Lights, Curtains, Action!

Beta Pi alumnae Julie Boardman and Diane Nicoletti have taken their careers and friendship to new heights by opening the world’s premier Museum of Broadway in the heart of Times Square.

Have you ever wondered what happens to the iconic set designs, costumes and props from Broadway performances once those shows stop running? According to Julie Boardman (Beta Pi-USC), one of the two founders of the Museum of Broadway, when the final curtain falls on these items, many will end up in storage units or even a landfill — discarded and forgotten.

However, these treasures and their tragic end inspired Julie. She knew with the right team and resources she could reroute these items to a new home in the form of a museum where they could live on to educate the masses and preserve Broadway’s history for generations to enjoy.

An exterior view of the Museum of Broadway at night.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MONIQUE CARBONI

This idea combined with her years of experience as a Broadway producer and as the founder and CEO of her own promotional marketing and event staffing agency, Boardman Productions, prompted Julie to connect with her longtime friend, colleague and fellow Beta Pi Diane Nicoletti to create the world’s first permanent museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing Broadway’s history.

“I just couldn’t believe what Julie was telling me,” recalled Diane, who is also the founder and COO of Rubik Marketing, an experiential marketing agency behind fan experiences for clients like HBO, Disney, L’Oréal and Cartoon Network. “How did this not exist? I was like, ‘No, this is brilliant.’ And we got to work.”

Diane and Julie first met on campus at USC, having both gone through recruitment and joined Alpha Phi. Julie transferred from Loyola-Marymount where she was also a member of the Fraternity and quickly became active in Beta Pi in various elected roles, eventually working her way up to chapter president.

Both women remained active in the Fraternity while pursuing their respective degrees and completing internships before graduating. Julie was making her mark as a performer and staffing agent before turning her attention toward producing Tony Award-winning Broadway shows like “Funny Girl” and “Company,” while Diane jumped into event marketing working for large agencies and venues before breaking out on her own and founding her own experiential marketing agency in 2009. The two grew to work closely together when Diane would hire Julie’s staffing agency for her events, which was what led to their landmark conversation over opening a Broadway museum together. The rest, as they say, is history.

Even from the ideation phase of this massive undertaking, Diane and Julie knew what they did not want to do. They weren’t going to create a static museum where patrons would walk through staring at and reading things hanging on the walls or behind glass cases. They knew it, instead, needed to reflect the immersive and interactive experience of attending a Broadway show.

An elaborate costume from “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running production in Broadway history, on display at the museum.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MONIQUE CARBONI

“We developed a team of curators, designers, architects and contractors to bring this dream of an experiential, interactive museum that tells the story of Broadway to life,” Diane said.

The Museum of Broadway was a self-funded project from the start, and both women wasted no time securing meetings with major players in the New York theater industry, including theatrical producers, theater owners and organizations like the Broadway League to sponsor their for-profit museum.

And, of course, location is key. Diane and Julie needed to select a home for their museum that would drive revenue, be easy to locate and attract foot traffic — all while remaining close to the theaters. They ultimately selected a four-story, 26,000-square-foot former Irish pub on West 45th Street in Times Square next to the Lyceum Theater to house their museum.

“Broadway is uniquely American,” Diane mentioned. “So, it should be here in the heart of the city where it began.”

With the support of their community and having acquired artifacts to display, everything seemed to be falling into place for the Museum of Broadway to open its doors in 2020 … until life came to a screeching halt with the outbreak of COVID-19.

This delay, however, gave the founders additional time to collect more priceless Broadway antiquities, photographs, costumes and set pieces to feature in the museum. Today, most of the 1,000-plus items and photographs on display are on loan from individual artists, creators, producers and even performing arts institutions like Disney Theatrical Productions and the Public Theater.

Now, more than five years after its inception, surrounded by countless members of the theater community, team members, state and local officials, friends and family, Diane and Julie opened the doors to the Museum of Broadway to the public on November 15, 2022, with a ribbon cutting ceremony. And, since opening, it has quickly become one of the Big Apple’s newest must-see attractions.

“A lot of us were in tears that this was finally happening,” Julie said. “We had all just come through COVID when Broadway was totally shut down. And it’s truly the lifeblood of this city. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Broadway was the No. 2 reason people visited New York City behind shopping. And now, not only is Broadway and life back on after this pandemic, but people have a new way to experience it.”

Two visitors enjoying the interactive aspect of the museum in the “Ziegfield Follies” exhibit on opening night.

PHOTO COURTESY OF EMILIO MADRID

The museum is laid out in four areas — the map room, where visitors can view a short film outlining the history and migration of New York City’s theaters from the Financial District to Times Square with a map of each theater’s location; the timeline of Broadway from its birth in 1750 to present day, where patrons can immerse themselves into some of the most beloved musicals and plays of all time; the “Making of a Broadway Show,” which is a special exhibit honoring the skilled professionals both on and offstage who make Broadway happen; and, lastly, the gift shop and rentable studio space.

Furthermore, the museum is organized chronologically with the timeline taking up a large portion of the exhibit space, starting with Broadway’s earliest shows and running all the way through the modern productions performed today. More than 500 performances are highlighted at the museum with artifacts including: original “Ziegfeld Follies” costumes from the early 20th century; a feathered red “Hello, Dolly!” headpiece; a military jacket from the 1968 production of “Hair;” a pair of knee-high, laceup red heeled boots from “Kinky Boots;” mask molds from “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longestrunning production in Broadway history; a New York Jets jacket worn in the original 1957 production of “West Side Story;” and the iconic fire engine-red dress from the 1977 production of “Annie,” among several other timeless pieces.

Many of the exhibits and displays in the museum were also created by the same theater designers who made the dynamic on-stage scenery featured on Broadway stages, making visitors feel like they’re a part of such iconic shows as “Cats,” “The Lion King,” “Rent,” “Oklahoma!” and “Wicked.”

In addition to the rotating exhibits, Diane and Julie said they plan to host a couple of special exhibitions each year in the expansive space on the first floor. At the time this article was written,

Everyone has a moment that Broadway entered their life and left a mark. this room displayed the drawings of Al Hirschfeld, Broadway’s own King of Caricature, complete with coloring pages for visitors to enjoy.

Everyone has a moment that Broadway entered their life and left a mark.

And, of course, as Broadway productions reach the end of their production circuits, these women will be two of the first in line to offer the more notable objects from those shows a new home at the museum.

What makes this gallery stand apart, however, is that it’s more than a museum — it’s a completely immersive Broadway experience. An “attraction,” even, as Diane put it, worthy of being its own New York City destination for anyone who loves Broadway and American history.

“We asked ourselves, ‘What story do we want to tell, and how do we want to tell it?’” Julie recalled. “There’s so much history to Broadway, and you could organize that history in a lot of different ways. But we knew we wanted to lean on Diane’s strengths in experiential marketing to make this a true experience where people felt like they were a part of these productions and had an insider’s peek into the process.”

And a key characteristic of the museum being “experiential” is in how it enables visitors to experience it.

Today, most of us — particularly the younger generations — experience life through our phones, whether we’re taking photos and videos, posting to our social media pages, live streaming or creating our own personal brand of content to share with our followers. Diane and Julie recognized that for their museum to be successful, it needed to be a shared experience.

“We wanted to ensure that the visual storytelling came through and that people would be able to share their experience,” Diane echoed. “That’s how we consume content, right? It has to be shareable. We want people to have fun so that they talk about it, post about it and share that experience like they would anything else they thoroughly enjoyed.”

Andrea McArdle, Broadway’s original Annie, admiring the iconic dress from the production framed and on display at the museum of Broadway.

PHOTO COURTESY OF EMILIO MADRID

“And it’s not just the millennials who are experiencing the museum this way,” Julie continued. “The older patrons are really into it, too, and they’re excited that we encourage this level of participation in our exhibits.”

Diane and Julie have created a museum experience people of all ages, from young children to older patrons, can enjoy in their own unique ways.

“Everyone has a different entry point into Broadway, whether they just know the current shows, grew up loving Broadway as a theater kid, if they just know the songs from pop culture or even if it’s been years since they last saw a show,” Julie explained, having grown up performing herself and seen her first Broadway production at the age of 10. “Everyone has a moment that Broadway entered their life and left a mark. This museum is a great way for them to revisit that.”

There’s even a translation app non-English-speaking patrons can download and use as they walk through the exhibits, making the Museum of Broadway an inclusive experience.

Reflecting back on the days of this project, Julie is still in awe that she and Diane were the first to recognize the need for this museum and bring it to life.

This neon sign and green display celebrates the “The Wiz” at the Museum of Broadway.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MONIQUE CARBONI

“The fact that Broadway has been around for such a long time, yet a space like this never existed before we made it happen is just unbelievable,” Julie said. “I mean, we’re the ones who got to create it and shape the way the Broadway story is told and consumed. It’s humbling to say the least.”

Like Idina Menzel sang as Elphaba in “The Wizard and I” from “Wicked,” the future for Diane, Julie and the Museum of Broadway is truly “unlimited.”