Special Reports

Five Broadway-Themed Fourth of July Picnics to Which You Can Invite Tom Hanks, Holland Taylor, and Bette Midler

Add a dash of Broadway spice to your traditional Fourth of July picnic.

New York City

To aid your party-planning for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday, TheaterMania has fused together the two greatest examples of American spirit and ingenuity: picnics and Broadway.
To get your Independence Day celebration started, we have a few suggestions for how to put together the best all-American Broadway-themed picnics. And since Lucky Guy, Ann, and I’ll Eat You Last will have finished their Broadway runs by the 4th, Tom Hanks, Holland Taylor, and Bette Midler are free to serve as your all-American Broadway-themed guests! (Maybe Taylor will even ride up on her Ann Richards motorcycle!)

Newsies
Pack up your apple pie (an American favorite since the New York newsboys were storming the streets of Manhattan) in a turn-of-the-century courier bag. Throw in some newspaper napkins and you’ve got yourself a picnic that Jack Kelly couldn’t refuse.

Rock of Ages
So you’re too busy rocking out to Journey to prepare food for your picnic? No worries. Order a Domino’s pizza and track its progress with a hair metal tracker! Pair your pizza with some Minutemaid (wine) coolers and you’re good to go. (If you don’t have an appropriately hair-metal tablecloth, Bon Jovi might be able to help you out.)

Motown
Get ready for your Motown the Musical-themed picnic with plates that look like old-fashioned vinyl records (remember them?), a checkered tablecloth, and a Detroit-style Coney dog. As a bonus, pick up the newly released Motown The Musical original Broadway cast recording
and rock out to your favorite hits.

Annie
You won’t need a New Deal if the sun’ll come out for your Annie-themed picnic, complete with Depression-era patchwork tablecloth, fancy-schmancy Daddy Warbucks goblets, and peppermint sticks (as in “And oh, what a fix”).

Chicago
Someone’s bound to know a whoopee spot (where the gin is cold and the piana’s hot) for your Chicago-style feast, complete with a sparkly red tablecloth and a cake in the shape of a Fosse-eqsue bowler hat. And what better to recline on than black-and-white-striped pillows: a perfect match for your highly fashionable Cook County prison garb? Hot-cha.