Broadway

Broadway is a road in Manhattan, New York City, famous for being the center of the American theater industry, with many of their most succesful productions being adapted into movies.

Frank Zappa

In 1967, Zappa organized an off-Broadway show titled Pigs & Repugnant. He also wrote Hunchentoot, which was an intended Broadway musical/movie script that never went into production.

According to William S. Burroughs, Zappa approached him in 1979 to adapt his novel Naked Lunch as an off-Broadway musical. Burroughs felt it was "a pregnant idea, but it was not to be."

References to Broadway in Frank Zappa's work

• Thing-Fish was a satire of Broadway musicals.
  • The liner notes describe several characters using "fake-Broadway singing").
  • Chuck Wild's piano contributions on the album are described in the liner notes as "broadway piano".
  • Drop Dead and Won Ton On: "This is symbolism, Harry, really deep, intense, thought-provoking Broadway symbolism! This isn't "Dream Girls", Harry, this is the way it really is!"
  • The Evil Prince: "All the best music on Broadway is 'native'".
  • That Evil Prince: "He has real Broadway stars for personal acquaintances!"
  • The Mammy Nuns: "On Broadway, it's a new day." (...) What's happened to Broadway? Where it gone, all the glitter? The heart and soul, the patter, the pitter?"
  • Harry-As-A-Boy: "I told y'all'd be gettin' yo' fairies after while, 'n y'know dat sort o' thing take a little time to woik up to in yo' Broadway Sitchyatium!"
  • Harry & Rhonda: "What's happened to Broadway, Harry?" (...) I want real Broadway entertainment! Feathers! Spot-lights! Guilt! Hours upon hours of guilt! About my mother! About my father! About brave women, suffering at the hands of infantile, insensitive, dominating men!"
  • The Massive Improve'lence: "Something about MAMMIES seems so sublime. That's the Broadway word used when they rhyme a song about love!"
  • The Torchum Never Stops: "But don't take their appearance too seriously, people, 'cause dey say dis de sort o' folks dat belongs on Broadway!"
  • Wistful Wit A Fist-Full: "'Cause we is Broadway! We's expensive, An' we can't, I said we can't, Can't never die!
• Broadway The Hard Way: The opening line of Any Kind Of Pain is "Broadway the hard way, ladies and gentlemen."
• I Can Get Us In: "And Broadway! All that homo baloney - nobody wants that shit. Grown men in tutus running around, kicking and bullshit. We need something imaginative. How about eh, Funny Girl 2? Fiddler on the Roof 2? Exodus 2? You know what I'm saying Sid; we're talking creative here, we're talking imaginative here."

See also

• Irving Berlin
• Theodore Bikel
• Fiddler On The Roof
• Little Orphan Annie
• Lorenz Hart
• Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein

External links

• Broadway theatre on Wikipedia