BWW Exclusive: Counting Down to Jennifer Ashley Tepper's UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY Book - The Marquis Theatre

To celebrate the publication of The Untold Stories of Broadway on November 12 by Dress Circle Publishing, Jennifer Ashley Tepper will be sharing three short excerpts about each of the Broadway theaters featured in the book-countdown style! Today: The Marquis Theatre!

THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY: Tales from the World's Most Famous Theaters, Volume 1 (Dress Circle Publishing. 350 pages, $19.99) by author and musical theater historian Jennifer Ashley Tepper is the first book to recount the backstage drama of Broadway's greatest shows at eight iconic theaters. To order, click here.

Using firsthand accounts from some of the biggest names in Broadway history, the book provides a look behind the curtains of the Al Hirschfield, August Wilson, Lyceum, Mark Hellinger, Marquis, Neil Simon, Richard Rodgers, and Winter Garden Theaters.

This book is the first in a multi-volume series that will examine 40 legendary Broadway theaters in total. THE UNTOLD STORIES OF BROADWAY also includes an exclusive Broadway theater map designed by Broadway artist, Justin "Squigs" Robertson. A portion of the proceeds from the book will benefit Broadway Impact, an organization of theater artists and fans mobilized in support of marriage equality. It will be available on amazon.com and in select bookstores on November 12, in both hard copy and Kindle.

Did You Know:

The Marquis has a "phantom box office" and a "phantom escalator"?

Austin Nathaniel, House Manager

The most interesting thing about the Marquis is the old escalators that are sort of half there and half not-there anymore. When you'd walk into the front parking area at the Marquis, there were two escalators. Those were sort of the main entrance to the theater. They were connected to the old box office. At some point those escalators were removed-but only the lower half of them!

The upper halves of the old escalators are still there. They're locked off from the public, but they're in the theater space. If you work at the Marquis, you can eat lunch in this creepy landing on the top section of the abandoned escalators, with big windows and a view of Times Square all right there.

The box office for the Marriott Marquis Theatre is currently on 46th Street, near Broadway. But before that, the box office was on Broadway, with an entrance right in Times Square.

There is a "phantom escalator," no longer in use, that leads from the old box office location to the theater. Peering into the old box office area now, you can see boxes, ladders, and dust.

In 2006, the TKTS booth in Duffy Square closed and the new, sturdy structure with the red steps that we have today was built. During construction, TKTS temporarily relocated to a spot in the Marquis, near 46th Street. At this point, the mural in the hotel breezeway, heretoforth celebrating classic Broadway shows, was redone so that The Drowsy Chaperone might have some pull at the booth.

When TKTS moved back to their regular location, the Marquis Theatre commandeered the area they had cleared for a new box office. This is now coupled with a new Marquis marquee, opposite the Lunt-Fontanne. The bold red signage for the theater leads into the hotel breezeway, which is now always plastered with a mural advertising a current show at the Marquis or another theater nearby.

Did You Know:

A day in the life of a Broadway door man is never dull?

Rey Concepcion, Door Man

During Follies (2011), Jan Maxwell was a bit of a practical jokester. One time, the night door man, Cisco, accidentally cut someone on the knee with a knife, and Jan came down and gave him a safety kit and some plastic knives.

During The Goodbye Girl (1993), Carol Woods and Scott Wise used to love fighting with water guns. You had to walk around with an umbrella.

With Ricky Martin in Evita (2012), the audiences were crazy. We had one guy who was drunk and started screaming that Ricky was gay, during a performance. There was a young lady who decided to jump on stage and go after him and grab him. And at our stage door, there was hair-pulling, and pushing, and shoving, because they wanted to see Ricky. It reminded me of one time during The Capeman (1998), when a young lady wanted to bite Marc Anthony's neck!

But on the flipside, sometimes the stage door is great. There was this one person that made me laugh so much. Reba McEntire came out the stage door after Annie Get Your Gun(1999). And he yelled out, with a nice Southern accent, "Reba! We named our horse after you!"

During Me and My Girl (1986), my first Broadway show, Jim Dale had a swordplay sequence. One day, he threw up his sword and missed-and the sword ended up in the pit. A little old lady came running up! She was very short, maybe 4'9", and real slowly and gently she said, "Are you alright down there?" The mic picked it up! It made the whole audience explode with laughter. And thank God everybody was alright!

Did You Know:

Gavin Creel practically lived at the Marquis for a few years?

Gavin Creel, Actor

The great thing about show business is that it's very small. Even though it's a big industry and a huge tourist attraction of New York City, theatre is actually a really small community of people, where loyalty is valued and rewarded.

It was so neat because at the time that Millie closed, I didn't even know I was going to be doing La Cage (2004), the next show to go into the theater! To this day, I can't remember who worked on which show. I see people and I go: Did we do Millie or La Cage? Because to me it was like I left for a bit, and then came back again to the same place.

It was neat to see Rey Concepcion and the gang all there, you know? The same people at the door, the same crew guys that stay with the theater, and just the same family. There were musicians that played both Millie and La Cage and also David Calhoun, the house manager. Kim, who was the associate house manager at the time of Millie, went on to become the house manager at the Al Hirschfeld when I did Hair over there.

That's what it's like on Broadway. You watch people grow up and expand and get promoted and they stay in the community. There were ushers who were like, "Oh, I loved you in Millie and I'm so glad you're back!" It's a lucky thing.

I feel very lucky that the community is what it is, but it doesn't begin and end with the actors. It's house managers and ushers and the people who clean the theaters. You know them. You recognize their faces. It's awesome.

To order, click here. Founded in 2011 by Brisa Trinchero and Roberta Pereira, Dress Circle Publishing is the only publisher dedicated solely to producing books with Broadway themes. Dress Circle Publishing is eager to discover and promote new literary voices among new or established authors who are actively working in show business. For more information on Dress Circle Publishing, click here.

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