NPR: There's an underground market, with food stalls and stores, in a corridor of the Columbus Circle subway station. And at the very end, where a bar used to be, is an unexpected sight: a storefront filled with Broadway memorabilia and fan-made art. It's called the Broadway Makers Marketplace, and last Sunday afternoon, it hosted a game of Broadway bingo. About a dozen people gathered in front of the shop, singing show tunes while stamping their bingo cards.
3 comments:
I was literally just there but I didn’t know about it!! I wish I could have seen this earlier. The shop features all kinds of crafts: sheet music, with paintings of images from shows superimposed on them, beautiful nighttime photographs of Broadway theaters, jewelry created from recycled elements of Broadway sets. "If you love and enjoy going to Broadway, to the theater, we are the store for you," says Clarkston. "We are not commercialized. We are not the show merchandise. This is all fan-created stuff. It's things that fans want themselves." I think that that is so cool. I might have participated in it or even just had a good time looking around if I had only known. Ultimately, the Broadway Makers Alliance hope to make the pop-up shop a permanent one above ground- I hope so! I will be sure to visit the next time I go. THat way I won’t be able to miss it and i will get to find it easily.
This is such a cute idea! It’s also interesting that is started out as a just a pop up for the holidays and has stuck around for months and months past that. This place would have been my dream come true as a young high school student. I think things like this can really help young people get involved and just fall more in love with theatre. I think that as I have moved into college, the idea of being a “theatre kid” has become something we see have cringy and along with that is Broadway merch ect. But seriously this is how so many people get a start in theatre and the arts, just loving Broadway shows and wanting to be a part of it any way that they can. I think that this little pop up show is such a fun and adorable idea and I really hope that it is able to stay up for all the future and current Broadway lovers.
Fans of theater, especially the specific broadway-memorabilia type of fan that this store is catered to, is a fantastic customer base for a store. Getting to actual Broadway shows to buy merch is incredibly difficult and expensive, and there are passionate, excited, theater-goers all around New York who have been looking for an alternative. I love that this shop is small-artist run. There is also such a variety of goods. “The shop features all kinds of crafts: sheet music, with paintings of images from shows superimposed on them, beautiful nighttime photographs of Broadway theaters, jewelry created from recycled elements of Broadway sets.” I think there is a lot of ingenuity in finding such a niche for your business. I especially think it’s cool that Broadway professionals know about and support this business. It’s a wholesome collective centered around celebrating some people’s favorite musicals, and I hope they only continue to grow.
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