Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

How I Fell in Love with Broadway

24 Mar 2025 · 1 min

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In this first-person narrative, the speaker recounts their early, formative experiences with Broadway. Growing up, they helped their father at his camera store in Greenwich Village, which allowed them to save enough money to stand in the TKTS half‑price ticket line. Without internet guidance, they would randomly select shows—such as the non‑musical Torch Song Trilogy—often ending up in the farthest seats. Despite the cheap view, witnessing world‑class performers onstage felt magical and transformed Broadway from a distant fantasy into a personal passion.

Chapters

Broadway was a fantasy, and it's a dream, and not something I could ever imagine being a part of. I mean, Broadway was rarefied to me. I would go to work with my dad on Sundays. He had a camera store in the Village, in Greenwich Village. And I would earn enough money, miraculously— thank you, Dad— to go stand on the TKTS line, the half-price ticket line. And then, you know, these were days before internet, so you didn't know what you got. So you would go and see a show like Torch Song Trilogy. Well, that has song in the title, so that's probably a musical. That's not a musical. It was not an appropriate show for me to see. So only— Everything. And of course, I had the worst seats in the theater, all the way, all the way, all the way in the back. But just to be part, just to, you know, have an experience that you got to see the best people in the world doing it was magical for me.