Good Morning, Olive: Haunted Theatres of Broadway and Beyond

by Robert Viagas

Hamlet calls death "that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns." But he's wrong. Some do return. Each night after the applause dies, the curtain falls, the audience vanishes, the cleaners dust, and the lights are killed, great theatres become dark and silent places. But not always quite empty. That's when the theatre ghosts make their entrance and strut and fret their hour upon the shadowed boards, illuminated only by the ghost light, the solitary lamp that is required to burn through the night on every Broadway stage. Many of Broadway's busiest theatres continue to be just as busily haunted by spirits, some with well-known names and histories. Good Morning, Olive (named for one of the most beautiful and temperamental of Broadway's ghosts) is about the ghosts that haunt theatres in New York and around the world. Broadway is the playground of stars, so it's probably not surprising to learn that even its ghosts are stars. Meet some of Broadway's best known—and most active—celebrity ghosts. Don't like Casper, they tend to be friendly. For the most part. There's something special about theatres, something especially conducive and welcoming to ghosts. Charles J. Adams III wrote, "By its very nature, a theatre is a vault within which every human emotion is at once imprisoned, impersonated, imitated, and elicited. Tangles of cords and ropes…tall curtains and backdrops which fade into high darkness…cubicles and trap doors and passageways." Good Morning, Olive takes readers on a tour of that world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2022

About the author

Robert Viagas was an editor at Playbill, founder of Playbill.com and author or editor of more than a dozen books on the performing arts.

Reviews

[Jim Dooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The question of "What was it like to have been in a play?" is a difficult one to answer. Like film sets, stage plays are all different because of the "people dynamics" associated with them. Although the "steps" for mounting a production or watching it from the audience may be very similar, there are only two aspects that often contain a familiar sameness. The first is the creation of indelible memories (good and bad) that remain incredibly vivid. (My brief sojourn in the theater ranks among the times when I've felt the most alive.)

The other aspect is the theater ghost.

I know that there are some theaters that don't have a reputation for being haunted, but I do think that they take some searching out. And theater people love to talk about the ghostly presences reputed to be nearby. (Even in my college days at Otterbein, the Cowan Hall theater was spoken of as being haunted by Twyla, the ghost of a distraught student whose failure to secure a prized role caused her to hurl herself from the catwalk onto the stage ... where an occasional "stain" might appear. I not only never saw Twyla in my four years there, but there is no record of a student by that name ever attending there or of such an incident occurring.)

That was why GOOD MORNING, OLIVE: HAUNTED THEATRES OF BROADWAY AND BEYOND was such a joy for me to read. The stories (and recounting of traditions) were more than just fun. They created a sense of nostalgia that took me back to rose-tinted times.

Writer Robert Viagas obviously has a great fondness for his chosen subject, and imbues the descriptions and tales with a seemingly contrasting "skeptical belief." It especially brought a smile to my face as he recounted a scent of cigar smoke in buildings that are entirely "non-smoking," as I've often caught such unexpected whiffs when visiting long-established theaters.

The incidents that Viagas relates aren't intended to make Readers into "converts." Instead, they become part of the magic of the experience. As such, I looked forward to every reading session.

In addition to stories of various haunted theaters around the world, he also describes ghosts of the past who have disappeared with the demolition of their residence. I also enjoyed his section in the book of famous ghost story plays that have graced the stage, from "Hamlet" and "Our Town" to the ending of "Les Misérables." I've added several to my Reading List.

GOOD MORNING, OLIVE: HAUNTED THEATRES OF BROADWAY AND BEYOND should be a treat for all of those who enter a theater auditorium and have a feeling of "being home."

[SundayAtDusk · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Robert Viagas looks at ghosts supposedly haunting theatres in New York, other states and other countries. He believes theatres are the perfect places for ghosts since they are very theatrical! Plus, plays and operas so often deal with death, as well as spirits from beyond. Also, individuals are often in dark theaters after closing time getting things ready for the next day's show, the perfect times for ghostly happenings.

The author is not trying to convince readers to believe the stories told, however, and he does not embellish them to make them more intriguing. He is simply telling what he was told by others, and even invites readers to contact him with ghost encounters they may have personally experienced in theatres. All and all, an interesting book to read in October. Interestingly, it also made me want to watch plays, which I am now doing at Amazon Video, where there are many plays to watch.

(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher or author.)

[Andi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to thank the publisher and Edelweiss for allowing me a chance at reviewing this book.

I've been fortunate to travel to NY twice the second time was the longer of the two trips. I met up with a friend of mine and he got us a spot scheduled for a Broadway Up Close Walking Tour. It was done by an actor and he told us a lot of stories about the theaters and touched on which ones were haunted.

Of course, I knew of the New Amsterdam, Belasco and Palace theater hauntings, but I had no idea there was others! The author went into detail - and, he included links to two videos of places he has explored! (One of which was the Belasco theater which is my favorite of haunted theaters.) The author also interviewed current (as of a year ago) actors and actresses if they had any run-ins.

The author also touched on other theaters in in the US and Europe that are haunted as well. Which I thought was super cool.

I love stuff like this, and considering that I love Broadway, this was a great cohesive / updated catalog of the Broadway haunted theaters.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a couple of interesting stories here (in particular, the title ghost), but this is a big collection of bits, baubles, pieces, and passages that never really form a whole. It gets exhausting to read because everything feels the same. There are dozens upon dozens of theatres with, basically, the same ghost: a child crying, a woman wailing, a manager who never left, cold spots, people in Victorian clothes, etc.

The most interesting passages are the one that go into detail (Olive, Houdini, Belasco), because they give us an actual story. But the vast majority of these entries are mere paragraphs, some no more than a few sentences. Theatres and ghosts are breezed through at a very quick clip, making it seem like Viagas was more interested in quantity and didn't focus enough on quality.

It's difficult to sit down and read through this book. It's best consumed in small batches (not surprising considering how much of it started as pieces of much shorter works on Playbill and the like), and I guess it could be fun for theatre kids to pass around their drama club meetings or for a theatre troupe to tell scary stories during fall rehearsals.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I overall found this book interesting, although I did skip over some of the ghosts later in the book at theatres I wasn't familiar with. I enjoyed reading about the histories of theatres, especially the ones in NYC and London. I will definitely be on the lookout for ghosts when I visit again!! Especially the cat at the Kennedy Center!!

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Audiobook.

[Jana · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little scattered and redundant at times. My biggest issue is that the man narrating the audiobook is clearly not a theater person...there were a few mispronunciations that drove me crazy.

[John Kenrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but uneven

Some enjoyable theatrical ghost stories - but some historical info is downright wrong. At one point the author says that the producer who built Broadway's Lyceum Theater died on the Titanic - when in fact he was not on that ship and lived until the 1940s. The final section discussing various plays and musicals that have ghostly characters feel like irrelevant padding. But overall a good read.