How it feels like to have own Broadway Internet-show :)

Oh my God!!

I can’t believe it’s happening with me :))

I am like in my own musical now! I got featured on BroadwaySpace.com and this is my first episode of my new show for the site - Broadway Sergey!

I like it so much, and I just love the intro song, which was recorded specially for me by the “Altar Boyz” (the musical) cast members!!

I had really big fun doing this video and a lot of videos are coming!!

Waiting for your comments and thanks for watching,
BroadwaySergey :)

BroadwaySpace version:


Find more videos like this on BroadwaySpace


YouTube version:



Thanks for watching again!

Phantom of the Opera sequel… Do I care?

Everyone is talking about ‘Phantom of the Opera’ sequel – ‘Phantom: Love Never Dies’. To be honest I don’t know what to think about it. I really like Andrew Lloyd Webber but his last (was it last?) musical ‘Woman in White’ totally disappointed me. It doesn’t mean the sequel will be bad though.

I know that there are 3 types of people: those who really hope that it will be new super megahit musical, those who think that it will be failure like the ‘Woman In White’ and those who don’t care. I think I just don’t care now, but my logic says to me that even if it’s not a failure it won’t last long on Broadway or somewhere else. I don’t know, I mean I can’t even imagine how new Phantom will be as good as current one. But of course I and nobody can't judge the show before it is released. And I am not trying too.

So, let’s wait and see what new Phantom of the Opera will bring to us. I hope I will like it, I really want to like it and enjoy new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, I want to feel the same feelings when I listened original Phantom first time, or Cats or Starlight Express… It would be wonderful to feel that feelings again.

So, good luck Mr. Lloyd Webber!

No musical movies nominated for Oscar this year… And good :))

So we know all the Oscar nominees today. All the great movies I liked last season in it (especially the “Reader” and “Slumdog Milioner”). Personally I like the “reader” more, and I even cried like 2 or 3 times during the film. Want to see it again and hope it will win Oscar!

No musicals this year. And good. Because I would be really surprised if “Mamma Mia” was nominated for the best picture. I didn’t like the movie version of the Mamma Mia! Theatre one is much better. LOL

It’s not like the last year when amazingly beautiful and great musical Sweeney Todd was nominated in several nominations (including the best picture) and actually won one of them!

So this year won’t be a musical year for Oscars but I really like this year movies!

High School Musical 3 parody in the South Park.

Oh my God! I am ROFLMAO right now :)))

Watching new episode of the South Park about High School Musical 3. It’s just hilarious! Especially I liked what Eric Cartman said: “If it’s the most popular show among kids of our age I am going to kill myself”. I haven’t seen first two High School Musicals (thank goodness), but I watched High School Musical 3 in a movie theatre when it came out. Well, of course I didn’t feel anything except “when these early teenage girls stop screaming and sobbing every time when they see Zac Efron”.

I personally think it’s a great movie (and musical) for kids and it’s ok to watch one time. I agree with a lot of things they said and showed at this episode of South Park and it was really funny. But I think we need HSM 3 to promote art of musical theatre among kids, so maybe later they will be interested in real theatre and want to see some good stuff on Broadway.

P.S. And I really like South Park. It’s really funny and they even sing almost in every episode :)

Spring Awakening final performance or my crazy weekend!

Find more photos like this on BroadwaySpace

It was really crazy weekend!

I was waiting in the student rush line to get tickets for final performance of Spring Awakening! I got there around 9 pm on January 17th and left the line around 12 20 pm on January 18th. It was very cold night, like 5-10 F. I thought I would die, but I survived. But even after 16 hours on the cold I wasn’t able to sleep because I had to be earlier near the theatre to keep shooting video for BroadwaySpace about Spring Awakening’s last night.

The performance was great! It looked like all people were crying during almost all performance, dancing, singing, and laughing when it was time to laugh. There was unbelievable energy, that’s why I like closing nights! They performed the reprise of “Totally Fucked” right after the first (original) time. It was great! All viewers were jumping and singing “Blah blah blah blah blah” with the cast members, including me! Yeah, it definitely worth waiting in line 16 hours during one of the coldest nights in New York City!

After the show I went to the stage doors to interview cast members and all people connected to the show somehow. It was cool too! So I haven’t been sleeping I guess more than 30 hours that day but I obtained great memories for all my life and made a great video, I hope you will it see soon!

I will be missing you, Spring Awakening!

Passing Strange the movie opens on Sundance Film Festival!

The picture was taken from the official Sundance Film Festival Web Site.

One of my favorite musicals in the last year was the Passing Strange. It lasted not too long on Broadway – only several months. But I was happy to visit it 2 times before it was closed.

I was hoping that the Passing Strange would win Tony Awards 2008, if it did maybe it would last longer on Broadway. I am not telling that In the Heights does not deserve Tony. I really like the show and will watch it again with a pleasure. But as I said I felt really big sympathy to Passing Strange. First of all, I think because it’s about a young man, who is trying to find himself, travel away from the family to foreign countries and trying to do something with his life. It’s kinda my story, because I moved to the States from Russia a year and a half ago, and I am pretty young too, and I am just trying to do what I like and I hope I will succeed someday.

The second reason, I really like the music and lyrics, and the show really rocks! All the time I saw it (including the song performed on Tony Awards, which I visited and saw live) I literally danced right on my seat on the many songs. I hope I wasn’t to annoying for people who seated next to me and behind. LOL. But I was just literally jumping on my seat and dancing at the same tame when they performed finale of “It’s all right (My keys)” every 3 times I saw it live.

When I found out that it was going to close on Broadway I was disappointed, but it was not so bad after I found out that Spike Lee was going to film the show and it’s going to be a film soon.

And yesterday on the Sundance Film Festival there was an opening night for the movie. I wish I was there and watched it! It’s going to play on the Sundance till January 24th. They don’t know yet if it will be released in the movie theatres or they show it only on premium cable channels like HBO. Well I wish it will be in the movie theatres! Because I don’t have HBO and its expensive, and it will be rally beautiful to watch the show on the big screen with good image and sound! Well, in any case I think they will release it eventually on DVD and I will definitely buy it!

I am glad that a lot of people (including famous people like Spike Lee) really liked the musical; only because of it I will enjoy my favorite show of 2008 watching it again and again on the screen!

Plane crashes to Hudson River in Manhattan near the Theatre district!

Watching news for already half hour. As you know a plane crashed (Flight 1549 US Airways) to Hudson River, just right next to Midtown Manhattan. I am totally shocked!

All people seem to survive, but a lot of them were in the extremely cold Hudson River (especially today) so maybe there will be several hard cases of hypothermia, but I hope they will be ok. There were a lot of water ferries and circle boats so help was near the plane just in time.

The pilot of course did his job great and landed plane on the water smoothly (as witnesses and passengers say in the news).

Yeah, you never know what you can see in Manhattan Midtown in New York City. Can you imagine you just walking in Midtown and thinking about what Broadway musical you are going to watch tonight and then you seeing the plane flying very low (just right above your head) and then landing to Hudson! I bet right after this scene you will be thinking only about it and forget about all musicals you was planning to see.

I hope there will be happy end in this story and all passengers and crew and pilots will be ok. A lot of people already call this story a miracle. I think I agree with it. Plane crashes happens not often, but when they do usually there are no or almost no survivors. In this case all people (at least at this point) all right, and this is miracle without doubt!

I wish to all people that were on the board of the plane good luck and watch a lot of Broadway shows in the future with their family and friends!

Tips for surviving the cold weather for Broadway fans.

Omg it’s so cold in New York City.

The only way warm up is to listen “Totally Fucked” from Spring Awakening, jumping around your bedroom and singing, pretending that you on stage. I think this is the only way to feel a little bit warm. Because it’s quite chilling even in my bedroom, I am not even talking about outside.

Tomorrow it’s going to be even colder. That’s why I want to share with you 5 songs from Broadway musicals I dance to survive cold:

1. Totally Fucked – from Spring Awakening
2. Good morning Baltimore – from Hairspray
3. In the Heights – from In the Heights
4. Out tonight – from Rent
5. Bitch of living – from Spring Awakening

I hope my list will help you to survive the cold weather.

I miss live Broadway!!!

I have just realized that I haven’t seen a Broadway show almost for 2 months. And I really want to see a Broadway musical again so badly. I miss live Broadway!

Sometimes I think that I shouldn’t have gone to Hawaii, I could see a lot of Broadway shows for that money! But what’s done is done. OMG I could see like 10 Billy Elliot and 10 Wicked, aaahhhh!!

Well, I hope I will have a chance to see a Broadway musical soon again, I remember times when I saw 2 shows a day for free, and I remember when I won Wicked tickets lottery 3 times also :) It’s really not necessary to pay $120 even for sold out shows.

It happens with me quite often – I can don’t watch a show for 2 months, and then watch like 5 shows for a week. And I hope that week will come soon, lol. Because I know one thing for sure – if you really believe and follow your goal – you will succeed! :)

Broadway videos, 90210 and Spring Awakening :)

We have been shooting my first video for BroadwaySpace today. It was a lot of fun for me, can’t wait to see it online!

Now what I am doing is relaxing at home before hard working day tomorrow. And of course thinking about things I’ve always thinking about: Theatre and Business. And watching Beverly Hills 90210 at the same time.

In the first several episodes of 90210 there were a lot of scenes with “Spring Awakening” the musical. They were rehearsing it for school theatre, and then performing it. It was fun to watch. And as I said in previous posts I am going to miss this show. When I was watching it 3rd time last month on Broadway I remember I was thinking like “yeah, that’s the reason I want to be a producer – to take a chance to create a cultural phenomenon like this”.

Ok, guess I’ll keep thinking and watching, see you soon :)

Free theatre experience and new theatre economics.

My roommate told me about a web site where he look for free events in New York City. A lot of these events in the theatre sphere. Like yesterday when I met him at the 59 street subway station he was returning from a free show in the New World Stages called “For lovers only: 100 love songs”. He told me he liked the performance a lot. And also recommended me to check other free events in New York City.

Actually this information very actual for me now, because I like a lot of others I was affected by this economical situation. And it looks like there is really a lot of stuff to do for free in the city. But it’s little bit disturbing me like a prospective producer, because I understand if I open any show in the city it will be really hard to recoup it, not even talking about making any profit.

Thank goodness one of my strongest hobbies is marketing. Before I didn’t think a lot about off-Broadway and off-off Broadway shows, but now I understand that in this situation an interesting and original off-off Broadway show with huge untraditional marketing efforts can be successful and profitable. I already have a couple ideas of shows in mind that can be started from as low as several thousands of dollars (let’s say under ten). Well some people will say it’s impossible. I will answer – there’s nothing impossible in the world.

I think we should consider stage show business like new so-called web 2.0 internet economics. Before there were only sites with huge budgets, sometimes several dozen millions of dollars! And a lot of them had died before they brought any profit (looks like Broadway shows with 15 million dollars budget, right?). Right now I see and read about a lot of cases where one person starts a web site for 1 or 2 thousand of dollars and in a several months only this site brings him several hundred thousand a month and has a lot of visitors every day. Is it possible to create a show with such a low budget and be completely sold out and make huge profit in several months? Well, I think there is a lot of room to think about.

Today my roommate has gone for other free event (some kind of comedy show), and then he will go to another one. He told me he really like Broadway shows but not ready to pay for a show more than $30 even if it’s Lion King or Wicked….

Huge unemployment and Theatre.

When nation economy in a terrible situation, when unemployment rate is 7.2% which is 16-year-old-hight, definitely theatres all over the states are going to face really big problems.

Even those who have a job can’t afford go to theatre, because their hours or salary have been cut, or just because they want to save extra money for so unclear future. Speaking about Broadway, it mostly depends on tourists, and let’s face it’s not a great time to travel now.

I walk around Times Square very often. Right before New Year it was impossible to move there faster than a turtle, because of huge, no HUGE amount of tourists! And the line near the TKTS booth looked 3 or 4 times as big as the line in JFK security check-in. I don’t know how many hours you should have stayed there to reach a window to find out that the last half price ticket to the show you was planning to see was sold 20 minutes ago. I walked around Times Square yesterday, and it was really empty! And there was absolutely no line near TKTS. All that looked a little bit creepy. I remember I thought like thank goodness I am not a producer of any show (even off-off Broadway) at this time.

Of course people still visit shows. But if you want to spend $60-$130 for one ticket, you want to see really great show. That’s why such shows like Wicked, Lion King or Billy Elliot are always sold out. People know that they are going to see a great production, with great costumes, special effects, music, song and dance, really touching and really Broadway. People (especially who visit New York City for several days) don’t want to spend $120-$260 (and this if they buy only 2 tickets) for show they are not completely sure about.

Oh well, let’s hope that sun will come out tomorrow. But I definitely wouldn’t put my bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun :)
By the way, that’s how Times Square looked like at the end of November:

Local theatre experience at the end of the last year.

When I decided to visit Hawaii I was thinking about visiting a local theatre. I didn’t know what theatre or what show I was going to see, but I had a strong feeling that I would do it.

When I came to Hawaii I totally forgot about my theatre idea. I was fascinated by the beautiful views, warm ocean and calm climate. But during my first tour I noticed a theatre from the bus window, and there were letters “Peter Pan” on the façade of it. Next day I opened a local newspaper and found out about Diamond Head Theatre and opening night of a musical “Peter Pan”.

So I ended up watching this musical in the theatre. The role of Peter played a boy, instead of a girl or woman like in many other productions (including Broadway). Actually I liked this idea until the boy started to sing. :) But it was fun, and I enjoyed the musical a lot.

And Hawaii is perfect place to see “Peter Pan”. Because it reminds me Neverland, well, at least summer part of it. :)

It was great trip in the end of the year. And I think it’s great sometimes to see something different from Broadway and New York City.

You can watch lots of pictures from my trip on my MySpace page. And also here is the video for you if you haven’t seen it yet.

Black Broadway January…

13 shows are closing this month!

Yep, January 2009 will be written in history books like the worst month for Broadway ever since September 11.Well, maybe not everything is so bad. But when 9 shows are closing in one day it really sucks and scary.

We were shooting my first video for BroadwaySpace.com on January 4th. I really had a lot of fun, although I didn’t feel well because I missed like 6 shows from the 9. Can you name all nine of them? During the interviews on the streets no one could also. Well, almost no one. Yeap, here is the list January 4th closed shows:

• Hairspray (I saw it once almost a year ago, really wanted to see again before closing but unfortunately couldn’t make it).
• Grease (I haven’t seen it but wanted to see for a change, oh well).
• 13 (I saw it 2 times and you actually can watch my reviews in this blog below or on my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/BroadwayProducer)
• Young Frankenstein (To be honest I haven’t seen this show and never wanted to see it. Don’t know why, but songs I heard from it never really touched me, even a bit).
• Boeing-Boeing (Well, I don’t really watch straight plays often. Mostly for money reason).
• White Christmas (Although I like the song “White Christmas” it’s not enough for me to spend last $60 for the show).
• Liza at the Palace (I would see it with a pleasure, but again, money money money…)
• Dividing the estate (Haven’t seen and heard about it).
• Slava’s Snow Show (I saw it in Russia, St Petersburg. It was cool. I would see it again on Broadway. I am sure it’s not the last time this show on Broadway during the Christmas time!).

Which show from the list above I’ll be missing more? Hmm, I think I can survive without all of them. I think I really gonna miss Spring Awakening, which is closing January 18th. Because it was really nice to buy a stage seat ticket for around $30 only and enjoy a great show right in front of your nose! :)