Loving Broadway From Afar
Oscar nominee and Sacramento native Greta Gerwig
I was listening to SiriusXM, enjoying an interview with Greta Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated Writer/Director of Lady Bird. I was feeling a connection to Ms. Gerwig because, while I don’t actually know her, I feel as if I do because she and I share the city of Sacramento as a mutual treasured friend. I was imagining how I’d love to compare notes with Greta, who was born about the time I left Sacramento for New York. What similar experiences did we both have? Who do we know in common, besides the city itself? The more the interview went on, the more Greta talked about her artistic vision and the stories she tells so beautifully on film, the more I felt Greta and I are kindred spirits. I have no doubt that Greta makes everyone feel this way!
And then the interviewer asked something that astounded me.
She asked how in the world Greta developed a love of musical theater, having grown up on the west coast, so far from Broadway.
Professional summer stock theater, under the "tent" at Music Circus.
I was really taken aback by the question. My BFF Greta handled it gracefully, citing her dad's habit of playing Sondheim cast albums, the Music Circus productions every summer in Sacramento, and the proximity to San Francisco to see professional theater. What she didn’t have time to mention is that in the years since Greta left Sacramento, there has been a burgeoning of professional theater companies all over town, in addition to Music Circus, and any kid growing up in Sacramento today has a good chance of being exposed to live theater.
But still, the question itself bothers me. It presumes you have to see a musical on Broadway in order to LOVE Broadway musicals. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Personally, I fell in love with musical theater in the audience of the Modesto Youth Theatre productions, and went really crazy for the medium when I stepped on the stage myself. I studied the craft in high school drama classes, and regularly attended other high school productions (I still have yet to see a live production of 1776 to rival the one mounted by Downey High School in Modesto). Believe me, love for musical theater was firmly grounded in my soul by the time I saw my first professional production – still 3000 miles from Broadway – when I saw the original touring company of A Chorus Line at the Shubert Theater in Los Angeles. It would be another seven years before I saw a musical actually ON Broadway.
What’s more relevant is that it is precisely because of the community theaters, regional theaters, and summer stock companies around the country that the future of Broadway can be assured. Where are Broadway’s future audiences coming from? From New York City alone? No! – from the hundreds and thousands and millions of kids growing up all around the United States who fall in love with live theater in their own home towns. And where are Broadway’s future actors, directors, writers, and designers coming from? They aren’t all born and raised 45 minutes from Broadway! Many of them – most of them? – are following a dream that was planted and nurtured in a theater building far, far away from the great white way. Don’t worry, Broadway, we do love you, but our love had more humble beginnings.
3000 miles from Broadway, California’s first theater, built in 1849: the Eagle
Maybe Greta said all of this and it was edited out of the interview for the sake of time constraints. I like to think so. I like to think that my BFF, the darling of Hollywood and Sacramento, stood up for the great theater which can and does exist anywhere there are stories to be told.
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