Broadway – Christa Avampato

I finally went to see Hadestown on Broadway. I know, I know. What took me so long?! After seeing it, I truly have no idea because it’s a transformative theater experience. A huge thank you to my dear friend, Dan Fortune, for taking me.

This was a very special performance because all 5 of the leads are brand new to the show. Music legend Kurt Elling, Jack Wolfe, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Morgan Dudley, and Paulo Szot knocked it out of the park, and the audience literally shouted with delight.

Yes, it’s all the things you’ve heard. It’s beautiful in every way, heart-filled, and filled with fascinating twists and turns woven between mythology and present day.

It’s also an incredibly effective climate story – the call to protect nature to reverse the harmful impacts of climate change on the food supply, mental and physical health, politics, and the economy.

It’s an immigration story, a migration story, a working class story about the power of generosity, community, and our own voices to lead change, to create a world where all beings are happy, healthy, and free. It’s a story of hope found in difficult, dark times and turning that hope into empowerment that leads to action. And art, specifically music, as a lever for all of that change.

Reminiscent of the call and response of spirituals with the essence of New Orleans, it’s a show that is of-the-moment even though it’s been on Broadway since 2019. Go see it. Cheer, clap, sing, get swept up in the beauty. And then carry all of it out into our world that is crying out for change. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

creativity

A Banner Year for Broadway

June 10, 2025June 10, 2025 Christa Avampato

Photo from Playbill. It features Cynthia Erivo, the host of the Tony Awards this year.

It’s been a record year for Broadway theater. 4.85 million viewers watched the Tony Awards on CBS on Sunday, the largest broadcast audience since 2019 and a 38% increase over 2024. It set a new record for streaming with a 208% year-over-year increase. This is on the heels of Broadway’s highest grossing year ever – $2 billion in revenue from 14.7 million tickets sold.

Working in the performing arts in many different capacities for a good portion of my career, including Broadway theater, regional theater, touring, and now for Carnegie Hall, it’s inspiring and gratifying to see so many people choosing to spend their time and money to experience live performances. Most of my work is now in the digital media space, and I’m especially excited to see digital and live melding together as is the case for the current Broadway incarnations of Sunset Boulevard and The Picture of Dorian Grey

We often hear platitudes that theater is an escape from our everyday lives. We sit together in a dark theater with total strangers for 2+ hours as a way to get away from our worries and cares, to forget the outside world for a little while, to find some kind of reprieve.

I’ve always seen live performance as a way to come home to myself, to my deepest dreams, to the core of who I am. It helps me to reimagine what I might create, what I might aspire to do next. That’s why I keep going back. I think that may be why in these troubling, dangerous times so many people are gathering together in theaters – to affirm their belief that our best and brightest days are still ahead of us.

creativity

Joy today: Moulin Rouge on Broadway

July 14, 2019 Christa Avampato

The Broadway show Moulin Rouge The Musical is opulent and spectacular. An event. A party. A love story. The raw manifestation of truth, beauty, freedom, and love. A love letter to bohemian Paris set in one of the most storied theaters in New York. The cast is spectacular, especially Karen Olivo and Aaron Tveit!