Curtain Up! Broadway Festival, a 3-day event hosted in Times Square, took place on Sept. 8-10, in New York City. The event is a celebration of Broadway. Actors and actresses sang songs from their respective shows, including but not limited to, SIX The Musical, Moulin Rouge, The Lion King, & Juliet, Back To The Future, and Wicked. Even though it started to rain a little, that did not stop the musical spirit of the actors and spectators.
On the first day, Brandon James Gwinn played some greatest hits by the divas of Broadway. This was followed by the official Curtain Up! kick-off celebration, with speakers from Playbill, Times Square Alliance, The Broadway League, and events sponsor Prudential Financial. The hosts were Arielle Jacobs and Melody Butiu, who also led the official countdown of the weekend.
On Day 2 guests danced with the revolutionary dance company Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and participated in a sing-along with the cast of CHICAGO The Musical.
The Belt It Out on Broadway experience allowed audience members to choose a song from a Broadway show for stars to rock out to. Viva! Broadway celebrated the influence that Latin and Hispanic artists have had on Broadway and the inspiration of early songwriters and their voices and stories. Curtain Up! After Dark presented Rockers On Broadway.
Curtain Up! Live on Broadway was the main event hosted by Eric McCormack and broadcasted live on WABC. Actors and actresses sang songs from their respective shows. & Juliet, A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical, Aladdin, Back To The Future: The Musical, The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Hadestown, Kimberly Akimbo, The Lion King, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Shucked, SIX: The Musical, Some Like It Hot, Spamalot, and Wicked were all featured.
Some of the scheduled including The Broadway Block Party, A Sondheim Sing-Along, Belt It Out on Broadway, and a WICKED Sing-Along were cancelled to the rainy weather.
Curtain Up! is a fun and exhilarating event if you love theater and music. Clips from the show can be found on YouTube and if you want to follow up on more things Broadway, Playbill is a great resource. Plus, many actors (and shows!) posted on their Instagram accounts.
Playbill (@playbill) posted a video on their Instagram highlighting the different events held over the weekend. They captioned: “No matter rain or shine, #CurtainUpBway was an amazing weekend celebrating the best of Broadway and more, presented by @prudential!”
