Early theatre in New York , built in 1798 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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.
Birth of the musical and post-Civil War Theatre in New York moved from
Downtown gradually to
Midtown Manhattan, beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate. At 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. but
Laura Keene's "musical burletta"
The Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. '' (1866), considered by some historians to be the first musical.
Poster for the 1873 revival by
The Kiralfy Brothers. 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 the Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy". 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 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 a few exceptions, compared with London runs, until
World War I. Beginning with
The Red Mill, Broadway shows installed electric signs outside 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 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.
Competing with motion pictures and
Knickerbocker Theatres ("Listen, Lester", visible at lower right, played the Knickerbocker from December 23, 1918, to August 16, 1919), a sign pointing to
Maxine Elliott's Theatre, which is out of view on 39th Street, and a sign advertising the
Winter Garden Theatre, which is out of view at 50th Street. All but the Winter Garden are demolished. The old
Metropolitan Opera House and the old
Times Tower are visible on the left. The motion picture mounted 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 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 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 the vein of Victor Herbert. Live theatre has survived the invention of cinema.
Between the wars 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 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 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 was
Lillian Hellman's
Watch on the Rhine, which opened in April 1941.
Postwar era 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, 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."
Decline in late 1960s 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, 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 the 1920s, there were 70–80 theaters; however, 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.
Resurgence in early 1980s In early 1982,
Joe Papp, 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 the effort. The legislation would have provided certain U.S. government resources and assistance to help the city preserve the 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. 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 set a target that Broadway theaters should be allowed to reopen on September 14. The League confirmed that performances would 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 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 aged 12+ to provide proof of full
COVID-19 vaccination. Those under age 12 were required to provide 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 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 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, while the Lena Horne Theatre was rededicated that November. While existing musicals and revivals continued with acceptable returns post-2021, most newly-created musicals have struggled in the post-coronavirus era. As of September 2025, just three post-2021 musicals reported profits:
MJ,
& Juliet, and
Six. Various explanations have been offered. Putting on a musical is substantially more expensive than earlier, with more money tied up in salaries, equipment, rent, and fees; but ticket prices have not risen proportionately. The pandemic meant a glut of shows were written and waiting to be performed, then all competed with each other for attention in a short period. ==Description==