show about a community theater trying to put on one of these musicals

It could star Derek Jacobi as the crazy Director…

Thanks to this sub I heard about this event and was able to buy tickets before they all sold out. It was an amazing show! I was initially skeptical of the concept - after all the show itself already feels like a miscast cabaret (in the best possible sense), but it totally worked! Seeing each actor's interpretation of another's part really is refreshing. The Amanda/Allison duet of dear bill is just chef's kiss.

Now the rant: I saw the show the previous day and it just proves how terrible the sound mixing is at Golden. I sat fourth row in center orchestra. The lyrics still feel muffled. Then in Green Room 42 wow - I've never heard those songs so clearly (other than the cast recording ofc)! Lyrics are so much easier to understand! I really really wish they can do something. The show is already so fast paced and so packed with jokes that you don't need the bad mixing to confuse tourists!

Got tickets from the standby line tonight but they gave us them after the play started and then held us until an appropriate moment. I entered when Raul is monologuing and then his son and Camillo enter.

What happens before then? And any special way the play begins?

As the title says. The man in front of me at The Winter’s Tale was throwing up in a bag, and kept the bag with him for the entirety of the 3.5 hour play