Thanks to Disney we had a backstage tour of the Amsterdam Theater. Our tour guide gave us the whole history of the theater which is quite impressive.
The theater is actually so old it’s a historical landmark.
When they refurbished it, they had to remove a tree, mushrooms on the walls and rats. Yuck! The renovation cost about 45 million dollars which was also the price if you consider inflation that it cost to build the building originally. During the renovation they found that they were quite lucky really because before the theater ran down, all the walls were painted a chocolate brown that preserved everything underneath it. It was so well preserved that they had to actually go in and antique the walls to make the building look historical.
There was only one mishap during the renovation. One of the men cleaning the walls broke off the finger on the lady below. To fix it they had to make sure that it looked different from the original so the man made a mold of his thumb and plastered it in place.
The details on the walls, the elevator and ceilings were ornate and so very beautiful. They did a fantastic job with the renovation if you ask me.
I got to be the Little Mermaid, even though I bet my husband says I look like a cylon. (it’s an inside joke)
Look at Costumes:
These costumes are from The Little Mermaid
These costumes are from Mary Poppins
And Try on head pieces from The Lion king and other hats from other productions
I had such a great time back stage at the New Amsterdam Theater. You might remember that I love to try on costumes and get dressed up. Learning about the history of the theater was interesting and getting to play around with everything was priceless. Some things that looked incredibly heavy were actually lighter than air. And it makes sense, how can a dancer jump around the stage while singing if they have to worry about losing parts of their costumes. Which reminds me, each costume is tailored to fit the cast member specifically. Once you are in you shouldn’t lose or gain any weight and forget about changing your hair at all. If you change your hair then how would your head piece fit. Ready for some fun? Can you guess what this costume is?
Travel and Expenses were covered by Disney/DreamWorks.
That tour was totally amazing!
The place looks amazing. I love old architecture.