Broadway is a joke!

[Syntherio]

And finally to the part about Germany and American roadways. The Autobon imo would certainly be considered quality work, whereas the American Interstate system is another story.

Sorry, but I have to correct you... Its called "Autobahn"

 

[ZippyRiver]

Thanks. I am relying on my memory (bad idea there) of a show I watched a couple of years ago. It was very interesting all the things going on during that time.

 

[Nestorius]

Broadway is awesome, you guys are all insane!

Between Electricity and Radio in time... in our world that would be the turn of the century. What was huge for entertainment? Theaters... not movies, just people on stage, and that was just as big as TV is today for popular culture. What is Broadway but a giant electrified culmination of Vaudville and the whole culture of theater-oriented live entertainment that died out with Mass Media? So Broadway represents the idea of the first, best, and most extravagent electrified theater-district, pre-cinema, pre-TV.

These other ideas don't take the tech tree into account.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

One word:

Cats

Elvis, Siegfreid and Roy, Celine Dion, Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, David Copperfield, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, Penn & Teller, Wayne Newton, etc., etc., etc.

Cats played in Vegas at the MGM Grand as well.

 

[eatomhoch]

Reality Check:

"The Phantom of the Opera" is the most successful entertainment venture in history, with a worldwide box office of $3.2 billion, far surpassing the highest-grossing film, "Titanic," at $1.2 billion. Worldwide attendance now exceeds 80 million.

http://www.denverpost.com/johnmoore/ci_3365368

Musical theatre (Broadway) predates both radio and television and was source of popular culture in the United states before Hollywood even existed. If Hollywood, or Rock N' Roll are valid wonders then Broadway is as well.

 

[Nestorius]

Well, when seeking to usurp territory from an enemy without resorting to open warfare, don't you build a theater in a border city and perform nice plays like 'Cats'? 'Civ-inhabitants' love drama, that's why Broadway is so earth-shattering for them.

 

[Vietcong]

Maybe the World Cup of soccer? I know it's virtually unknown in the USA, but it rocks the rest of the world...

Seriously now, I think the Olympics have more of a worldwide appeal an the same 'happiness' result (that can be multiplied by radio)...

Cheers,

Mad Hab

i hate soccer!!! what the hell kinda impact dose soccer have on the world except the gathering of morons. i got it it whold lower the science output of the city its in by 50% cus only morons whold live thear cus soccers dumb.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

Broadway has more class as a world wonder than Vegas would and IMHO should stay in the game. But as any casino can attest, it isn't the classy games like blackjack, craps or roulette that generate the most money, it's the slot machines that do.

The strip is a world wonder. Vegas has 137,000 rooms and had 35.5 million visitors last year. Think about the population of your entire town. Now picture them all visiting Vegas, without any problem. Now picture them going home poorer and (usually) happier. The numbers are staggering. This happens 24/7/365. That alone is a wonder. Not bad for a city barely 100 years old.


@eatomhoch - "The Phantom of the Opera" will open at the Venetian Casino here next year.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

And culture wise, you'll find more in Ashland, Oregon than you will ever find in Broadway. Broadway is to theater what etch-a-sketch is to art - to quote something used to describe disco music back in the 70's.

The Shakespeare Festival in Ashland is cool, and is honored by the Globe Theatre being a wonder in the game.

The Broadway wonder only generates a small amount of culture. The reason to build it is for the 'hit musicals' and both the happiness they generate for you and to trade them to others.

A profitable industry need not have or generate culture. The porn/sex goods industry generates 15 billion per year. And I'm sure there's yet another big pile of cash on top of that that doesn't get reported to the IRS.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

Vegas is for celebrities who've dried up, creativity wise. Look at the line-ups of the casinos of Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City, etc. It's not the people with rising careers, but those on the tail end of their careers who don't want to retire yet.

And Wayne Newton?????????????????

He's a running joke.

You have a right to your own opinion, which in this case I disagree with. Modern Vegas is booked far in advance with performers doing shows here, including Cats and Phantom of the Opera. You could see a different world famous band here every night and still not keep up with all the groups that play here on tour. Few modern touring groups skip playing Vegas. You name them, if they've toured chances are very good they did a show here too.


I'm not taking about Reno or Atlantic City. Those are pale comparisons to the Vegas strip. I couldn't imagine either of them making the cut for a civ world wonder.


Wayne Newton has been performing here since he was a child and is a solid moneymaker and can fill every show to capacity. Not my style of music either, but as he has the largest fan club in the world someone must like him.

 

[logical_psycho]

They should call it the "porn industry" instead, that has a much larger audience than broadway. Actually about the entire male population would be frustrated with it 24/7... just look at all those muslim countries where porn is illegal, getting all radical because of it....

 

[Sahkuhnder]

sahkuhnder

Your last reinforces what I mean't. Few people actually see Broadway plays compared with most other genres of entertainment and the "happiness" in civ game terms wouldn't really extend beyond the city building it.

Maybe the way to go would be to make it an improvement instead that generates a little happiness and a little more cash. Or something like that. As a world wide influence, it really isn't. And neither is Ashland, though one should probably replace the cash with culture for an Ashland improvement. Were it to be used.

That to me is the difference between the theater and coliseum city improvements and the Broadway world wonder. Some shows come to where you are and generate culture or happiness at your local theater(arena/coliseum). Broadway and Vegas are places you travel to to get your dose of happiness, and then go home.

For every 200 people on the entire planet, Vegas got one visitor last year. That's not a huge percent but it's still a lot of people.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

They should call it the "porn industry" instead, that has a much larger audience than broadway. Actually about the entire male population would be frustrated with it 24/7... just look at all those muslim countries where porn is illegal, getting all radical because of it....

I think we all know that having a civ world wonder called 'the porn industry' is not likely to happen anytime soon.

I would like to see the included wonder movie for it though...

 

[Mad Hab]

We'll have to just disagree since I don't see Broadway as anything beyond a possible city improvement. Can see Vegas as a possible small wonder type everyone is allowed one of, but not as a unique wonder.

I obviously agree with your first statement.

But I disagree with the second. I might be mistaken, but I think you probably haven't been to Vegas. It IS unique, and only a very very veeery rich and powerful civilization could build something like that, so I wouldn't allow everyone to build it.

That's not exactly a compliment to Las Vegas - I'd love to say all I really think about it, but I surely would be accused of USA-bashing if I did that...

Hum, why not Coca-Cola in the place of Broadway? You could sell it for others, increase its effect with radio (advertising), and that does not reduce the quantity of wonders from the USA (since it's so important to some people here). But it would demand knowledge of chemistry, of course...

Cheers!

Mad Hab

 

[eatomhoch]

Reality check again. If one goes by the money generated, one should use the industry as a whole, not compare a couple individual examples of that industry against each other.

Reality check numero 3. I'll bet far more people saw Titanic, crap as it is, than any Broadway play, crap as they are. They just didn't pay $500 a ticket to see the garbage.

Reality check vier. I would think with a candidate for a cultural wonder, the numbers of people affected is more important than the money that particular wonder candidate generated.

And culture wise, you'll find more in Ashland , Oregon than you will ever find in Broadway. Broadway is to theater what etch-a-sketch is to art - to quote something used to describe disco music back in the 70's. A culture wonder representing an art ought to be of quality.

Broadway don't cut it. Period. Not by the numbers entertained and not by the quality of its output.

Way to not cite any facts whatsoever. Good job! Look, you find a figure for the number of people who have been entertained by all the movies ever made, or all the plays and musicals ever made. Such a figure doesn't exist.

However considering that Theatre, which arguable is represented by Broadway, has existed for at least 3000 years, I'd be willing to bet more people have been entertained by it than the relatively short history of movies. (Greek plays are, after all musicals)

What does exist however is box office receipts for plays and movies and the number one, single, grossing entertainment media of all time is a musical. Period.

Shakespeare is great. So is Victor Hugo (Les Mis.) So is Schonberg. (Miss Saigon... Madame Butterfly adaption) Non-musical plays that have significantly contributed to american and arguably world culture include: Pygmalion (Shaw, English) Importance of being Earnest (Wilde, English) Waiting for Godot (Becket, French) Death of a Salesman (Miller, American) the list goes on and on... Suggesting that these works, among others, are some how... lacking in quality is simply ignorant.

I've done theatrical lighting for 10 years in both large and small productions, and to suggest that there is no artistic merit in Broadway is simply wrong.

Have you seen Spamalot? Shakespeare would love it!

Even if you exclude "non-Broadway", plays, that is plays that were performed elsewhere first, there are plenty of Broadway plays that have entertained millions of people. How many people is enough? 10 million? 1 billion?

 

[eatomhoch]

@sahkuhnder

My mom lives and works in Vegas, so I've visited many times... what a hole...

You are right though, there is a lot of great entertainment, but it just makes me feel dirty... also, its hella hot there.

IMHO, vegas is just a one overgrown 'red-light' district.

 

[Speaker]

That is because the national soccer teams of your lands are bad quality. I'm from Belgium, and 15 years ago, Belgium was not really bad in soccer. Almost all belgians watched soccer. Nowadays, our national soccer team s*cks, but we have 2 great tennisplayers: Clijsters & Henin, and guess what: almost all belgians watch tennis!

Bad quality? Last I checked, the United States soccer/football team is ranked 7th in the world--1 spot ahead of England and 48 ahead of Belgium. Bad quality? I think not.

 

[Mad Hab]

Even if you exclude "non-Broadway", plays, that is plays that were performed elsewhere first, there are plenty of Broadway plays that have entertained millions of people. How many people is enough? 10 million? 1 billion?

It's not about quantity of spectators, I think. It's about influence on the world. Broadway had limited impact and not for too long. Hit Singles and Hit Movies are waaay more influential from a worldwide point of view than the almost laughable Hit Musicals (for how long they were significant? 20, 25 years maybe?). I have one uncle who went to see Cats, and he's the only person I know who did it. Everybody I know see Hollywood movies and listen to american music (and, by the way, drink Coca-Cola ).

Cheers,

Mad Hab

 

[Sahkuhnder]

@sahkuhnder

My mom lives and works in Vegas, so I've visited many times... what a hole...

It's not for everyone and certainly has it's problems too. It's not as clean as Boise or Salt Lake City perhaps but there are nice areas too (Summerlin, Spring Valley). Perhaps you just need to see more of the town.

You are right though, there is a lot of great entertainment, but it just makes me feel dirty... also, its hella hot there.

IMHO, vegas is just a one overgrown 'red-light' district.

There is great entertainment, it just sounds like you may be looking in the wrong places. Vegas has a very dark and dirty side to it that is just below the surface for anyone looking for that kind of thing. Little effort is made to clean this up as would be done in other cities as if the tourists want it, the locals provide it. Can't help any with the dirty feeling. My only suggestion would be to go to better quality places or just enjoy yourself and do your best to just ignore whatever it is that makes you want to feel that way.


And yes you're so right. In the summer it is hella hot. Air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned job, etc. Go outside only at night.

 

[Thalassicus]

It may not be significant on it's own, but plays and musicals have been the dominant form of entertainment for more than two thousand years! Broadway represents a prominent cumulation of that in modern times. Rock'n'Roll likewise represents the field of purely musical entertainment, which has been in existence for most of human history.

If any wonder should go, it would be Hollywood -- motion pictures have only been around for a century. Drama, music, and sports have been around since the dawn of civilization.

The Coliseum represents any major sporting arena (be it ancient gladatorial or soccer). Think of it as a Stadium in modern times.

Besides, the modern "wonders" like Rock'n'Roll are just lighthearted things added in the game, like Elvis references and Al Gore on the Internet picture.