17 A2 bright lights on broadway

CHAPTER 1 Welcome to Broadway! WHAT IS A BROADWAY SHOW? Toby is in New York City to see his first Broadway play. His eyes are wide as he walks through Times Square. He can't believe how many bright lights there are. Toby is only six, but older children and even adults have the same feeling. Times Square and the bright lights of Broadway can make anyone feel like an excited child. New York City started having plays in the early 1700s, but the first big theater wasn't built until 1750. After the trains and subways were made in the late 1800s and early 1900s, plays became very popular in New York City. In 1891, theaters started using bright white lights to advertise the plays. People called the area "The Great White Way" because the white light filled the streets.

第一章欢迎来到百老汇！什么是百老汇演出？ 托比在纽约看他的第一部百老汇戏剧。 走过时代广场时，他睁大了眼睛。 他不敢相信有这么多明亮的灯光。 托比只有六岁，但大一点的孩子甚至成年人都有同样的感觉。 时代广场和百老汇明亮的灯光可以让任何人感觉像一个兴奋的孩子。 纽约市在18世纪早期就开始上演戏剧，但第一座大剧院直到1750年才建成。 火车和地铁在19世纪末和20世纪初建成后，戏剧在纽约市变得非常流行。 1891年，剧院开始使用明亮的白色灯光为戏剧做广告。 人们称这一地区为“白色大道”，因为白色的光充满了街道。

Broadway got its name because in the past many theaters were on the street called Broadway. Today, there are only five theaters on the street, but there are about 40 Broadway theaters in the area. Today, a play is a Broadway show if the theater has seats for more than 500 people. An Off-Broadway theater usually has 99 to 499 seats, and most theaters in New York City with fewer than 99 seats are Off-Off-Broadway. Toby is one of about 12 million people who see a Broadway play each year. The more people that go to a show, the more successful it is. The Phantom of the Opera is the longest running Broadway play with over 10,000 shows. Some shows aren't as successful, and some even flop. For example, in 1981, the play Frankenstein closed the same night it opened!

百老汇之所以得名，是因为过去许多剧院都在百老汇这条街上。 如今，这条街上只有五家剧院，但该地区有大约40家百老汇剧院。 今天，如果剧院能容纳500人以上，那就是百老汇的演出。 非百老汇剧院通常有99到499个座位，纽约市大多数座位少于99个的剧院都是非百老汇剧院。 托比是每年观看百老汇戏剧的1200万人之一。 去看演出的人越多，演出就越成功。 《歌剧魅影》是百老汇上演时间最长的剧目，演出超过1万场。 有些节目不那么成功，有些甚至失败。 例如，1981年，戏剧《弗兰肯斯坦》在开演的同一天晚上就结束了演出！

CHAPTER 2 On Stage MANY THINGS HAPPEN ON STAGE BEFORE AND DURING A BROADWAY SHOW. Toby sees Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. His Uncle Kevin is a stagehand on the show. After the play, Toby goes backstage for a surprise. Toby says, "When Kevin told me I might get to meet someone, I said, What? Who?' And it was Spider-Man!" Toby knows the person he met is not really Spider- Man, but the actor who plays him. In fact, he didn't meet the actor who plays the main Spider-Man. It was the actor who plays Spider-Man flying through the air. In the play, eight actors play Spider-Man. Some of the actors are stunt people. They fly in the air over the stage and over the audience. Toby was really happy to meet the actor. Many people wait after shows to meet actors and to get their autographs.

百老汇演出前和演出中，舞台上发生了许多事情。 托比看了《蜘蛛侠：关掉黑暗》。 他的叔叔凯文是这个节目的舞台管理人员。 演出结束后，托比去后台准备一个惊喜。 托比说：“当凯文告诉我我可能会遇到某人时，我说，什么？ 谁?”而且是蜘蛛侠！”托比知道他遇到的人并不是真正的蜘蛛侠，而是扮演蜘蛛侠的演员。 事实上，他没有见过扮演蜘蛛侠主角的演员。 是扮演蜘蛛侠在空中飞翔的演员。 在剧中，八位演员扮演蜘蛛侠。 有些演员是特技演员。 它们在空中飞过舞台和观众。 托比见到那个演员真的很高兴。 许多人在演出结束后等待与演员见面并得到他们的签名。

There are many different parts for actors on Broadway— big and small. Sometimes, an actor plays several small parts in the same play. Often, an actor has small parts or is in Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway shows for years before making it big on Broadway. For some parts, actors go to open auditions, sometimes called "cattle calls" because hundreds of people, like a group of cows, wait for a turn. Some get called back to audition again, but only some of those actors get parts. Others make it big quickly. Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker and Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, was not an actor before he got the part. He was a singer and guitar player in a band when one of the writers and directors of the play discovered him.

演员在百老汇有许多不同的角色，大大小小的。 有时，一个演员在同一部剧中扮演几个小角色。 通常，一个演员在百老汇成名之前，会在非百老汇和非百老汇的演出中扮演小角色或出演多年。 对于某些角色，演员要去公开试镜，有时被称为“牛群召唤”，因为数百人像一群牛一样等待轮到他们。 有些人会再次被召回试镜，但只有一部分演员得到了角色。 其他人则迅速做大。 在《蜘蛛侠：关掉黑暗》中扮演彼得·帕克和蜘蛛侠的里夫·卡尼在得到这个角色之前并不是演员。 当该剧的编剧和导演之一发现他时，他是一个乐队的歌手和吉他手。

Some actors prepare all of their lives to be in a Broadway show. They are called stage actors. Bernadette Peters is a stage actor who has starred in plays since 1959. Her first part was playing Tessie in the Off-Broadway show The Most Happy Fella. Two of her most famous Broadway parts were Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun in 1999, and Sally Plummer in Follies in 2012. Other actors start in movies and on television shows and then come to Broadway. Daniel Radcliffe became famous for playing Harry in the Harry Potter movies. In 2008, he was in his first Broadway show, and in 2011, he got the lead roles in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

有些演员一辈子都在为百老汇的演出做准备。 他们被称为舞台演员。 伯纳黛特·彼得斯是一位舞台剧演员，自1959年以来一直出演戏剧。 她的第一个角色是在非百老汇戏剧《最快乐的小伙子》中扮演泰西。 她最著名的两个百老汇角色是1999年《安妮拿起你的枪》中的安妮·奥克利和2012年《胡闹》中的莎莉·普卢默。 其他演员则从电影和电视节目开始，然后来到百老汇。 丹尼尔·雷德克里夫因在《哈利·波特》系列电影中扮演哈利而出名。 2008年，他参加了自己的第一部百老汇演出。2011年，他在《如何不劳而获》中担任主角。

Broadway actors rehearse or practice a play on stage for several months. They work with directors and coaches. The director works with all of the actors to make all of the play go well. Coaches often help actors with certain things. For example, Daniel Radcliffe is from England and has a British accent. In How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying he plays an American. Language coaches often help actors learn to speak differently than they normally do. Sometimes the writers of the plays are also directors and work on stage with the actors, and other times they are not. If a play has dancing in it, choreographers work with the actors to teach them the dances.

百老汇演员要在舞台上排练或练习一出戏好几个月。 他们与导演和教练一起工作。 导演与所有的演员合作，使所有的戏都演得很好。 教练经常在某些事情上帮助演员。 例如，丹尼尔·雷德克里夫来自英国，有英国口音。 在《如何不费吹灰之力取得商业成功》中，他扮演一个美国人。 语言教练经常帮助演员学习不同于平常的说话方式。 有时剧本的作者也是导演，和演员一起在舞台上工作，有时他们不是。 如果一出戏里有舞蹈，编舞就会和演员一起教他们舞蹈。