Rocca asked, 'Do you think that that's a powerful symbol?' She originated roles in 'Sunday In the Park With George' and 'Into the Woods,' and starred in the 2003 revival of 'Gypsy,' where she shared the stage with a ghost light. There was the ghost light, at night, when we'd close up.' 'You know, I've been in shows since I was nine years old,' she said. Three-time Tony-winner Bernadette Peters is a living legend of Broadway. The song he sang, to the glow of the ghost light? 'In the Midnight Hour': Already, the alchemy, the magic, is sort of washing over you.' And because the theatre was empty, you could hear your footsteps echo. It was 1974, and he was auditioning for the title role in 'The Wiz': 'The only light in the theatre was the ghost light, which was downstage center. 'So, there's a lot of legends about that in the theater!'ĭe Shields' earliest memory of a ghost light is a cherished one.

'When the show ends and the theatre becomes dark, you have a light on so that the people that are visiting backstage, the people that are keeping up maintenance, can have a way to see, before the whole theater is lit again.' The 'ghost light' is more than a stage tradition it's a symbol of how the bright lights of the theater world haven't been entirely dimmed by the pandemic.Īs for the 'ghost' part … 'The more romantic history of ghost lights is, of course, that they're lit so that the ghosts will either have company and be able to move around freely, or to keep the ghosts away,' she said. 'A ghost light is a light that stays on inside the theatre, even when the house is dark, when a show's not going on, or when a show's not running,' said Broadway producer and author Jennifer Ashley Tepper, who notes a ghost light serves a practical function:

It's called a ghost light, and it's a tradition that goes back to the late 1800s. The seats may be empty, and the actors and crew nowhere to be seen, but every stage on Broadway has a lamp like the one burning continuously at the Walter Kerr Theatre (the home to 'Hadestown').

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