Broadway (theater)
Under the Broadway [ bɹɑːdweɪ ] in New York City means the theater district in Midtown Manhattan at Times Square between the 41st and 53rd Street and between the Sixth and Ninth Avenue . There are 41 large theaters in this area . A “large” theater can accommodate 500 or more spectators, most Broadway theaters have well over a thousand seats. Theaters in the “Theater District” of Manhattan and the rest of the city with fewer than 500 seats are now referred to as Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway theaters . Broadway theaters typically do not have a repertoire system, but only show one musical or one play , and this several times a day. The playing time of these pieces is usually not fixed (exception: so-called "strictly limited runs"), but depends on the assessment by critics and the audience. Broadway is also known as "The Great White Way" because of the lavish lighting in the street and square.
story
Empire theater
The first theater to move from the previous theater district in Herald Square to Times Square was the Empire Theater. The impresario Charles Frohman , who died in the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 , had the building built in 1893 with around 1000 seats. It was directly opposite the Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1883 , at its old location between 39th and 40th Streets.
Theatrical Syndicate
With Frohman a new era began in many ways. Not only did he own six in New York in 1915, five in London, and over 200 theaters across the United States, but he also changed the nature of the theater business. Together with other businessmen, he founded the Theatrical Syndicate in 1896 . While actors previously designed their tours through the USA according to their own ideas, theater managers, producers and actors have now been able to plan their dates safely in advance. This allowed Frohman and the other theater owners to cast a play with actors according to their own ideas. The result was a system that was later referred to in film as the star system .
Theaters founded
Broadway saw a large number of new theaters between 1910 and 1930. The oldest continuously operating theater from this period is the Lyceum , which opened on November 2, 1903 . It was initially called the New Lyceum Theater as the original Lyceum Theater from 1885 on 45th Street and Broadway was demolished for the new building. It was also the first Broadway theater to have electric lighting throughout, installed by Thomas Alva Edison .
Crisis and New Deal
The Great Depression in the 1930s and the rise of talkies brought Broadway into a serious crisis and required a reorientation of the theater. As part of the so-called New Deal , between 1935 and 1939 there was financial aid of over 46 million dollars to finance more than a thousand productions.
The creation of the Tony Awards in 1947 reflected the desire of Broadway theaters to improve the quality of their plays. In the 1940s, new off-Broadway theaters in Greenwich Village began to appear to appeal to new audiences.
Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway
In addition to Broadway theaters, there are around 1,500 off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway performances each year . Originally, the division of Broadway into Off- and Off-Off-Broadway was to be taken literally: Broadway theaters were located directly on the "Great White Way", off-Broadway stages were a little apart, and completely outside the "theater district" it's off-off Broadway theater. The further the distance from Broadway, the cheaper the theaters were to rent. Off-Broadway productions, for example, often served as a test run for new pieces that were transferred to Broadway if they were successful (such as Hair or A Chorus Line ) . This division of the venues has changed since then: A New York theater is today - even if it is a little away from Broadway - a Broadway theater if it has more than 500 seats; with a capacity of between 100 and 500 spectators, one speaks of an off-Broadway theater, including an off-off-Broadway theater.
Theatrical death, departure
Broadway theater died out in the 1980s, but urban development, austerity, and the signing of big names overcame the crisis. In 1988 the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission decided to give most of the historic theaters the status of "Historic Sites".
Broadway's stage industry, traditionally the country's most important and top-selling industry, has always been a primary resource and test track for film material for the Hollywood film industry. Countless Hollywood scripts are adaptations of successful Broadway stage plays.
The personal ties between Broadway and Hollywood are also considerable. Despite the wide differences in the profile of these two professions, many film actors began their careers as stage actors on Broadway, including Groucho Marx , Charlton Heston , Robert Redford , Orson Welles , Katharine Hepburn , Burt Lancaster , James Dean , Marlon Brando , Gene Hackman and Grace Kelly . Others first became known in Hollywood and then occasionally tried their hand at Broadway, such as Elizabeth Taylor and Angela Lansbury .
Successful musicals on Broadway
Great Broadway successes (selection):
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Theater building and current productions
Note: If a theater is currently not showing a play, the next scheduled play is indicated and the date is marked with an asterisk (*) If the next planned piece has not yet been officially announced, the relevant fields will be left blank. The number of available seats refers to the corresponding information in the Internet Broadway Database .
| theatre | address | Places | Owner / operator | Current piece | Type | opening | graduation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al Hirschfeld Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 302) | 1424 | Jujamcyn Theater | Moulin Rouge | musical | July 25, 2019 | open |
| Ambassador Theater | W. 49th St. (No. 219) | 1125 | Shubert Organization | Chicago | musical | November 14, 1996 | open |
| American Airlines Theater | W. 42nd St. (No. 227) | 740 | Roundabout Theater Company | The Rose Tattoo | play | October 15, 2019 * | December 8, 2019 |
| August Wilson Theater | W. 52nd St. (No. 245) | 1228 | Jujamcyn Theater | Mean girls | musical | April 8, 2018 | open |
| Belasco Theater | W. 44th St. (No. 111) | 1018 | Shubert Organization | Girl From the North Country | musical | March 5, 2020 * | open |
| Bernard B. Jacobs Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 242) | 1078 | Shubert Organization | Betrayal | Play | September 5, 2019 * | December 8, 2019 |
| Booth Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 222) | 766 | Shubert Organization | Freestyle Love Supreme | musical | October 2, 2019 * | 5th January 2020 |
| Broadhurst Theater | W. 44th St. (No. 235) | 1186 | Shubert Organization | Jagged Little Pill | musical | December 5, 2019 * | open |
| Broadway Theater | W. 53rd St & Broadway (No. 1681) | 1761 | Shubert Organization | King Kong | musical | November 8, 2018 | 18th August 2019 |
| Brooks Atkinson Theater | W. 47th St. (No. 256) | 1094 | Nederlander Organization | Waitress | musical | April 24, 2016 | 5th January 2020 |
| Circle in the Square Theater | W. 50th St. (No. 235) | 840 | independently | Oklahoma! | musical | April 7, 2019 | 19th January 2020 |
| Cort Theater | W. 48th St. (No. 138) | 1084 | Shubert Organization | Derren Brown: Secret | Play | September 15, 2019 * | 4th January 2020 |
| Ethel Barrymore Theater | W. 47th St. (No. 243) | 1096 | Shubert Organization | The inheritance | Play | November 17, 2019 * | open |
| Eugene O'Neill Theater | W. 49th St. (No. 230) | 1066 | Jujamcyn Theater | The Book of Mormon | musical | March 24, 2011 | open |
| Gerald Schoenfeld Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 236) | 1079 | Shubert Organization | Come from away | musical | March 12, 2017 | open |
| Gershwin Theater | W. 51st St. (No. 222) | 1933 | Nederlander Organization | Wicked | musical | October 30, 2003 | open |
| Helen Hayes Theater | W. 44th St. (No. 240) | 597 | Second stage theater | What the Constitution Means To Me | Play | March 31, 2019 | August 24, 2019 |
| Hudson Theater | W. 44th St. (No. 141) | 975 | Ambassador Theater Group | Sea Wall / A Life | Play | August 8, 2019 * | 29th September 2019 |
| Imperial Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 249) | 1443 | Shubert Organization | Ain't too proud | musical | March 21, 2019 | open |
| John Golden Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 252) | 805 | Shubert Organization | Slave play | Play | October 6, 2019 * | 5th January 2020 |
| Longacre Theater | W. 48th St. (No. 220) | 1091 | Shubert Organization | The Prom | musical | 15th November 2018 | 11th August 2019 |
| Lunt-Fontanne Theater | W. 46th St. (No. 205) | 1519 | Nederlander Organization | Manilow Broadway | concert | 26th July 2019 | 17th August 2019 |
| Lyceum Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 149) | 922 | Shubert Organization | Be more chill | musical | March 10, 2019 | 11th August 2019 |
| Lyric Theater | W. 43rd St. (No. 214) | 1622 | Ambassador Theater Group | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child | play | April 22, 2018 * | open |
| Majestic Theater | W. 44th St. (No. 245) | 1645 | Shubert Organization | The Phantom of the Opera | musical | January 26, 1988 | open |
| Marquis Theater | W. 46th St. (No. 210) | 1612 | Nederlander Organization | Tootsie | musical | April 23, 2019 | open |
| Minskoff Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 200) | 1710 | Nederlander Organization | The Lion King | musical | November 13, 1997 | open |
| Music Box Theater | W. 45th St. (No. 239) | 1009 | Shubert Organization | Dear Evan Hansen | musical | 4th December 2016 | open |
| Nederlander Theater | W. 41st St. (No. 208) | 1235 | Nederlander Organization | Pretty Woman : The Musical | musical | August 16, 2018 * | 18th August 2019 |
| Neil Simon Theater | W. 52nd St. (No. 250) | 1467 | Nederlander Organization | The Cher Show | musical | 3rd December 2018 | 18th August 2019 |
| New Amsterdam Theater | W. 42nd St. (No. 214) | 1747 | Disney Theatrical Group | Aladdin | musical | March 20, 2014 | open |
| Palace Theater | W. 47th St. & Broadway (No. 1564) | 1743 | Nederlander Organization | ||||
| Richard Rodgers Theater | W. 46th St. (No. 226) | 1400 | Nederlander Organization | Hamilton | musical | August 6, 2015 | open |
| St. James Theater | W. 44th St. (No. 246) | 1709 | Jujamcyn Theater | Frozen | musical | March 22, 2018 | open |
| Samuel J. Friedman Theater | W. 47th St. (No. 261) | 650 | Manhattan Theater Club | The Height of the Storm | play | September 24, 2019 * | open |
| Shubert Theater | W. 44th St. (No. 225) | 1460 | Shubert Organization | To kill a mockingbird | play | December 13, 2018 | open |
| Stephen Sondheim Theater | W. 43rd St. (No. 124) | 1055 | Roundabout Theater Company | Beautiful: The Carole King Musical | musical | January 12, 2014 | October 27, 2019 |
| Studio 54 | W. 54th St. (No. 254) | 1006 | Roundabout Theater Company | The sound inside | play | October 17, 2019 * | open |
| Vivian Beaumont Theater | W. 65th St. (No. 150) | 1080 | Lincoln Center Theater | The Great Society | play | September 6, 2019 * | November 30, 2019 |
| Walter Kerr Theater | W. 48th St. (No. 219) | 945 | Jujamcyn Theater | Hadestown | musical | 17th April 2019 | open |
| Winter Garden Theater | W. 50th St. & Broadway (No. 1634) | 1526 | Shubert Organization | Beetlejuice | musical | April 25, 2019 | open |
Web links
- The history of the great white way , by Robert Ruise, Talkin 'Broadway - Broadway 101
- The Theaters of New York , xroads.virginia.edu (English)
- The Theatrical Syndidate. wayneturney.20m.com, archived from the original on August 5, 2011 ; Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
- History of Theater in New York City , Made in NY - Mayor's Office of Film, Theater & Broadcasting
- IBDB , the Internet Broadway Database (database of historical and current Broadway stage productions)
Individual evidence
- ↑ playbill.com: Long Runs on Broadway, accessed December 21, 2012
- ↑ Lyceum Theater at IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive
- ↑ Venues at the IBDb In: InternetBroadwayDatabase.com, accessed August 26, 2011.
- ↑ Clement, Olivia. " Mean Girls Sets Broadway Dates and Theater" Playbill.com, September 6, 2017
- ↑ Clement, Olivia. " Pretty Woman Musical Finds Its Broadway Home, Sets Summer 2018 Opening" Playbill.com, November 21, 2017
- ↑ McPhee, Ryan. " Frozen Musical Sets Date for Official Broadway Opening" Playbill.com, August 23, 2017
Coordinates: 40 ° 45 ′ 21 ″ N , 73 ° 59 ′ 11 ″ W.