Over the years, Broadway has had an unforgettable legacy of preshow rituals and traditions that still lives on today. One of our personal favorites is the SATURDAY NIGHT SCREAM tradition on 52nd Street.
Basically since Saturday is usually the 7th show of Broadway’s grueling 8 Performances a Week schedule, the SATURDAY NIGHT SCREAM is a pre-show pep rally / shout-off that happens on 52nd Street between the shows playing Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre and the Neil Simon Theatre. Cast members from both shows playing those houses would open up their dressing room windows and would cheer & scream each other on to give each other that positive energy vibe before hitting the stage. Sometimes, cast members from BOTH houses would take turns each week serenading the other show with a song. The SCREAM would generally happen at 5 MINUTES before showtime. From there, both casts would immediately be called for PLACES.
The tradition of the SATURDAY NIGHT SCREAM began when Jersey Boys was playing at the August Wilson Theatre. With arriving at the Theater for half hour, cast members would start blasting music backstage really loud to warm themselves up & be hyped to do the show. When the stage manager would call 5 MINUTES, the company would play Kander & Ebb‘s legendary theme to NEW YORK, NEW YORK. At the moment of the notable key change, cast members began opening up their dressing room popping their heads out belting their hearts out. After singing “IT’S UP TO YOU, NEW YORK, NEEEEEEEEW YOOOOOOOOOOOORK……”, a cast member would yell out at the top of his/her lungs HELLOOOOOOOO BROADWAAAAAAY!!!! Couple of weeks later, the company of Hairspray which was playing the Neil Simon Theatre joined in the fun. That’s how the tradition was born.
JERSEY BOYS and HAIRSPRAY continued spreading the joy. After when both shows left their Theaters, the tradition continued with both the August Wilson and Neil Simon’s later shows including the revivals of RAGTIME, Jesus Christ Superstar, GIGI, and Cats, along with Catch Me If You Can, Big Fish, The Last Ship (which Sting used to come out a lot to serenade even fans outside), Groundhog Day, Mean Girls, and The Cher Show.
Lately, the SATURDAY NIGHT SCREAM has not been happening due to no other shows having been played at the Neil Simon Theatre since 2019. Obviously because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we hope that the legacy will return when both the August Wilson Theatre and Neil Simon Theatre welcome their next set of shows lined up. That will consist of….
At the August Wilson Theatre:
– the limited engagement revival of Slave Play – set to begin previews on November 23rd, 2021, the official Opening Night is set for December 2nd, 2021
and
-the long awaited highly anticipated revival of Funny Girl (starring Beanie Feldstein – set to begin previews on March 26th, 2022 and will have its official Opening Night on April 24th, 2022.
Meanwhile AT THE NEIL SIMON THEATRE:
-the long awaited Broadway debut of MJ: the musical – set to begin previews on December 6th, 2021 and will open on February 1st, 2022.
If the tradition does return, you can catch the SATURDAY NIGHT SCREAM on 52nd Street usually at 5 minutes before the scheduled Evening Performance on SATURDAY NIGHT. Truly a fun entertaining time.
To get a good sense of what the SATURDAY NIGHT SCREAM is all about, here is footage of the cast of Jersey Boys doing their final one before it had its January 2017 closing playing the August Wilson Theatre for 11 years. At the time, they were serenading the recent revival of CATS.
How amazing is that?!!
