Today I smiled as I walked back up the driveway from our mailbox. Absentmindedly flipping through the stack of flimsy white envelopes (bills, landscaping flyers, subscription renewal notices), I came across an oversized, sturdy packet covered top to bottom, edge to edge with high-gloss, vibrant images. Broadway graffiti! Just a glimpse of these on-stage performance highlights enticed me to rip into its contents, carelessly tossing aside the rest of the mail.
All at once my priority had become taking a sneak peak at the seven nights of Broadway theater my husband and I have ahead of us (KeyBank Broadway Series).
No, I don’t live in New York City! I live in northeast Ohio, home of Cleveland’s Playhouse Square.
Did you know that Playhouse Square is the country’s largest performing arts center outside of New York City? Somehow that tidbit of trivia popped into my thoughts as I scanned our ticket details; but I wasn’t confident I could trust my memory, so I decided to hop on my computer to verify it.
So glad I did!
A visit to playhousesquare.org/about not only confirmed that noteworthy statistic, that the city of Cleveland does indeed boast the second largest performing arts center in the United States (not Washington D.C., not Boston, not Los Angeles, Houston, nor even Chicago); my web browsing also illuminated another claim to fame – Cleveland’s Playhouse Square is the “world’s largest theater restoration project!”
Did you catch that?
World’s largest!
Not our nation’s largest, not North America’s largest, not even the largest of the western world? The “world’s largest theater restoration project!” Right here in northeast Ohio!
Sure, I should’ve known this! But I didn’t! Did you?
Perhaps many of you are Ohio natives or have lived here long enough to remember firsthand the theaters in their long state of disrepair and neglect. As an 11-year resident of Ohio, I don’t have any personal memories to draw on, so the information gleaned from the website was news to me, and much appreciated.
As I have begun to explore northeast Ohio, I am constantly amazed at the rich history and contemporary treasures we have right here in our own backyard.
I found the story of Playhouse Square quite fascinating. So I’ve decided I’ll share a few of the details that intrigued me in an upcoming post or two. I hope you’ll come back and join me as I recognize a northeast Ohio treasure.