It Happened at The Palace: A New Book By Stewart F. Lane!

I’m always late to the party! Somehow I never got word that Stewart F. Lane, visionary Broadway producer, author of Black Broadway: African Americans on the Great White Way (2015), and part-owner of the legendary Palace Theatre, the Valhalla of Vaudeville, released a new book back in October. It’s called The Palace: A History of New York’s iconic Broadway Theatre (Broad Brook Press, 2024). Like Black Broadway, it’s a sumptuous objet, rich in pictorial testimony to this incredible theatre, in addition to Stewart’s reverential chronicle.

The timing of his book is surely no accident. The Palace recently received a major overhaul. Many were worried about its safety, as the entire building was hoisted off the ground on jacks, with a new floor for retail space inserted at the ground level, seemingly a risky undertaking. But I was never worried; I know how much Stewart loves the place (it’s where I launched my book No Applause in 2005, and he gave me the grand tour).

Stewart talks about the legendary venue and his new book in this video interview, which made its way to my in-box the other day courtesy Broadway World. Watch it here.

Coincidentally, the Palace will be one of the many venues I’ll be talking about in my remarks to the Guides Association of New York City (GANYC) at their meeting tonight, and I’ll be sure to mention Stewart’s new book. You can’t talk about vaudeville in new York without talking about the Palace. Get It Happened at the Palacehere.