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Touring Broadway Theater

Though many think that the Great White Way feeds the Broadway Across America (BAA) program, in many ways, it’s a symbiotic relationship.

Though BAA brings recent Broadway productions and greatest hits to major theaters in cities across the country, the national attendance of touring shows is higher than that on Broadway; the 2013-2014 season drew in 13.8 million. Of visitors to New York in the past year, 81 percent saw a Broadway show while there.

BAA runs on a different ticketing model than most Broadway theaters, encouraging theatergoers in the cities they serve to get a season subscription, so the shows on offer tend more toward a variety of productions that work well together than simply a parade of greatest hits. This year, the top touring Broadway shows run the gamut from the small intimate “Once” to the raucous “Book of Mormon,” the historic “Motown: The Musical” and Disney’s “Newsies.”

 

‘The Book of Mormon’

Though it opened in 2011, excitement for “The Book of Mormon” on Broadway is still so great and the houses so packed every night that you have a better chance of catching this breakout hit from the creators of “South Park” through Broadway Across American than on Broadway itself.

The story is straightforward: two eternally optimistic Mormon missionaries land in Uganda and try to convert a town more worried about the local warlord than their eternal souls. “The Book of Mormon” took home a sweeping nine Tony awards, including best musical, score, book and direction.

One of the things that sets this show apart is the choreography from co-director Casey Nicholaw, who also choreographed “Aladdin.” For a satire, the focus on music and dancing is refreshing and has turned the show into a true triple threat.

www.bookofmormonbroadway.com

‘Newsies’

Broadway was once known more for dancing showgirls and 10-minute tap spectaculars, but “Newsies” ushered in a new era of Broadway dancing — acrobatic children — that has gone on to prove a popular formula with other hits such as “Matilda.”

“Newsies” opened on Broadway in 2012 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the musical film of the same name based on the 1899 strike of the New York City newsboys against unfair wages. In the days of yellow journalism and with industrialists making ever more money while the poor struggled to survive, the young men who delivered the newspapers took it upon themselves to make a stand against newspapermen trying to cut their already meager wages to make more profit for themselves.

After eight Tony nominations, including a nod for Best Musical, the show took home two Tonys for its now hallmark highlights: the score and the choreography. Pairing catchy tunes well known from the movie, such as “Seize the Day” and “The World Will Know,” and high-octane dancing with history and a social message, “Newsies” delivers everything theatergoers want in a Broadway production.

www.newsiesthemusical.com

Gabi Logan

Gabi Logan is a freelance travel journalist whose work has also appeared in USA TODAY, The Dallas Morning News and Italy Magazine. As she travels more than 100,000 miles each year, she aims to discover the unexpected wonder in every destination.