124-586: Hal Skelly ( James Harold Skelley ; May 31, 1891 – June 16, 1934) was an American Broadway and film actor. He was born James Harold Skelley in Alleghenyville, Pennsylvania to James and Martha Skelley. His family moved to Davenport, Iowa when he was four. He had four sisters and three brothers. Skelley was educated at Sacred Heart School in Davenport and St. Bede Academy in Peru, Illinois . He left home at
248-477: A 1986 renovation, when Oliver Smith redecorated the theater in a reddish color scheme. The office building is cantilevered above the auditorium. B.S. Moss's Colony Theatre opened on Christmas Day 1924 and was originally leased to Universal Pictures Corporation . Moss renovated the venue for legitimate shows and reopened it as the Broadway Theatre on December 8, 1930. The theater had several operators over
372-472: A 7:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. "curtain". The afternoon " matinée " performances are at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays and at 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. This makes for an eight-performance week. On this schedule, most shows do not play on Monday and the shows and theatres are said to be "dark" on that day. The actors and the crew in these shows tend to regard Sunday evening through Monday evening as their weekend. The Tony award presentation ceremony
496-827: A Theater Advisory Council, which included Papp. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City , Broadway theaters closed on March 12, 2020, shuttering 16 shows that were playing or were in the process of opening. The Broadway League shutdown was extended first to April, then to May, then June, then September 2020 and January 2021, and later to June 1, 2021. Then-governor Andrew Cuomo announced that most sectors of New York would have their restrictions lifted on May 19, 2021, but he stated that Broadway theatres would not be able to immediately resume performances on this date due to logistical reasons. In May 2021, Cuomo announced that Broadway theaters would be allowed to reopen on September 14, and
620-449: A booming economy and abundant creative talent kept Broadway hopping. To this day, the shows of the 1950s form the core of the musical theatre repertory." Kenrick notes that "the late 1960s marked a time of cultural upheaval. All those changes would prove painful for many, including those behind the scenes, as well as those in the audience." Of the 1970s, Kenrick writes: "Just when it seemed that traditional book musicals were back in style,
744-663: A cast. There are still, however, performers who are primarily stage actors, spending most of their time "on the boards", and appearing in screen roles only secondarily. As Patrick Healy of The New York Times noted: Broadway once had many homegrown stars who committed to working on a show for a year, as Nathan Lane has for The Addams Family . In 2010, some theater heavyweights like Mr. Lane were not even nominated; instead, several Tony Awards were given for productions that were always intended to be short-timers on Broadway, given that many of their film-star performers had to move on to other commitments. According to Mark Shenton, "One of
868-434: A challenge to the stage. At first, films were silent and presented only limited competition. By the end of the 1920s, films like The Jazz Singer were presented with synchronized sound, and critics wondered if cinema would replace live theatre altogether. While live vaudeville could not compete with these inexpensive films that featured vaudeville stars and major comedians of the day, other theatres survived. The musicals of
992-526: A company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia , and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist . The company moved to New York in 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida . During the Revolutionary War , theatre was suspended in New York City. But after
1116-552: A discount of 20 to 50%. The TKTS booths are located in Times Square , in Lower Manhattan , and at Lincoln Center . This service is run by Theatre Development Fund . Many Broadway theatres also offer special student rates, same-day "rush" or "lottery" tickets, or standing-room tickets to help ensure that their theatres are as full—and their grosses as high—as possible. According to The Broadway League , total Broadway attendance
1240-896: A few exceptions, compared with London runs, until World War I . A few very successful British musicals continued to achieve great success in New York, including Florodora in 1900–01. In the early years of the twentieth century, translations of popular late-nineteenth century continental operettas were joined by the "Princess Theatre" shows of the 1910s, by writers such as P. G. Wodehouse , Guy Bolton , and Harry B. Smith . Victor Herbert , whose work included some intimate musical plays with modern settings as well as his string of famous operettas ( The Fortune Teller (1898), Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906), and Naughty Marietta (1910)). Beginning with The Red Mill , Broadway shows installed electric signs outside
1364-527: A larger theatre. Other productions are first developed through workshops and then out-of-town tryouts before transferring to Broadway. Merrily We Roll Along famously skipped an out-of-town tryout and attempted to do an in-town tryout—actually preview performances —on Broadway before its official opening, with disastrous results. After, or even during, successful runs in Broadway theatres, producers often remount their productions with new casts and crew for
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#17328762148201488-479: A limited run at the Broadway in mid-2008, and Shrek The Musical opened at the end of that year, running for 441 performances. The musical Promises, Promises was revived in 2010 for 291 performances, followed the next year by the original production of the musical Sister Act , which had 561 performances. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons also performed at the Broadway in late 2012. Subsequently,
1612-521: A more experimental, challenging, and intimate performance than is possible in the larger Broadway theatres. Some Broadway shows, however, such as the musicals Hair , Little Shop of Horrors , Spring Awakening , Next to Normal , Rent , Avenue Q , In the Heights , Fun Home , A Chorus Line , Dear Evan Hansen , and Hamilton , began their runs Off-Broadway and later transferred to Broadway, seeking to replicate their intimate experience in
1736-539: A negative COVID-19 test (PCR within 72 hours or antigen within six hours of the performance start time). Beginning November 8, those ages 5–11 also had the option to provide proof of at least one vaccination shot. Effective December 14, in accordance with NYC's vaccination mandate, guests ages 5–11 were required to have at least one vaccination shot until January 29, 2022, where they had to be fully vaccinated. The vaccine mandate lasted until April 30, and attendees were also required to wear face masks until July 1. During
1860-1128: A new age of American playwright with the emergence of Eugene O'Neill , whose plays Beyond the Horizon , Anna Christie , The Hairy Ape , Strange Interlude , and Mourning Becomes Electra proved that there was an audience for serious drama on Broadway, and O'Neill's success paved the way for major dramatists like Elmer Rice , Maxwell Anderson , Robert E. Sherwood , Clifford Odets , Tennessee Williams , and Arthur Miller , as well as writers of comedy like George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart . Classical revivals also proved popular with Broadway theatre-goers, notably John Barrymore in Hamlet and Richard III , John Gielgud in Hamlet , The Importance of Being Earnest and Much Ado About Nothing , Walter Hampden and José Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac , Paul Robeson and Ferrer in Othello , Maurice Evans in Richard II and
1984-653: A plan to lease the Broadway, and the Yaw Theatre Corporation took over the theater. The Shubert family's Trebuhs Realty Company acquired the Broadway in July 1943. That December, Billy Rose brought his operetta Carmen Jones to the Broadway Theatre; it ran for 503 performances. The play The Tempest and the musical Memphis Bound! had brief runs in 1945, followed by a transfer of Up in Central Park that June, which lasted nine months. In mid-1946,
2108-467: A popular theater for producers of musicals because of its large seating capacity, and the large stage. Successful shows in smaller theaters have frequently transferred to the Broadway Theatre. Times Square became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression . Manhattan's theater district had begun to shift from Union Square and Madison Square during
2232-500: A rate acceptable to the producers, they may continue to run in the expectation that, eventually, they will pay back their initial costs and become profitable. In some borderline situations, producers may ask that royalties be temporarily reduced or waived, or even that performers—with the permission of their unions—take reduced salaries, to prevent a show from closing. Theatre owners, who are not generally profit participants in most productions, may waive or reduce rents, or even lend money to
2356-431: A run of 253 performances. The first theatre piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical, adding dance and original music that helped to tell the story, is considered to be The Black Crook , which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866. The production was five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and
2480-481: A show to keep it running. Some Broadway shows are produced by non-commercial organizations as part of a regular subscription season— Lincoln Center Theatre , Roundabout Theatre Company , Manhattan Theatre Club , and Second Stage Theater are the four non-profit theatre companies that currently have permanent Broadway venues. Some other productions are produced on Broadway with "limited engagement runs" for several reasons, including financial issues, prior engagements of
2604-400: A starring role alongside Barbara Stanwyck , in her first Broadway hit, the musical production Burlesque . Paramount Pictures invited the two to star in the 1929 talkie film version of the show, retitled The Dance of Life because studio executives judged the original title too risqué. Stanwyck turned down the offer, while Skelly accepted, reprising his role as "Skid Johnson". He would make
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#17328762148202728-618: A total of ten films, including the Woman Trap (1929), Behind the Make-Up (1930), and The Shadow Laughs (1933), and was also featured on two movie soundtracks. Skelly was killed in a train-auto accident in West Cornwall, Connecticut when the truck he was driving was struck by the New York to Pittsfield train of the New Haven Railroad at a crossing. News reports at the time said he
2852-565: A venue for plays under the name Burton's Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847. A riot broke out in 1849 when the lower-class patrons of the Bowery Theatre objected to what they perceived as snobbery by the upper-class audiences at Astor Place: "After the Astor Place Riot of 1849, entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper-middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for
2976-611: A wing extending 18 feet (5.5 m) along 52nd Street. The theater was to be used for vaudeville and films. By mid-1924, Moss was developing the theater, which still had no name. Moss announced in mid-December 1924 that the theater would be named the Colony, and Edwin Franko Goldman was hired to lead the Colony's orchestra. The theater cost $ 2 million to complete and was originally leased to Universal Pictures Corporation . B. S. Moss's Colony Theatre opened on December 25, 1924, with
3100-542: Is a Broadway theater at 1681 Broadway (near 53rd Street ) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . Opened in 1924, the theater was designed by Eugene De Rosa for Benjamin S. Moss, who originally operated the venue as a movie theater. It has approximately 1,763 seats across two levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization . The Broadway Theatre is one of the few Broadway theaters that
3224-470: Is an internationally prominent tourist attraction in New York City . According to The Broadway League , shows on Broadway sold approximately US$ 1.54 billion worth of tickets in both the 2022-2023 and the 2023–2024 seasons. Both seasons featured theater attendance of approximately 12.3 million each. Most Broadway shows are musicals . Historian Martin Shefter argues that "Broadway musicals, culminating in
3348-460: Is physically on Broadway. The Broadway's facade was originally designed in the Italian Renaissance style and was made of brick and terracotta. The modern facade of the theater is made of polished granite and is part of the office building at 1675 Broadway, completed in 1990. The auditorium contains an orchestra level, one balcony, and box seats. The modern design of the auditorium dates to
3472-567: Is usually held on a Sunday evening in June to fit this schedule. In recent years, some shows have moved their Tuesday show time an hour earlier to 7:00 pm. The rationale for this move was that since fewer tourists take in shows midweek, Tuesday attendance depends more on local patrons. The earlier curtain makes it possible for suburban patrons to get home by a reasonable hour after the show. Some shows, especially those produced by Disney , change their performance schedules fairly frequently depending on
3596-664: The American Ballet Theatre in 1961 and Martha Graham 's dance troupe in 1962. The musical Tovarich with Vivien Leigh and Jean-Pierre Aumont opened in 1963, as did the Obratsov Russian Puppet Theatre and the Noël Coward musical The Girl Who Came to Supper . The Broadway then hosted the Folies Bergère and the revue Zizi with Zizi Jeanmaire in 1964. The musical Baker Street and
3720-597: The American Theatre Wing , a service organization. While the League and the theatrical unions are sometimes at loggerheads during those periods when new contracts are being negotiated, they also cooperate on many projects and events designed to promote professional theatre in New York. Of the four non-profit theatre companies with Broadway theatres, all four ( Lincoln Center Theater , Manhattan Theatre Club , Roundabout Theatre Company , and Second Stage Theatre ) belong to
3844-567: The League of Resident Theatres and have contracts with the theatrical unions which are negotiated separately from the other Broadway theatre and producers. ( Disney also negotiates apart from the League, as did Livent before it closed down its operations.) The majority of Broadway theatres are owned or managed by three organizations: the Shubert Organization , a for-profit arm of the non-profit Shubert Foundation, which owns seventeen theatres;
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3968-493: The Nederlander Organization , which controls nine theatres; and ATG Entertainment , which owns seven Broadway houses. Both musicals and straight plays on Broadway often rely on casting well-known performers in leading roles to draw larger audiences or bring in new audience members to the theatre. Actors from film and television are frequently cast for the revivals of Broadway shows or are used to replace actors leaving
4092-468: The Roaring Twenties , borrowing from vaudeville, music hall , and other light entertainment, tended to ignore plot in favor of emphasizing star actors and actresses, big dance routines, and popular songs. Florenz Ziegfeld produced annual spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets and elaborate costumes, but there was little to tie the various numbers together. Typical of
4216-628: The longest-running Broadway show just before its closing in 1972. The theater also hosted the 26th Tony Awards in April 1972. The Broadway was renovated at a cost of $ 100,000 prior to the opening of the musical Dude in October 1972. The show lasted for only two weeks, and the theater's original layout was restored. The Chelsea Theater Center 's version of the operetta Candide opened in March 1974 and ran for close to two years. The theater's capacity
4340-409: The 1920s were lighthearted productions such as Sally ; Lady Be Good ; Sunny ; No, No, Nanette ; Harlem ; Oh, Kay! ; and Funny Face . Their books may have been forgettable, but they produced enduring standards from George Gershwin , Cole Porter , Jerome Kern , Vincent Youmans , and Rodgers and Hart , among others, and Noël Coward , Sigmund Romberg , and Rudolf Friml continued in
4464-622: The A.M. Zinn musical comedy company in San Francisco where his eccentric dancing ability earned him the nickname "Tumbling Harold Skelly". Always enamored with the circus, he spent a year with Barnum & Bailey . Skelly toured China and Japan with a musical comedy troupe, the Raymond Teale Company. Skelly made his Broadway debut in Fiddler’s Three (1918) and went on to appear in ten other shows on Broadway. In 1927, he played
4588-587: The Broadway as a landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The same year, the city government had enacted a law providing zoning bonuses for large new buildings in West Midtown. Following the rezoning, the Shubert Organization leased the Broadway's 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m ) site to the Rudin Organization, which constructed the 1675 Broadway office building on
4712-459: The Broadway as a movie theater, paying $ 5,000 a week for one year. The first film UA screened at the theater was Charlie Chaplin 's Monsieur Verdoux that April. The Broadway Theatre was unprofitable and closed in July 1947 due to lack of films, but it reopened in September for the New York premiere of the banned film The Outlaw starring Jane Russell . The Cradle Will Rock relocated to
4836-605: The Broadway for 4,095 performances through January 2001. During the 1990s and 2000s, The Late Show With David Letterman (produced at the nearby Ed Sullivan Theater ) often taped pranks in front of the Broadway's 53rd Street facade, which was soon filled with show posters. The Broadway's first new production of the 2000s was the musical Blast! , which opened in April 2001 and ran for 180 performances. Robin Williams hosted his Robin Williams: Live on Broadway comedy show at
4960-454: The Broadway hosted transfers of the musical Where's Charley? and the play The Green Pastures , as well as a limited engagement of the musical Oklahoma! . Mae West 's Diamond Lil had a brief run later that year. It was followed in early 1952 by Kiss Me, Kate , ANTA 's version of Four Saints in Three Acts and the all-Black revue Shuffle Along . Lee Shubert leased
5084-468: The Broadway in 2002, winning several Emmy Awards . The opera La Bohème opened the same year and ran for 228 performances, followed in 2003 by John Leguizamo 's one-man show Sexaholix . The musical Bombay Dreams had 284 performances in 2004, and the musical The Color Purple then opened in December 2005, running for 910 performances until early 2008. The acrobatic show Cirque Dreams had
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5208-546: The Broadway in March 1936 and renamed the theater Gus Edwards' Sho-Window. Edwards began showing vaudeville at the Broadway the next month, but it only lasted for two weeks. The Nuvo Mondo Motion Pictures Corporation then leased the Broadway Theatre in February 1937. The venue was renamed the Ciné Roma and began showing Italian films . Lee Shubert and Clifford Fischer took over the Broadway Theatre in December 1939, renovating
5332-522: The Broadway in early 1948, followed the same year by a limited repertory engagement by the Habimah Players, a three-week concert series, and a transfer of High Button Shoes . The Spanish revue Cabalgata opened at the theater in July 1949, running for three months. The Katherine Dunham Company performed at the Broadway in 1950, followed by Olsen and Johnson 's musical Pardon Our French , which flopped after 100 performances. In 1951,
5456-823: The Broadway later the same year. The Broadway hosted another short-lived musical in 1958, The Body Beautiful . This was followed the same year by Ballets de Paris, the Ballet Español, the Théâtre National Populaire , and the Old Vic . In addition, the Broadway hosted the Bolshoi Theatre 's version of West Side Story in early 1959. The Broadway was refurbished before the opening of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim 's musical Gypsy in May 1959. The theater hosted several musicals from 1960 to 1962, as well as
5580-536: The Broadway national tour, which travels to theatres in major cities across the country. Sometimes when a show closes on Broadway, the entire production, with most if not all of the original cast intact, is relaunched as a touring company, hence the name "Broadway national tour". Some shows may even have several touring companies out at a time, whether the show is still running in New York or not, with many companies "sitting down" in other major cities for their own extended runs. For Broadway national tours of top-tier cities,
5704-603: The Broadway orchestra is governed by an agreement with the musicians' union (Local 802, American Federation of Musicians) and The Broadway League. For example, the agreement specifies the minimum size of the orchestra at the Minskoff Theatre to be eighteen, while at the Music Box Theatre it is nine. Most Broadway shows are commercial productions intended to make a profit for the producers and investors ("backers" or "angels"), and therefore have open-ended runs (duration that
5828-539: The Broadway was among the few theaters for which the LPC denied either exterior or interior landmark status. It was also the Shuberts' only Broadway theater that was not designated as a landmark. The theater's exterior was renovated with the construction of 1675 Broadway. The musical Miss Saigon was booked for the theater in early 1990, forcing the relocation of Les Misérables . Miss Saigon opened in April 1991, running at
5952-503: The Broadway, but it was relocated to make way for the musical Saravà , which opened in March 1979 and flopped after four months. That September saw the opening of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice 's musical Evita , which lasted 1,568 performances over the next four years. By the early 1980s, the Shuberts were looking to sell adjacent land, though they did not want to demolish the theater. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started considering protecting
6076-593: The COVID-19 shutdown, the Shubert Organization, the Nederlander Organization, and Jujamcyn had pledged to increase racial and cultural diversity in their theaters, including naming at least one theater for a Black theatrical personality. The August Wilson Theatre , owned by Jujamcyn, had been renamed after Black playwright August Wilson in 2005. The Shuberts announced in March 2022 that the Cort Theatre , which
6200-564: The Cakewalk (1898), and the highly successful In Dahomey (1902). Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 1900s made up of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley involving composers such as Gus Edwards , John Walter Bratton , and George M. Cohan ( Little Johnny Jones (1904), 45 Minutes From Broadway (1906), and George Washington Jr. (1906)). Still, New York runs continued to be relatively short, with
6324-451: The Erlanger syndicate. During this time, the play Lightnin' by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon became the first Broadway show to reach 700 performances. From then, it would go on to become the first show to reach 1,000 performances. Lightnin' was the longest-running Broadway show until being overtaken in performance totals by Abie's Irish Rose in 1925. The motion picture mounted
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#17328762148206448-449: The Great Depression was unaffordable for many people. The New Yorkers closed in May 1931, after which the theater stood dark for several months. In September 1931, Moss announced that he would simultaneously present musical revues and talking pictures at the Broadway for twelve weeks. The theater then reverted to live shows. Moss sold the theater in July 1932 to Amalgamated Properties Inc. The same year, Earl Carroll took over
6572-454: The League confirmed that performances would begin to resume in the fall season. Springsteen on Broadway became the first full-length show to resume performances, opening on June 26, 2021, to 1,721 vaccinated patrons at the St. James Theatre . Pass Over then had its first preview on August 4, and opened on August 22, 2021, becoming the first new play to open. Hadestown and Waitress were
6696-592: The Opera at the Majestic Theatre became the longest-running Broadway musical, with 7,486 performances, overtaking Cats . The Phantom of the Opera closed on Broadway on April 16, 2023, soon after celebrating its 35th anniversary, after a total of 13,981 performances. Attending a Broadway show is a common tourist activity in New York. The TKTS booths sell same-day tickets (and in certain cases, next-day matinee tickets) for many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows at
6820-531: The Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy". Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 ( The Mulligan Guard Picnic ) and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham . These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from
6944-516: The Rocktopia rock concert in early 2018, followed the same year by the musical King Kong , which had 324 performances. The Broadway hosted yet another revival, West Side Story , which opened in February 2020. The theater closed on March 12, 2020 , due to the COVID-19 pandemic , and the revival of West Side Story closed permanently. The Broadway reopened on April 11, 2022, with the musical The Little Prince , which ran for one month. This
7068-532: The Shuberts acquired the 25-foot-wide (7.6 m) plot at the corner of Broadway and 53rd Street; the theater building had already been extended into the corner lot, but that part of the theater had previously been leased from the landowner. Also in 1946, the Broadway hosted transfers of the operetta Song of Norway and the play A Flag Is Born ; a season of ballet; and Duke Ellington and John La Touche 's musical Beggar's Holiday . After Beggar's Holiday closed in March 1947, United Artists leased
7192-813: The age of 15 and joined the circus. He acted in his first stage production, The Time, the Place and the Girl , at the LaSalle Theater in Chicago when he was 16. For a short period of time he was a backup first baseman for the Boston Braves and a prizefight manager. For his professional name he shortened his middle name Harold to Hal and dropped the final "e" in Skelley. Skelly became a veteran of medicine shows, musical comedy, burlesque , Lew Dockstader 's minstrels and opera. He joined
7316-488: The authors and also in numerous unlicensed productions). They were imitated in New York by American productions such as Reginald Dekoven 's Robin Hood (1891) and John Philip Sousa 's El Capitan (1896), along with operas, ballets, and other British and European hits. Charles H. Hoyt 's A Trip to Chinatown (1891) became Broadway's long-run champion when it surpassed Adonis and its 603 total performances in 1893, holding
7440-435: The beginning of the nineteenth century, the area that now comprises the Theater District was owned by a handful of families and comprised a few farms. In 1836, Mayor Cornelius Lawrence opened 42nd Street and invited Manhattanites to "enjoy the pure clean air." Close to 60 years later, theatrical entrepreneur Oscar Hammerstein I built the iconic Victoria Theater on West 42nd Street. Broadway's first "long-run" musical
7564-476: The biggest changes to the commercial theatrical landscape—on both sides of the Atlantic—over the past decade or so is that sightings of big star names turning out to do plays has [sic] gone up; but the runs they are prepared to commit to has gone down. Time was that a producer would require a minimum commitment from his star of six months, and perhaps a year; now, the 13-week run is the norm." The minimum size of
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#17328762148207688-537: The bill was not passed. The Save the Theatres campaign then turned their efforts to supporting the establishment of the Theater District as a registered historic district . In December 1983, Save the Theatres prepared "The Broadway Theater District, a Preservation Development and Management Plan", and demanded that each theater in the district receive landmark designation. Mayor Ed Koch ultimately reacted by creating
7812-422: The decade ended with critics and audiences giving mixed signals." Ken Bloom observed that "The 1960s and 1970s saw a worsening of the area [Times Square] and a drop in the number of legitimate shows produced on Broadway." By way of comparison, in the 1950 to 1951 season (May to May) 94 productions opened on Broadway; in the 1969 to 1970 season (June to May) there were 59 productions (fifteen were revivals). In
7936-407: The demolition of the old Broadway Theatre on 41st Street. The Broadway's first legitimate show, The New Yorkers by Cole Porter , opened on December 8, 1930; at the time, it was the largest Broadway theater. Moss claimed that the theater would only host shows with "a price scale that is within the reach of every man's pocketbook", but tickets for The New Yorkers cost up to $ 5.50, which during
8060-409: The depth to the front of the stage is 57 feet 4 inches (17.48 m). The stage was originally 20 feet (6.1 m) deep, but it was expanded in 1930 to 55 feet (17 m) deep by 90 feet (27 m) wide. Following these modifications, the stage also had three lifts . There were dressing rooms for 200 performers, as well as space for up to 50 stage crew members. The Broadway has long been
8184-609: The effort. At Papp's behest, in July 1982, a bill was introduced in the 97th Congress , entitled "H.R.6885, A bill to designate the Broadway/Times Square Theatre District in the City of New York as a national historic site". The legislation would have provided certain U.S. government resources and assistance to help the city preserve the district. Faced with strong opposition and lobbying by Mayor Ed Koch's Administration and corporate Manhattan development interests,
8308-580: The entire Broadway production is transplanted almost entirely intact and may run for many months (or years) at each stop. For example, the first U.S. tour of The Phantom of the Opera required 26 53-foot-long (16.1 m) semi-trailers to transport all its sets, equipment, and costumes, and it took almost 10 days to properly unload all those trucks and install everything into a theater. Broadway Theatre (53rd Street) The Broadway Theatre (formerly Universal's Colony Theatre , B.S. Moss's Broadway Theatre , Earl Carroll's Broadway Theatre , and Ciné Roma )
8432-412: The entrance, was refaced in a similar material, with contemporary and Art Deco -style decorations. There is an Art Deco marquee in front of the theater as well. The massing consists of several horizontal and vertical setbacks , inspired by the massing of 30 Rockefeller Plaza . The lower stories have recessed windows; the upper-story windows are surrounded by flame-finished granite panels, which give
8556-456: The everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward from vaudeville and burlesque, towards a more literate form. They starred high-quality professional singers ( Lillian Russell , Vivienne Segal , and Fay Templeton ), instead of the amateurs, often sex workers, who had starred in earlier musical forms. As transportation improved, poverty in New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night,
8680-468: The film The Thief of Bagdad . Soon after the theater opened, Moss installed an automated air-cooling system in the theater. The Colony began screening movies during early mornings in October 1925, starting with The Freshman . In its early years, the Colony screened Universal films such as Friendly Enemies , A Woman's Faith , The Flaming Frontier , and The Cat and the Canary . Additionally,
8804-484: The first decade of the 20th century. From 1901 to 1920, forty-three theaters were built around Broadway in Midtown Manhattan. Additionally, movie palaces became common in the 1920s between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Great Depression. The Colony Theatre, as the current Broadway Theatre on 53rd Street was originally known, was developed as a movie palace by B. S. Moss, who had previously operated
8928-463: The first musicals to resume performances on September 2, 2021. The 74th Tony Awards were also postponed; the Tony nominations were announced on October 15, 2020, and took place on September 26, 2021. On July 30, 2021, it was announced that all Broadway theaters required attendees to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination . The rule applied to guests ages 12+. Those under age 12 were required to provide
9052-551: The following shows on Broadway: Hal Skelly acted in the following films: Hal Shelly is featured on the following recordings: Broadway theater Broadway theatre , or Broadway , is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional theaters , each with 500 or more seats, in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway , in Midtown Manhattan , New York City . Broadway and London 's West End together represent
9176-426: The front of the theater was an organ that could be raised or lowered, as well as a projector in the orchestra pit . In the 2000s, the Broadway's orchestra pit was one of the largest in a Broadway theater. The proscenium opening measures about 46 feet 6 inches (14.17 m) wide and 27 feet (8.2 m) tall. The depth of the auditorium to the proscenium is 54 feet 3 inches (16.54 m), while
9300-776: The highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world . While the Broadway thoroughfare is eponymous with the district, it is closely identified with Times Square . Only three theaters are located on Broadway itself: Broadway Theatre , Palace Theatre , and Winter Garden Theatre . The rest are located on the numbered cross streets, extending from the Nederlander Theatre one block south of Times Square on West 41st Street, north along either side of Broadway to 53rd Street , and Vivian Beaumont Theater , at Lincoln Center on West 65th Street. While exceptions exist,
9424-571: The impression of depth. When 1675 Broadway was constructed, the theater's air rights were used to increase the height of the office building. The office building's seventh and eighth stories contain large trusses above the theater, which cantilever the upper stories over the theater at a depth of 45 feet (14 m). There are six trusses spanning the theater from north to south; the largest truss weighs 200 short tons (180 long tons; 180 t). The office building's ninth and tenth stories each contain 28,000 square feet (2,600 m ) of space, while
9548-470: The late 1980s. Over the years, it has hosted many long-running musicals that have transferred from other theaters, as well as other long-lasting shows such as Evita , Les Misérables , and Miss Saigon . The Broadway Theatre is at the southwest corner of Broadway and 53rd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . It is one of the few active Broadway theaters that are physically on Broadway. Its original exterior
9672-544: The middle-class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle-class." The plays of William Shakespeare were frequently performed on the Broadway stage during the period, most notably by American actor Edwin Booth who was internationally known for his performance as Hamlet . Booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865 (with
9796-439: The musical's original 1951 run. The Shuberts renovated the Broadway's interior for $ 8 million prior to the April 1986 opening of the musical Big Deal , which flopped after 70 performances. Elvis Costello hosted a rock concert that October, and the popular musical Les Misérables opened at the Broadway in March 1987. While the LPC commenced a wide-ranging effort to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters in 1987,
9920-453: The next decade, and it switched between hosting legitimate shows, movies, and vaudeville . Lee Shubert and Clifford Fischer took over the Broadway Theatre in December 1939, and the Shubert family bought the theater in 1940. Since then, the Broadway has largely been used as a legitimate theater, though it was briefly used for movies in 1947 and in 1952–1953. The Broadway was extensively rebuilt in
10044-420: The next sixteen years. However, smaller vaudeville and variety houses proliferated, and Off-Broadway was well established by the end of the nineteenth century. A Trip to Coontown (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans in a Broadway theatre (inspired largely by the routines of the minstrel shows ), followed by the ragtime -tinged Clorindy: The Origin of
10168-404: The next ten stories each contain 24,000 square feet (2,200 m ). The upper floors taper to 16,000 square feet (1,500 m ). The building has 35 stories and 750,000 square feet (70,000 m ) in total. There was mixed architectural commentary of the current building's design. Although Paul Goldberger called the building "exceptionally handsome, even dignified", another critic described
10292-491: The now-demolished Broadway Theatre on 41st Street. In 1923, the Neponsit Building Company acquired the five-story Standard Storage Warehouse and three dwellings at the corner of Broadway and 53rd Street. That July, Eugene de Rosa filed plans for a theater and office building on the site, which was to cost $ 350,000. The site measured 56 feet (17 m) on Broadway and 112 feet (34 m) on 53rd Street, with
10416-552: The number of potential patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. As in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women. Gilbert and Sullivan 's family-friendly comic opera hits, beginning with H.M.S. Pinafore in 1878, were imported to New York (by
10540-455: The orchestra, 250 at the front of the mezzanine, 584 at the rear of the mezzanine, and 20 in the boxes. In the early 20th century, the theater had 2,500 seats. When the theater opened, the balcony level was carried by a 40-short-ton (36-long-ton; 36 t) girder, supported solely by the side walls. This allowed the entire theater to be a column-free space. The Broadway Theatre was decorated ornately with marble and bronze. The color scheme
10664-556: The performers, or temporary availability of a theatre between the end of one production and the beginning of another. However, some shows with planned limited engagement runs may, after critical acclaim or box office success, extend their engagements or convert to open-ended runs. This was the case with 2007's August: Osage County , 2009's God of Carnage , 2012's Newsies , and 2022's Take Me Out . Historically, musicals on Broadway tend to have longer runs than "straight" (i.e., non-musical) plays. On January 9, 2006, The Phantom of
10788-487: The planned 43-story building in May 1970. The project would include a three-level, 1,800-seat theater as well as a shopping arcade between 52nd and 53rd Street. The Shuberts postponed this plan indefinitely in 1971 due to declining demand for office space. Meanwhile, the musical Purlie opened at the Broadway in March 1970. It was followed by Fiddler on the Roof , which transferred to the Broadway in December 1970 and became
10912-520: The play The Devils were staged in 1965, followed the next year by another musical, A Time for Singing . The Lincoln Center Theater 's production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun moved to the Broadway in September 1966, and the musical Funny Girl came at the end of the year. The Harkness Ballet performed at the Broadway for three weeks in late 1967, and the Kander and Ebb musical The Happy Time ran for 286 performances in 1968. This
11036-464: The plays of George Bernard Shaw , and Katharine Cornell in such plays as Romeo and Juliet , Antony and Cleopatra , and Candida . In 1930, Theatre Guild 's production of Roar, China! was Broadway's first play with a majority Asian cast. As World War II approached, a dozen Broadway dramas addressed the rise of Nazism in Europe and the issue of American non-intervention. The most successful
11160-463: The presence of the now-demolished Sixth Avenue elevated line on 53rd Street, the theater had soundproof double doors on that street. The modern facade of the theater (which has its own address at 1681 Broadway) is part of the 1675 Broadway office building, completed in 1990. The facade of 1675 Broadway, designed by Fox & Fowle , consists of polished granite in deep-green and greenish-gray hues. The seven-story facade on Broadway, which contains
11284-423: The production plays), meaning that the length of their presentation is not set beforehand, but depends on critical response, word of mouth, and the effectiveness of the show's advertising, all of which determine ticket sales. Investing in a commercial production carries a varied degree of financial risk. Shows need not make a profit immediately; should they make their "nut" (weekly operating expenses), or lose money at
11408-640: The productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein , became enormously influential forms of American popular culture " and contributed to making New York City the cultural capital of the world . New York City's first significant theatre was established in the mid-18th century, around 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan , which held about 280 people. They presented William Shakespeare 's plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera . In 1752, William Hallam sent
11532-605: The public, and a documentary about the New York Stock Exchange , screened that December. Moss took back the Colony Theatre in February 1930 and announced that he would begin hosting musicals there. He expanded the Colony into an adjacent parcel; according to The New York Times , "the theatre was gutted until only its four walls remained." The auditorium was also expanded to 2,000 seats. The venue became Moss's Broadway Theatre, since that name had been freed up by
11656-531: The run ending just a few months before Booth's brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln ), and would later revive the role at his own Booth's Theatre (which was managed for a time by his brother Junius Brutus Booth Jr. ). Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving , Tommaso Salvini , Fanny Davenport , and Charles Fechter . Theatre in New York moved from Downtown gradually to Midtown Manhattan , beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate. At
11780-467: The season. This is done in order to maximize access to their target audience. Most Broadway producers and theatre owners are members of The Broadway League (formerly "The League of American Theatres and Producers"), a trade organization that promotes Broadway theatre as a whole, negotiates contracts with the various theatrical unions and agreements with the guilds, and co-administers the Tony Awards with
11904-462: The site in the late 1980s. The musical Zorba with Anthony Quinn opened in October 1983 and ran for nearly a year. It was followed in November 1984 by the musical The Three Musketeers , which only lasted nine performances. In 1985, the Broadway hosted a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein 's musical The King and I ; this was the last Broadway appearance of Yul Brynner , who had starred in
12028-461: The stage for 657 performances. Chinatown itself was surpassed by the musical Irene (1919) in 1921 as the longest-running Broadway musical, and even earlier, in March 1920, by Lightnin' (1918) as the longest-running Broadway show. In 1896, theatre owners Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger formed the Theatrical Syndicate , which controlled almost every legitimate theatre in the U.S. for
12152-417: The structure as "unpleasantly monolithic". The Broadway Theatre has an orchestra, one mezzanine-level balcony, and boxes . According to the Shubert Organization, the theater has 1,763 seats. Meanwhile, Ken Bloom describes the theater as having 1,765 seats; The Broadway League gives a contrasting figure of 1,761 seats; and Playbill cites 1,738 seats. The physical seats are divided into 909 seats in
12276-434: The term "Broadway theatre" is used predominantly to describe venues with seating capacities of at least 500 people. Smaller theaters in New York City are referred to as off-Broadway , regardless of location, while very small venues with fewer than 100 seats are called off-off-Broadway , a term that can also apply to non-commercial, avant-garde , or productions held outside of traditional theater venues. The Theater District
12400-457: The theater hosted Douglas Carter Beane 's version of Cinderella , which opened in 2013 and ran for 770 performances over the next two years. The musical Doctor Zhivago had a short run in mid-2015, but a revival of Fiddler on the Roof was more successful, opening at the end of 2015 and running for a full year. Another revival to play at the Broadway was Miss Saigon , which opened in 2017 and ran for ten months. The theater then hosted
12524-438: The theater hosted a weekly "lingerie revue" with fashion models. Moss left the vaudeville business in late 1927, retaining the Colony as his only theater. In early 1928, WABC announced that it would begin broadcasting concerts from the venue on Sundays. After the film We Americans flopped in April 1928, the Colony closed temporarily, and Moss considered leasing it for vaudeville. Theatrical operator Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
12648-712: The theater in 1954, and the operetta The Saint of Bleecker Street opened there at the end of the year. The Broadway hosted several live engagements in late 1955, including those by dancer Antonio , the Comédie-Française , the Katherine Dunham Company, and the Azuma Kabuki Troupe. Next was the musical Mr. Wonderful with Sammy Davis Jr. , which opened in March 1956 and had 383 performances. The musical Shinbone Alley lasted for one month in early 1957, and The Most Happy Fella transferred to
12772-514: The theater in mid-1952 to Cinerama Productions , which added a wide screen for Cinerama films. The Broadway reopened as a Cinerama theater on September 30, 1952, with the film This Is Cinerama , which transferred to the Warner Theatre in February 1953. The venue returned to legitimate use in June 1953, hosting the final performances of the long-running musical South Pacific . Les Ballets de Paris and dancer José Greco performed at
12896-521: The theater to accommodate the Folies Bergère revue, which only ran until February 1940. The Broadway then hosted long-running musicals that had transferred from other theaters, beginning with Rodgers and Hart 's Too Many Girls in April 1940. To raise money for British soldiers during World War II, Walt Disney showed his feature film Fantasia in November 1940; it was the first Disney film rendered in Fantasound , an early stereo system. This
13020-502: The theater, which was renamed Earl Carroll's Broadway Theatre. The Broadway hosted The Earl Carroll Vanities , which featured Milton Berle , Helen Broderick , and Harriet Hoctor and ran for 11 weeks. By February 1933, Associated Artists Productions was hosting an opera series at the Broadway. Stanley Lawton then leased the theater, and the Broadway began showing vaudeville that November. The theater once again hosted opera performances in 1934. The Broadway's next legitimate show
13144-522: The theatres. Since colored bulbs burned out too quickly, white lights were used, and Broadway was nicknamed "The Great White Way". In August 1919, the Actors' Equity Association demanded a standard contract for all professional productions. After a strike shut down all the theatres, the producers were forced to agree. By the 1920s, the Shubert Brothers had risen to take over the majority of the theatres from
13268-474: The theatrical producer and director who established The Public Theater , led the "Save the Theatres" campaign. It was a not-for-profit group supported by the Actors Equity union to save the theater buildings in the neighborhood from demolition by monied Manhattan development interests. Papp provided resources, recruited a publicist and celebrated actors, and provided audio, lighting, and technical crews for
13392-461: The time, the average age of theatergoers was 40.4; nearly two-thirds of the audience were women; and 29% identified as a racial minority. The classification of theatres is governed by language in Actors' Equity Association contracts. To be eligible for a Tony, a production must be in a house with 500 seats or more and in the Theater District, which are the criteria that define Broadway theatre. Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway shows often provide
13516-558: The twenties, there were 70–80 theaters, but by 1969, there were 36 left. During this time, many Broadway productions struggled due to low attendance rates, which resulted in perceived mediocrity among such plays. For this reason, the Theatre Development Fund was created with the purpose of assisting productions with high cultural value that likely would struggle without subsidization, by offering tickets to those plays to consumers at reduced prices. In early 1982, Joe Papp ,
13640-560: The vein of Victor Herbert. Live theatre has survived the invention of cinema. Leaving these comparatively frivolous entertainments behind and taking the drama a step forward, Show Boat premiered on December 27, 1927, at the Ziegfeld Theatre . It represented a complete integration of book and score, with dramatic themes, as told through the music, dialogue, setting, and movement, woven together more seamlessly than in previous musicals. It ran for 572 performances. The 1920s also spawned
13764-685: The war's end, theatre resumed in 1798, when the 2,000-seat Park Theatre was built on Chatham Street on present-day Park Row . A second major theatre, Bowery Theatre , opened in 1826, followed by others. By the 1840s, P.T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in Lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblo's Garden opened and soon became one of New York's premier nightspots. The 3,000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmo's Opera House opened and presented opera for only four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as
13888-507: Was Lillian Hellman 's Watch on the Rhine , which opened in April 1941. After the lean years of the Great Depression , Broadway theatre had entered a golden age with the blockbuster hit Oklahoma! , in 1943, which ran for 2,212 performances. According to John Kenrick 's writings on Broadway musicals, "Every season saw new stage musicals send songs to the top of the charts. Public demand,
14012-539: Was 14.77 million in 2018–2019, compared to 13.79 million in 2017–2018. The average age of the Broadway audience in the 2017–18 theater season was 40, the lowest it had been in nearly two decades. By 2018, about 20% of Broadway tickets were sold to international visitors, although many visitors reported not being able to use their tickets. In 2022–2023, the first full season since the COVID-19 pandemic, Broadway theaters sold 12.3 million tickets, of which 35% were to local residents and 17% to international visitors. At
14136-634: Was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857. In 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square , and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square . Theatres arrived in the Times Square area in the early 1900s, and the Broadway theatres consolidated there after a large number were built around the square in the 1920s and 1930s. New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keene 's "musical burletta" The Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York records with
14260-452: Was designed in the Italian Renaissance style and was made of brick and terracotta. The exterior contained a double-height electric sign. The original building covered 15,000 square feet (1,400 m ); there was 1,150 square feet (107 m ) of office space above the theater's lobby and two stores on Broadway. In addition, there was a wrought-iron ticket booth. There were 18 exits, allowing it to be evacuated within three minutes. Due to
14384-413: Was followed by transfers of the musicals Cabaret and Mame from other theaters. In late 1969, the Shuberts proposed razing the Broadway and constructing a skyscraper with a theater at its base. The project would use a zoning bonus that allowed office-building developers to erect theaters in exchange for additional office space. The New York City Planning Commission approved a zoning permit for
14508-636: Was followed in 1942 by the Irving Berlin musical This Is The Army ; a season of productions from the New Opera Company ; and a transfer of the comedy My Sister Eileen . In 1943, the Broadway hosted the musical Lady in the Dark , the operetta The Student Prince , and performances by the San Carlo Opera Company in repertory. The same year, theatrical operator Michael Todd reneged on
14632-435: Was largely composed of gold, white, bronze, and gray decorations. One critic described the theater as having pink and gold decorations, crystal lighting, and soft carpets. In the mid-20th century, the theater was repainted in a blue color scheme, which set designer Oliver Smith likened to "a coal mine". Smith redecorated the theater in a reddish color scheme in 1986, since he felt red was the "color that arouses emotion". At
14756-434: Was negotiating to lease the Colony that June, but he initially balked because he considered the $ 225,000 annual rent to be too expensive. By that August, Ziegfeld had tentatively agreed to lease the Colony for musical productions and renovate the theater. Meanwhile, the Colony resumed screenings during late 1928. Among those were Steamboat Willie , screened that November as the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to be released to
14880-438: Was reduced to 900 seats to accommodate the production. This was followed in July 1976 by a version of the musical Guys and Dolls with an all-Black cast; it lasted until the next February. Greek singer Nana Mouskouri then performed at the Broadway in April 1977. Another all-Black musical, The Wiz , moved to the Broadway in mid-1977 and stayed for one-and-a-half years. The musical I Remember Mama had been booked at
15004-511: Was staying with friends and he was looking for a dog that had run away. His widow, Eunice, brought his body back to New York City for the funeral, which was held in the Actor's Chapel at Saint Malachy's Catholic Church in Manhattan . His mother and his brother Hugh accompanied the body back to Davenport for burial at St. Marguerite's Cemetery, now known as Mount Calvary Cemetery . Hal Skelly acted in
15128-659: Was the operetta The O'Flynn , which opened in December 1934 and closed after a week. The Broadway Theatre was leased to the Chasebee Theatre Corporation in August 1935 as part of a receivership proceeding against the Prudence Company. The theater then switched once more to showing films, reopening as B. S. Moss's Broadway Theatre on October 12, 1935. The Broadway screened double features accompanied by short stage shows. The vaudevillian Gus Edwards leased
15252-490: Was to have been followed in late 2022 by a series of concerts performed by rock band Weezer , but the concerts were canceled in August 2022 because of poor ticket sales. The musical Here Lies Love opened at the theater in July 2023 and closed after four months. The musical The Great Gatsby opened at the Broadway in April 2024. Productions are listed by the year of their first performance.This list only includes Broadway shows; it does not include films presented at
15376-639: Was under renovation at the time, would be renamed after actor James Earl Jones . In June 2022, the Nederlanders announced that the Brooks Atkinson Theatre would be renamed after Lena Horne , The James Earl Jones Theatre was rededicated in September 2022, while the Lena Horne Theatre was rededicated that November. Although there are some exceptions, shows with open-ended runs generally have evening performances Tuesday through Saturday, with
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