Broadhurst Theatre — Attraction in New York

EDITED WITH AN UPDATE!!!

Anastasia was my favorite movie growing up. For graduation my mom and sister offered to buy tickets so we could all go!!! After buying the tickets, I had a pretty bad fall. I only have one leg and after the fall I can't wear my prosthetic leg for the foreseeable future. Normally, for an outing like this, my wheelchair is my ticket to freedom, but I looked online to see that this theater is NOT wheelchair accessible. I called the customer service line today to ask for ALL of the exact obstacles I'll be facing and the representative REFUSED to give me ANY information because I wasn't the one who purchased the tickets. So now I can either show up in my wheelchair and face God knows how many obstacles without any way to prepare, or I can use crutches, and be in extreme pain and discomfort (not exactly a recipe to enjoy my graduation gift with my family). Now I'm on here seeing that the bathrooms are in the basement? I guess I won't be eating or drinking anything all day because I'm not trying to hop down and then back up an unknown number of stairs. Ps I'm not trying to damage my hip standing on that line. I'd end up in the emergency room GUARANTEED if I tried all of that on top of the commute into the city. It's just a real shame that Broadway theatres exist as though they are trying to keep disabled people out. This has been a nightmare and tomorrow will probably be the same because I don't know what I'm going to face.

UPDATE: Brian from theater operations was able to get us different tickets on the main level! I didn't think it would be possible!! He confirmed that there is one unisex accessible bathroom on the main level, but they don't police people who get on that line. Hopefully when I go there won't be too many people taking advantage of their leniency! I still would like to stress that the person who I first spoke to made it so my mom and I had to spend hours calling different people just to get information about what obstacles I might've faced. Maybe they were an anomaly to the type of person hired as customer service representatives here, but i digress. I hope that my story isn't forgotten or swept under the rug just because we found a solution. It's still unacceptable that there are no elevators, and that many theatres choose to ignore disabled patronage in favor of "preserving a building" or whatever their silly excuse is for choosing to be inaccessible!! Buildings should never be prioritized over people. But thank you Brian for making my graduation gift...

Musical: 5 Theater: 4

Happen to score lottery tix for an early afternoon permanence of BOOP! on Sunday 6/8/2025.

Unfortunately, that was the same day of NYC’s Puerto Rican Day parade. Needless to say we did not make it for curtain call. However, through Telecharge, we were able to get our tickets reissued via the “no scan” policy. Thankfully on Wednesday, 6/11/25 we made it.

The "parking Gods" were on our side because we lucked up on parking and had ample time to stop for a bite to eat.

The Broadhurst Theatre is a Broadway theater one of many in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. Opened in 1917, the theater has 1,218 seats across two levels and both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks.

I have seen multiple musicals/plays at this theatre the last in Sept 2023 - The Neil Diamond Musical: A Beautiful Noise (courtesy of Yelp). View from seats (orchestra and front row balcony) was great.

With the typical tight seats and minimum leg room, I always find the tight seating perplexing, yes people are generally larger in size now than in the 1800's and even early 1900's. However, at that time the arts were exclusively for the elite and wealthy. Historically speaking the women wore dresses with an abundance of layers and excess fabric. Not to mention huge petticoats under their skirts. How did they sit???

Nonetheless, I digress. Now for the show...

Betty Boop is a cartoon character, whom originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures between 1930 and 1939.

Betty Boop based on and inspired by a Black jazz singer named Esther Jones, also known as Baby Esther. Jones's unique "boop-oop-a-doop" style and stage presence at Harlem's Cotton Club were the primary influences for the character's signature vocalizations and overall persona. While Helen Kane, a white singer, who also claimed inspiration from Jones and even sued the studio stating that Betty Boop was modeled after her.

The musical goes between the fictional cartoon world of the 1930's and present day. Addressing topics of acceptance, belief in one's self & creative abilities and love. An enjoyable show with great musical numbers that are very kid/family friendly.

Just A Note:

-Final performance was 7/13/2025

-“No Scan”policy - if you have tickets to a show that you miss. As long as the tickets were never scanned you can contact the box office for tickets on a future date. Provided that there are...

We saw A Beautiful Noise, but this review is about the venue along with the staff and not the musical.

Our seats were originally on the mezzanine level which meant a lot of stairs with no elevator. It was our understanding that restrooms were not that plentiful or convenient.

Note I said our seats were originally on the mezzanine level. When we got to the theater and presented our tickets, we were told to proceed to the box office by a nice attendant.

We go to the box office and our seats were upgraded to ones in the orchestra level three rows from the stage. How we got chosen, I have no idea.

The attendants who helped us find our seats were very nice as was the lady at the souvenir stand.

I have to make special mention of the bartender. I was behind a large group who asked for a couple of items at the start and when the bartender asked if there was anything else, they would order something. This happened many more times, but the bartender showed no reaction to what had to be a frustrating situation. The bill came to about one hundred and fifty dollars, but I don’t think the bartender got any kind of tip. He was very professional.

Back to the venue.

I don't know about the other rows of course, but I felt like there was plenty of leg room where we sat. The sound system was really good and we had no problem hearing what was said and sung.

If another trip to New York City happens, knowing a musical is at this theater would not impact our decision on...