Front of House · Observations from a Decade on the Aisle

Over fourteen years, Denise Reich worked at more than fifty different Broadway shows, blockbusters and flops alike.

Was she an actor, stagehand or musician? No. Just an usher. The job might not have been glamorous, and the patrons might not have liked her. Nobody cares about the ushers, after all. All the same, working on Broadway was anything but boring.

From onstage bloopers to closing night parties; from irate patrons to superfans who camped out overnight and wore full costumes to the theater, Denise saw it all. She tried to save baby mice from certain death, went to cast parties while battling chicken pox, visited David Belasco’s subterranean pool, spent long evenings hunting for crystal costume beads on the set of Cats and watched desolate 42nd Street come back to life.

She can’t wait to tell you all about it.