Crane’s ‘The Bridge’ inspires musical theatre production
Brooklyn Historical Society, Columbia Arts Team Present Piece that Explores Building of Brooklyn Bridge
Famed poet Hart Crane’s “The Bridge,” among the most celebrated, enduring tributes to the Brooklyn Bridge, has inspired a new piece of art that explores the building of the great landmark that has come to define and symbolize Brooklyn. From Oct. 15 to 17, Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) and Columbia Arts Team will present a workshop production — and the New York City premiere — of Matt Marks’ and Liv Cummins’ “The Bridge,” which examines the building of the bridge through Crane’s epic poem.
Marks and Cummins wrote the piece while they were graduate students at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Both were first drawn to the story when they saw a plaque on the bridge’s Brooklyn tower, which begins: “Dedicated to the memory of Emily Warren Roebling.” This prompted questions about who Emily was as an individual and what her involvement was in the engineering of the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1870s.