1 00:00:00,896 --> 00:00:03,691 [Amendola] The New Amsterdam Theatre is a really special place. 2 00:00:03,774 --> 00:00:05,860 Most theaters will clean up the theater. 3 00:00:06,527 --> 00:00:09,488 They'll maybe put new carpeting down, a fresh coat of paint. 4 00:00:09,572 --> 00:00:11,866 But we did not skimp anywhere. 5 00:00:11,949 --> 00:00:15,202 This was not a recreation. This was a restoration. 6 00:00:16,287 --> 00:00:19,415 We wanted to make sure that people realized 7 00:00:19,498 --> 00:00:23,127 the theater has been around forever, just very well maintained. 8 00:00:23,210 --> 00:00:26,881 Most theaters don't do that. Their job is to take care of the stage, 9 00:00:26,964 --> 00:00:29,300 what you look like when those curtain rises. 10 00:00:29,383 --> 00:00:32,720 For us, the curtain rises when we first walk through these doors. 11 00:00:33,721 --> 00:00:35,389 My name is Dana Amendola. 12 00:00:35,473 --> 00:00:38,476 I'm the Vice President of Operations with Disney Theatrical Group, 13 00:00:38,559 --> 00:00:41,437 and I've been with the Disney corporation for 23 years. 14 00:00:56,911 --> 00:00:59,080 [Amendola] This theater is well over 100 years old. 15 00:00:59,163 --> 00:01:02,917 It's also the oldest building that Disney operates. 16 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,712 With the advent of talkies and the Depression, 17 00:01:06,796 --> 00:01:09,924 there wasn't much a demand for live theater on 42nd Street, 18 00:01:10,007 --> 00:01:11,759 so instead, it became a movie house. 19 00:01:11,842 --> 00:01:17,431 It stayed that way for a while, and that's when it finally closed in the '80s. 20 00:01:17,515 --> 00:01:20,267 It sat abandoned for close to 20 years, 21 00:01:20,351 --> 00:01:24,689 until Disney had the foresight to come in and really make something of this place. 22 00:01:25,106 --> 00:01:28,693 I actually ran a series of 3,000 seat theaters around the country, 23 00:01:28,776 --> 00:01:34,782 but then I saw an ad for a theater manager of the New Amsterdam Theatre, 24 00:01:34,865 --> 00:01:36,409 someone to kinda complete the project. 25 00:01:36,492 --> 00:01:39,954 So I applied for the job, and 48 hours later they had hired me. 26 00:01:41,288 --> 00:01:44,125 As Vice President of Operations for Disney Theatrical Group, 27 00:01:44,208 --> 00:01:46,293 no two days are exactly the same. 28 00:01:46,919 --> 00:01:51,507 My challenge here was to make this theater as exciting as anything on the stage. 29 00:01:52,466 --> 00:01:56,137 This theater looks exactly the way it does in 1921. 30 00:01:57,054 --> 00:02:00,641 This lighting sconce is actually rumored to be around the entire theater, 31 00:02:00,725 --> 00:02:04,145 but we didn't have an actual version of what she'd looked like in the theater. 32 00:02:04,228 --> 00:02:06,105 All we had was a woman's diary 33 00:02:06,188 --> 00:02:09,400 that described a woman with a crown of bulbs in her hair. 34 00:02:09,483 --> 00:02:11,193 So we thought this is what she would look like. 35 00:02:11,277 --> 00:02:14,155 We were simply gonna recast her several times. 36 00:02:14,655 --> 00:02:16,699 That's when we found something hidden in a wall. 37 00:02:17,199 --> 00:02:20,494 This is the actual piece that we found in the wall, 38 00:02:20,578 --> 00:02:23,748 behind this column, sealed in her original box, 39 00:02:23,831 --> 00:02:26,500 with her little light bulbs in their original boxes. 40 00:02:26,584 --> 00:02:30,254 We dusted her off, screwed in the light bulbs, and she worked fine. 41 00:02:32,214 --> 00:02:35,092 The response to Disney Theatrical Group shows in this building 42 00:02:35,176 --> 00:02:37,261 has been absolutely fantastic. 43 00:02:38,179 --> 00:02:40,973 The Lion King was a show that no one saw before. 44 00:02:41,057 --> 00:02:44,518 Mary Poppins worked so spectacularly in this theater. 45 00:02:44,602 --> 00:02:49,023 And for something like Aladdin, that's just so incredibly fun and playful, 46 00:02:49,106 --> 00:02:50,483 worked so well in the theater. 47 00:02:52,651 --> 00:02:55,363 This is the area that most people don't get to see, 48 00:02:55,446 --> 00:02:57,198 that is the backstage of Aladdin. 49 00:02:57,740 --> 00:03:01,452 And the amazing thing about a backstage on Broadway is how tight it is. 50 00:03:01,535 --> 00:03:05,247 Real estate is very desirable, and there's not much of it. 51 00:03:05,331 --> 00:03:07,917 So we suspend stuff from the ceilings, on the side. 52 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,419 Anywhere we can find a place to put something, we will. 53 00:03:13,339 --> 00:03:15,966 The New Amsterdam Theatre is a really special place. 54 00:03:16,967 --> 00:03:19,553 The nature of this theater, the way it's designed. 55 00:03:19,637 --> 00:03:23,224 It's 1,800 seats but it's extremely intimate. 56 00:03:23,307 --> 00:03:28,020 And they made it intimate by making elements of it larger than life. 57 00:03:28,521 --> 00:03:34,276 There's not an ounce that isn't covered with some type of elaborate grape or leaf 58 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:36,946 or peacock surrounding the entire proscenium. 59 00:03:37,029 --> 00:03:38,906 This was all very deliberate. 60 00:03:38,989 --> 00:03:42,827 This was all very much in keeping with the Art Nouveau stylings of the time. 61 00:03:45,037 --> 00:03:47,957 The light bulbs are incandescent light bulbs on the interior of the theater. 62 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,042 That's the way it was lit back in the 1920s. 63 00:03:50,126 --> 00:03:53,754 The ushers' costumes are made up of elements of this theater. 64 00:03:53,838 --> 00:03:57,758 The design filigree is all from elements of this theater. 65 00:03:57,842 --> 00:04:00,177 Hi, folks. Welcome to the New Amsterdam Theatre. 66 00:04:00,261 --> 00:04:02,012 This is aisle one of the orchestra. 67 00:04:02,096 --> 00:04:04,265 Aisles two, three and four, straight ahead. 68 00:04:04,348 --> 00:04:07,184 Here's where all the training, all the preparation-- 69 00:04:07,268 --> 00:04:10,146 This is the final payoff, when we actually open the doors. 70 00:04:14,817 --> 00:04:19,280 A total immersive theater experience is what you get when you come here. 71 00:04:19,363 --> 00:04:23,409 From the moment you cross past those doors and are seated in your seat, 72 00:04:23,492 --> 00:04:26,662 and that curtain goes up, it's an entire experience. 73 00:04:27,997 --> 00:04:30,374 [xylophone playing] 74 00:04:34,712 --> 00:04:36,714 Good to go from front of house. Thanks. 75 00:04:38,132 --> 00:04:39,133 That's it. 76 00:04:39,216 --> 00:04:43,637 What was created here, really, it's more than a theater. It's a museum. 77 00:04:43,721 --> 00:04:50,061 What makes it so incredibly special is its rich, continuing history. I mean you-- 78 00:04:50,144 --> 00:04:53,314 From the architecture, to who appeared on this stage, 79 00:04:53,397 --> 00:04:56,067 to what it did for this community and for this city, 80 00:04:56,150 --> 00:04:59,987 and to think that Disney brought this to them, really makes me feel proud.