Vaudeville
Recreated accurate and authentic ---- period precise cast, costuming, makeup, music
Like relics from the past, music stands, hand-painted feature signs, promotional easels, scenic backdrops and even the first lighting board have been rediscovered, after eighty-five years hidden in the deep storage caverns of the Broadway Theatre of Pitman. All are original 1926 artifacts and authentic pieces of the theater’s vaudeville roots.
They are being restored, to be reused in a daring attempt to produce an actual vaudeville show. Not a simulation, not an approximation, a true-to life, live vaudeville show, the likes of which has been extinct since 1930.
The expedition is being headed by Dambra Sabato, founder and president of the arts and entertainment company, A Saturday’s Child. Sabato is a passionate devotee and student of vaudeville and has been in pursuit of the creature for nearly thirty years.
A multi-million dollar restoration project restored the theater to its original splendor and led Managing Director, Pat Mangano to reopen a conversation with Sabato that had started between them four years earlier. Timing was right, not only in the Broadway’s positioning to co-produce, but in the resurgent popularity of the vaudeville era brought on by HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”. The partnership was formed in September of last year and Sabato was given nine months to bring vaudeville back to life.
The project requires a team of specialists limited to using only the theatrical technology found on the site. Employing early methods and primitive tools, stage technicians and crew are adapting to 1926 mechanics, staging and lighting.
The success of the project raises anthropological issues, as well. Beyond the costuming, make-up and time-period content of their act, performers are immersing themselves in the culture and fabric of the times, resurrecting the vaudeville spirit and mentality. If there are ghosts in the eighty-five-
Appearing on the same stage, under the same lighting, against the same curtains, doing the same acts, to the same music, to an audience sitting in the exact same seats, this show can only be defined by the sum of it’s parts...it is vaudeville.
A Saturday’s Child and the Broadway Theatre of Pitman are waking a creature dormant for nearly a century. The exhibition opens its doors to audiences on June 9.
Vaudeville at the Broadway is like nothing you have experienced on stage before. This remarkable group of headline performers and showcase musicians are getting the chance to perform their present day acts in a completely new way. They are repackaging their acts to look, sound and feel the way they would have been seen, heard and experienced 85 years ago. You may have seen one or two of these acts before, but you've never seen them like this!
8 all-star acts
* The madness & Merriment of The Give and Take Jugglers
* The Popular Songs Stylings of The Baybee Sisters, Honey & Sugar
* Star of Stage & Screen Ray Croce as Cyrano De Bergerac
* Music That Makes the Twenties Roar: The Chris Sooy 5
* The Comic Banter of Clancy & Muldoon
* The exotic Passion of The Valentino Tango
* The Escape Artistry of Doug Young – featuring Houdini’s Suspended Straight Jacket Escape
* The Big Beautiful Voice of Caroline Kearney
Don't miss this truly authentic and entertaining show - We're even bringing back nickel popcorn and peanuts! Order your tickets today, by phone at (856)384-8381, online at www.thebroadwaytheatre.org or at the Theatre box office.
June 9th • 7:30pm
June 10th • 7:30pm
June 11th • 7:00pm & 9:30pm
June 12th • 2:00pm & 6:00pm
Tickets: $19.26
The Broadway Theatre of Pitman
43 S Broadway
Pitman, NJ 08071
phone: 856-384-8381
email: boxoffice@broadwaytheatreofpitman.com
website: http://www.thebroadwaytheatre.org
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The Broadway Theatre of Pitman is dedicated to breathing life into exciting theater productions written for a diverse audience. Through various outreach and educational programs, The Broadway Theatre of Pitman will be a performing arts beacon in S Jersey.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
