I have a final story to share with you from our recent Broadway Blitz.
One of the shows we saw, a revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” (I reviewed it here), is playing in the Palace Theatre, a massive facility with two balconies (technically one’s a mezzanine) and over 1,600 seats. When I walked down to the edge of the stage and looked back to take in its beautiful architecture, I was reminded of a story Mel Brooks has told.
When he was nine years old, his taxi-driving Uncle Joe got tickets to see Ethel Merman in Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” and asked young Mel if he’d like to go see his first Broadway show. Naturally, Mel was thrilled, even when they climbed all the way up to the next-to-last row at the top of the theater.
Keep in mind that, in 1935, Broadway theaters did not have great audio systems. In fact, microphones and speakers didn’t come into regular use until thirty years later. So, the performers of that era had to project their voices, and Merman was one of the great belters of all time.
After the show, Uncle Joe asked Mel for his opinion of what he’d just seen and heard. The nine-year-old’s response: “Too loud!”