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Jim Gatens works at the Theatre Development Fund's half-price ticket booth on Duffy Square at 47th Street and Broadway. In the last year, Jim has noticed a big increase in the number of foreigners among the ticket booth's clientele. He, too, has found that the overseas crowd goes mainly for musicals. He notes that Black musicals such as Ain't Misbehavin' and Eubie are especially popular with Western Europeans. In his dealings with foreigners, Jim reports only minor language difficulties. "They'll ask for shows that aren't on the board and we explain they should try the box office for that particular show because it's doing well and doesn't have to use the ticket booth. Sometimes it isn't easy – but for the most part, they all speak some broken English. We all do a lot of pointing and eventually we manage to make ourselves understood."

One of the most interesting developments to have come out of the influx of foreign theatregoers is the phenomenon of the "foreign hit" – the Broadway show that does heavy overseas business. Two cases in point are Oh! Calcutta! and Dancin'.

Lennie Cobb – Treasurer of the Broadhurst Theatre where Dancin' is playing – is in constant touch with the box office. He estimates that on certain performances (weekends in particular), upwards of eighty percent of the audience is not from the United States. Needless to say, with Dancin' now into its second Broadway year, Cobb is pleased with the situation. "Thank God for them," he says, referring to all the foreign Dancin'-goers. "They've kept this show really healthy. Frankly, I don't think we would've lasted this long without the foreign trade."

Since Dancin' has no plot, practically no dialogue, and therefore presents no language problem, the show is made-to-order for Broadway's in-town overseas market. Aware of this fact, the producers of Dancin' have recently started to aim their promotional efforts directly at the overseas tourist. Right now, for example, a full-page ad for the show runs in some 20,000 special issues of Cue Magazine that are distributed in New York City hotels. The ad states very simply that "You don't have to speak English to love Dancin'". . .and says so in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and Arabic!


[[image – photo: a woman in a coat stands next to a man in a jacket and an open collared shirt. Behind them is the poster for the show – it says on it: "Dancin'" with a graphic of well-dressed torsos, arms and legs in a bit of a tangle.]
[[credit]] FRAN REEVE [[/credit]]
[[Caption]] A young German couple at Dancin' [[/Caption]] 

Ron Nash – Stage Manager for Oh! Calcutta! at the Edison Theatre – admits that part of his show's foreign appeal has to do with the musical's legendary nudity. This is especially true for certain groups – such as the Japanese – whose own countries have laws forbidding nudity in public. But Ron feels that more than nudity is responsible for the success of the revival of Oh! Calcutta!. "This show's played all over the world for the past eleven years," Ron says. "It's practically like Coca-Cola – it's got an international name. So when they come to New York, they've already heard of the show. It's one of the city's attractions that they want to check out – just like they want to check out the Empire State Building. The fact that it's on Broadway makes it that much more attractive."

Unlike Dancin', however, Oh! Calcutta! – with comedy sketches by authors such as Jules Feiffer, Sam Shephard, John Lennon, Dan Greenburg, Leonard Melfi – sometimes requires a knowledge of English. To make following the on-stage action easier for non-English speakers, Oh! Calcutta! may be the first – and only – show on Broadway to make available free synopses of its scenes in five languages. This is just one of the shows many friendly gestures towards its foreign audience. Some of the others include wel-

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