The Ten Secrets of Broadway by Robert Viagas

Longtime Playbill editor Robert Viagas spent most of his adult life breathing the air of Broadway’s backstages. He has authored or edited 19 books on the performing arts and has served on the committee that makes the Tony Awards nominations. His Ten Secrets of Broadway mixes fun facts about backstage life on the Great White Way with brass-tacks consumer info on the best ways to see and enjoy fans’ most coveted shows. Among the secrets he reveals: 

* In the real world, tickets cost both way more and way less than they are advertised. That’s because most people either want to see the biggest hit from the best seats right away, and don’t care about the cost; or they want to see the best show possible for the least money possible. Ten Secrets tells you the best way to get both. 

* What are the best and worst nights to see a show? 

* What are the best and worst times of year to get a ticket?

* What are the best and worst seats in each theatre?

* Most Broadway theatres aren’t actually on Broadway. Ten Secrets tells you why.

* Why won’t stage folk ever utter the name of one particular play? What happens if they accidentally do? Why do they eat red apples on opening night? What article of clothing will they never put on a table? Ten Secrets reveals the superstitions all actors observe.

*What is the traditional object that has been handed down from one show to the next on every musical since 1947? Who gets it, and why?

* Many perfectly sane people who work in the theatres are convinced that several of them are haunted. Ten Secrets tells ghost stories, not from years and years ago, but from the last few years, and in theatres you can visit today. 

In addition, Mr. Viagas leaves plenty of time to take questions from the audience, to answer all the questions that have been tugging at the curiosity of fans for years!