For the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Playbill invited Susan Stroman, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Betty Buckley, and numerous other Broadway Artists to share their memories and reflections. Stro was directing The Producers, while overseeing Contact, The Music Man, and was in auditions for A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. Below, she reflects on that first performance back for The Producers.
"On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in my bedroom watching NY1 as I was getting ready for my day. The news anchors were discussing the first plane crash, mistaking it for a tragic accident. Then, as I watched along with millions of others, the second plane hit. For two days, the world came to a halt. Everyone was grieving. Typically, when someone is grieving, they have friends or family members to turn to. However, the entire city was in mourning. The only real place to find some relief was the theatre.
Theatre owners and producers believed that if they could get The Producers up and running, the rest of Broadway would follow suit. And so, two days later, Broadway reopened. At first, the audience at The Producers was tense, quiet. Then the laughter came—it rolled in like a huge wave and never stopped. It was such a relief to hear laughter. I remember specifically changing out the explosions and gunshots in the show for drum hits—not to alarm the audience.
At the curtain call, Nathan and Matthew led the audience in a moving rendition of “God Bless America.” Onstage was a line-up of our greatest comic actors united in a defiant stance against the terrorists. Not unlike Mel Brooks and his defiant stance against Hitler. Throughout history, especially during times of war and national tragedy, the primary role of the theatre is to act as a life force, to keep moving ahead and provide people with an outlet, a community. And in the face of devastation and loss, Broadway responded with such resilience and unity. I was, and always will be, incredibly proud to be part of this remarkable community.
I still remember clearly an article in The New York Times that ran just a few days after the attacks about a couple returning to their destroyed apartment at Ground Zero. Dust everywhere, windows blown out—they grabbed their tickets to The Producers and left."
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