Herbert J. Krapp (1887–1973) was a 20th-century theatre architect and designer , notable for his contributions to Broadway theater district architecture. Known for his innovative approach to design, his built work favors width, rather than depth, to create better sightlines for an "intimate theatre" experience.
140-677: The Neil Simon Theatre , originally the Alvin Theatre , is a Broadway theater at 250 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . Opened in 1927, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley . The original name was an amalgamation of Aarons's and Freedley's first names; the theater was renamed for playwright Neil Simon in 1983. The Neil Simon has 1,467 seats across two levels and
280-472: 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
420-839: 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
560-449: 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,
700-400: A broken pediment with scrolls flanking an urn. Above the pediment, there are colonettes with female grotesques , which extend upward to the entablature that surrounds the auditorium. Next to the boxes is a flat proscenium arch, which consists of fluted Ionic pilasters on either side of the opening, as well as an entablature above. The entablature contains an Adam-style frieze. Above the arch
840-428: A capacity of 1,467 seats and Playbill cites 1,380 seats. The theater originally had a capacity of 1,400 seats, with 702 in the orchestra, 674 in the balcony, and 24 in the boxes. An article from 1967 described the theater as having 1,363 seats for musicals and 1.334 seats for plays. The auditorium initially had a color scheme of ivory, blue, gray, and gold, with lavender or mulberry draperies. White paint covers many of
980-663: 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
1120-434: 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
1260-540: 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
1400-692: A depth of 100 ft (30 m). The Neil Simon shares the block with the Mark Hellinger Theatre and Gallagher's Steakhouse to the east. Other nearby buildings include the August Wilson Theatre to the north; the Broadway Theatre and 810 Seventh Avenue to the northeast; Axa Equitable Center to the east; the Winter Garden Theatre to the southeast; and Paramount Plaza (including Circle in
1540-565: 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
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#17327756229371680-906: 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
1820-510: A fireplace. Four "retiring rooms" led off the lounge, which included men's and women's smoking rooms. The lounge's ceiling has an oval dome with plasterwork decorations; a central chandelier; and a cornice, which intersects with the dome. From the mezzanine lounge, staircases lead down to the north, connecting with the inner lobby, and south, connecting with the orchestra. There are rectangular coffers above either staircase, with crystal chandeliers and surrounding cornices. The southern staircase has
1960-475: A general contract for the theater's construction to the O'Day Construction Company that March. By October 1927, Aarons and Freedley had leased the theater and planned to stage George and Ira Gershwin 's musical Funny Face , starring Fred and Adele Astaire . The Alvin opened on November 22, 1927, with Funny Face ; that show ran for 250 performances. Brooks Atkinson , the theater critic for The New York Times , wrote: "If Funny Face had been less engrossing,
2100-696: A hearing on whether a hotel developed by Silverstein Properties could be cantilevered over the Neil Simon. A dance troupe of Don Cossacks from Russia had a limited engagement at the Neil Simon in January 1990, That October, comedian Jackie Mason launched his solo series Brand New , which ran for eight months. Another Simon play opened at his namesake theater in March 1992, Jake's Women , which had 245 performances amid mixed reception. The next November,
2240-532: 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
2380-528: A metal railing. These staircases were placed in the lounge, rather than within the auditorium itself, to minimize disruption from latecomers. The auditorium has an orchestra level, one balcony, boxes , and a stage behind the proscenium arch. The auditorium space is designed with plaster decorations and is nearly square in plan. According to the Nederlander Organization, the auditorium has 1,445 seats; meanwhile, The Broadway League cites
2520-526: 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
2660-539: 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
2800-1152: 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
2940-405: A pair of chorus "rest rooms" and a rehearsal room. The ceiling contains groin vaults on the side walls, separated by ribs with plasterwork decorations. At the front of the auditorium is a recessed circular dome encircled by ornamental bands, with a crystal chandelier hanging from a central medallion. Behind the dome, the ceiling is divided into panels with Adam-style plasterwork decorations. Above
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#17327756229373080-680: A potential 1,467 in preparation for its next engagement: the musical Hairspray , which opened in August 2002. Hairspray set the house record for the theater, closing at the beginning of 2009. Robin Williams was to perform his comedy tour Weapons Of Self-Destruction at the Neil Simon in April 2009, but he canceled his engagement after undergoing surgery. A revival of Ragtime was booked instead, opening in November 2009. Ragtime failed to repeat
3220-500: 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
3360-431: 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
3500-481: 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
3640-759: A single, integrated design." His functional innovations include orchestra-level stadium seating , and single, rather than double, balconies above it. He favored neoclassical façades, incorporating elements, such as ornamental iron balconies, patterned brickwork and grilles , as well as decorative pilasters , cornices , arches and frieze . A frequent user of the Adam style , sometimes complemented with Elizabethan , Mediterranean , Mission or other revival elements, Krapp's interiors made regular use of recessed ceilings, wall columns and ornamental wall panels , decorated with floral or geometric motifs. Sometime between 1912 and 1916, in addition to designing theatres for
3780-441: A terracotta entablature and pediment on the fifth floor, as well as a cornice above that story. Whereas the eastern (left) pavilion is capped by a parapet , the western (right) pavilion rises for another story, the same height as the stage house. The stage house is to the right of the auditorium. Vertical terracotta bands and quoins split the stage house into sections with one, three, and one bays from left to right. The windows of
3920-757: A tour in mid-1940. The next year, the Alvin hosted Ira Gershwin, Moss Hart , and Kurt Weill 's psychiatry-themed musical Lady in the Dark ; featuring Gertrude Lawrence, it had 467 performances. The Alvin hosted Porter's musical Something for the Boys with Ethel Merman in January 1943, appearing for 422 performances. Something for the Boys closed to make way for the musical Jackpot , which ran 67 performances. The Alvin's productions in 1944 and 1945 were mostly quick failures, including Helen Goes to Troy , The Firebrand of Florence , and Hollywood Pinafore . More successful
4060-580: 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
4200-424: A vertical sign with the theater's name. The rectangular ticket lobby is directly inside the main entrance and has dark marble walls. The western (right) wall has ticket windows, while the eastern (left) wall has a recessed niche to the inner lobby, containing a glass-and-bronze double door flanked by small sconces . The eight glass-and-bronze doors on the north wall lead from the street, with panels above them, while
4340-455: Is a broken pediment with scrolls flanking an urn . The fifth-story windows also have rectangular terracotta frames; their sills are connected by a terracotta band course. A triangular gable rises above these windows; there is a terracotta oculus at the center of the gable, surrounded by wreaths and floral decorations. The outer sections of the auditorium facade are designed as pavilions, which are almost identical to each other except at
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4480-457: Is a lunette panel with a mural, which shows a pastoral scene with mythological characters. When the theater was built, the proscenium opening was described as measuring 40 ft (12 m) wide. Behind the opening, the stage was 100 feet wide and 35 feet deep, with a gridiron 68 ft (21 m) tall. The orchestra pit in front of the stage could fit 48 people. Backstage were 20 dressing rooms capable of accommodating 150 performers, as well as
4620-447: Is a pair of recessed metal doors. The center of the auditorium facade contains two sets of metal-and-glass doors. Six doors to the east connect with the inner lobby, while eight doors to the west connect with the box office lobby; there is a modern marquee above these doors. In the stage-house section of the facade, there are several recessed doorways, including a stage door. A horizontal frieze with panels and vertical grooves runs above
4760-599: 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 the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world . While the Broadway thoroughfare
4900-475: 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
5040-562: 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,
5180-489: Is operated by the Nederlander Organization . Both the facade and the auditorium interior are New York City landmarks . The facade is divided into two sections: the six-story stage house to the west and the five-story auditorium to the east. The ground floor is clad with terracotta blocks and contains an entrance with a marquee . The upper stories of both sections are made of brick and terracotta;
5320-571: 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
5460-519: Is wider and is symmetrical, containing the auditorium entrance. The western section, which contains the stage house , is six stories high. On the upper stories, the facade is made of red brick in English bond , with terracotta trim. The Neil Simon is one of a few Broadway theaters with a neo-Georgian facade, along with the Belasco Theatre , Hayes Theater , and Stephen Sondheim Theatre . This
5600-610: 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
5740-609: The COVID-19 pandemic in New York City . It reopened in December 2021 with previews of MJ the Musical , which officially opened in February 2022. MJ broke the theater's box-office record ten times in 2022 and set the current record during the week ending January 1, 2023, when the musical grossed $ 2,223,069. Productions are listed by the year of their first performance. Broadway theatre Broadway theatre , or Broadway ,
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5880-727: The Helen Hayes Theatre in the 1920s. He also designed the Hotel Edison , the Lincoln Hotel (now the Row NYC Hotel ), and numerous other buildings. Although the stock market crash of 1929 brought an end to the theatre building boom, Krapp remained with the Shuberts until 1963, supervising the maintenance and renovations of the existing venues. He also experimented with inventing; one of the tools he created
6020-580: 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;
6160-595: The Martin Beck Theatre . Aarons and Freedley received a $ 570,000 mortgage loan on the theater in January 1929. The Rodgers and Hart musical Spring Is Here opened at the Alvin that March and had 104 performances. Another Rodgers and Hart musical, Heads Up! , opened at the Alvin that November for a 144-performance run. In 1930, Ethel Merman made her Broadway debut in the Gershwins' Girl Crazy , which had 272 performances. Aarons and Freedley bought
6300-427: 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
6440-762: The Plymouth to the Alvin in 1961. The next year, Stephen Sondheim , Burt Shevelove , and Larry Gelbart 's musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opened, running for 967 performances. During A Funny Thing 's run in October 1962, Lester Osterman (owner of the 46th Street and O'Neill theaters) leased the Alvin for five years. Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray 's musical comedy High Spirits , with Beatrice Lillie and Tammy Grimes , opened in 1964 and ran for 367 performances. Maurice Chevalier appeared at
6580-476: 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
6720-409: 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
6860-403: The 1980s and 1990s, as well as the musical Hairspray during much of the 2000s. The Neil Simon Theatre is on 250 West 52nd Street , on the south sidewalk between Eighth Avenue and Broadway , in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City . The rectangular land lot covers 12,350 sq ft (1,147 m), with a frontage of 123.50 ft (37.64 m) on 52nd Street and
7000-647: The 41 Broadway theatres now standing, Krapp designed 13 and redesigned two. All, or nearly all, of the façades and interiors of his theatres have since been designated historic landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission . A graduate of Cooper Union , and an apprentice with the Herts & Tallant firm until 1915, Krapp began working in theatre architecture at the time when architects were just beginning to design "a playhouse's exterior and interior as
7140-512: The Alvin and the land underneath it that April. Pincus and Goldstone took over the Alvin's operations in May 1932 for unknown reasons. That year, the theater hosted a transfer of Eugene O'Neill 's play Mourning Becomes Electra , as well as Jerome Kern 's musical Music in the Air . The Players brought their production of Uncle Tom's Cabin to the Alvin in May 1933; the play was so popular that it
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#17327756229377280-518: The Alvin for $ 825,000 in February 1946. That June, CBS agreed to lease Hammerstein's from Cullman for five more years, while Cullman agreed to lease the Alvin from CBS and present productions there instead. The same year, the Alvin hosted Joan of Lorraine with Ingrid Bergman , Sam Wanamaker , and Romney Brent . This was followed in 1947 by the play Life with Father , which transferred from another theater to conclude its 3,224-performance run. George Bernard Shaw 's play Man and Superman opened at
7420-630: The Alvin from Osterman in July 1967 through its agent, Konrad Matthaei. In exchange, Rock-Time sold the Playhouse Theatre near Rockefeller Center, which was to be demolished. The Tom Stoppard play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opened at the Alvin in October 1967, running for 421 total performances across two theaters. It was succeeded in 1968 by Howard Sackler 's drama The Great White Hope with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander , which had 557 performances. The Alvin next hosted
7560-574: The Alvin in 1959 to Max and Stanley Stahl, who also owned the neighboring Hellinger Theatre. The Stahls quickly hired a new manager for the Alvin. In 1960, the theater hosted the musical Greenwillow , the dance troupe Les Ballets Africains , and a transfer of the musical West Side Story from the Winter Garden. The Carolyn Leigh and Cy Coleman musical Wildcat opened that December with Lucille Ball , who made her only Broadway appearance there. The musical Irma La Douce transferred from
7700-563: The Alvin in April 1965 for a month-long solo show, Maurice Chevalier at 77 . This was followed the next month by Flora the Red Menace , in which Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut. Flora the Red Menace and the next several shows had comparatively short runs. These shows included the musicals The Yearling (1965), It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman (1966), Dinner At Eight (1966), and Sherry! (1967). Rockefeller Center 's development subsidiary Rock-Time Inc. bought
7840-420: The Alvin that October and relocated in February 1948. It was followed immediately afterward by Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan 's comedy Mister Roberts with Henry Fonda , which ran for 1,157 performances. Cullman and CBS decided in 1951 to swap Hammerstein's and the Alvin for another three years, allowing the former to be used as a studio and the latter to be used for legitimate plays. Three shows opened at
7980-594: The Alvin that year: the Sidney Kingsley play Darkness at Noon , the musical A Tree Grows in Brooklyn , and the Paul Osborn play Point of No Return . Point of No Return was followed in December 1952 by the revue Two's Company , with Bette Davis in her first Broadway appearance in 22 years, but it only lasted about 90 performances. The next year, Norman Krasna 's comedy Kind Sir opened at
8120-531: The Alvin with Mary Martin and Charles Boyer . The musical The Golden Apple transferred to the Alvin from off-Broadway in April 1954, running for 173 total performances. The Harold Arlen and Truman Capote musical House of Flowers was booked before Cullman's lease came up for renewal that year, indicating that the leases of the Alvin and Hammerstein's would again be swapped. House of Flowers ultimately opened in December 1954 and ran for 165 performances. Ira Levin 's comedy No Time for Sergeants opened
8260-662: The Ambassador's and Neil Simon's interiors, over the objections of the three theaters' owners. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the landmark designations in December 1985. Brighton Beach Memoirs was followed by another play in the Eugene trilogy, Biloxi Blues , in 1985. The next year, the musical Into the Light opened at the Neil Simon, closing after six performances. Noël Coward 's play Blithe Spirit opened at
8400-521: The Aviator closed during previews, while Merrily We Roll Along , Little Johnny Jones , Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? , and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers each closed after less than two weeks. The producers of The Little Prince , as well as those of Little Johnny Jones (which closed on opening night), successfully sued the Nederlanders in 1986, on the grounds that
8540-536: 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,
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#17327756229378680-619: 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
8820-609: 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
8960-574: 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
9100-754: The Chanin brothers, Krapp began working directly with the Shubert brothers . His first independent commissions for them were the Broadhurst and the neighboring Plymouth Theatre (now known as the Schoenfeld ), which opened within two weeks of each other, and were designed as mirror images of each other. Krapp would eventually become their primary architect, designing the Lyceum , Shubert , Booth , New Amsterdam and Longacre Theatres , among many others. Krapp
9240-508: The Dutch production Cyrano: The Musical opened at the Neil Simon, lasting 137 performances. The hit West End musical The Rise and Fall of Little Voice opened at the Neil Simon in May 1994, only to close after one week. This was followed by concerts from musicians Basia in November 1994 and Laurie Anderson in May 1995, as well as a limited performance by Danny Gans in November 1995. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I
9380-456: 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
9520-658: The First New York International Festival of the Arts. Later that year, Kenny Loggins played some concerts at the Neil Simon. Two musicals were announced for the Neil Simon in early 1989; Senator Joe closed during previews, and The Tower of Babel did not even have previews. The Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending was then presented in September 1989. Around that time, the LPC had held
9660-410: 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
9800-407: The Nederlanders had offered to rename the theater after Simon in 1982, but the playwright had declined at the time. Neil Simon was the second playwright to have a Broadway theater named for him, after the late Eugene O'Neill , and the first living playwright so honored. Members of the theatrical community expressed that the Alvin should have been renamed for the Gershwins; that name had been applied to
9940-420: The Nederlanders sold 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m) of the unused air rights above the Neil Simon for $ 8.9 million. The buyers were a development consortium erecting a hotel several blocks away. At the end of that year, The Illusionists performed a magic show at the Neil Simon for a limited run. A revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber 's hit musical Cats opened at the Neil Simon in August 2016 and ran until
10080-484: The Neil Simon in March 1987; the theater also hosted a tribute to one of the play's stars, Geraldine Page , who died mid-run. Comedian Mort Sahl made a limited appearance that October, and the play Breaking the Code opened the next month. The Neil Simon hosted revivals of two O'Neill plays in June 1988, Long Day's Journey into Night and Ah, Wilderness! (both with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards ), as part of
10220-417: The Neil Simon in early 2000, lasting until the end of 2001. During The Music Man 's run, the comedian Mandy Patinkin launched a U.S. tour on September 10, 2001, with a concert at the Neil Simon. Elaine Stritch 's one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty then premiered at the Neil Simon in February 2002. After the closure of Elaine Stritch at Liberty , the Neil Simon was expanded from 1,328 seats to
10360-604: 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
10500-535: 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
10640-627: The Square Theatre and the Gershwin Theatre ) to the south. The Neil Simon Theatre, originally the Alvin Theatre, was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructed in 1927. The exterior is designed in the neo-Georgian style, while the interior is designed in the Adam style typical of most of Krapp's designs. The facade consists of two sections, which are connected to each other. The five-story-tall eastern section
10780-590: The Uris Theatre. Jerry Weintraub then purchased a stake in the operation of the Neil Simon Theatre in 1984. Concurrently, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started to consider protecting the Neil Simon as a landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The LPC designated the facades of the Neil Simon, Ambassador , and Virginia (now August Wilson) theaters as landmarks in August 1985, along with
10920-553: The audience might have had more time to appreciate the new theatre." The Alvin's first few musicals had relatively short runs. In 1928, the theater hosted the Gershwin musical Treasure Girl with Gertrude Lawrence . Though the musical charged a top admission of $ 6, then an unprecedented price, it managed 69 performances before it closed. Next was the Theatre Guild 's production of Wings Over Europe , which relocated from
11060-417: The auditorium facade has arched windows, niches, and a central pediment , while the stage house has a more plain design. The interior is designed in the Adam style and includes two lobbies and a mezzanine-level lounge. The auditorium consists of a ground-level orchestra and one balcony with boxes . The theater interiors are decorated with paneling and plasterwork, and the auditorium has a domed ceiling. Above
11200-449: The auditorium were three stories of offices. Alexander Pincus and M. L. Goldstone developed the Alvin Theatre, which opened on November 22, 1927, with Funny Face . Aarons and Freedley initially operated the theater and owned it from 1930 to 1932. In the theater's early years, it hosted musicals such as Anything Goes , Lady in the Dark , and Something for the Boys , as well as plays. CBS took over in 1946 and continued to operate
11340-492: 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
11480-416: The balcony has Adam-style panels with crystal light fixtures. The balcony's rear wall is divided into panels that contain lighting sconces. There are some air-conditioning vents on the walls. On either side of the stage is a wall section with three boxes at the balcony level. The boxes step downward toward the stage; the front box curves forward into the proscenium arch, while the rear box curves backward into
11620-412: The balcony. At the orchestra level, there is an opening on either wall, corresponding to the locations of the boxes above. The undersides of the boxes include crystal lamps and console brackets , while the front railings of the boxes contain swags, urns, and cameo patterns. Paneled piers separate the boxes from each other, supporting a smaller entablature directly above the boxes; each small entablature has
11760-426: The base. Above the base, vertical terracotta bands and quoins divide the auditorium facade into three sections. The central section has three vertical bays of windows. Each bay contains a double-height arched window at the second story, with terracotta imposts and keystones near the top of each arch. On the fourth story, each of the three central bays has a rectangular window with a terracotta frame, above which
11900-430: The beginning of 2011. The musical Catch Me if You Can opened in April 2011, running for 170 performances. A revival of Jesus Christ Superstar ran at the Neil Simon from March to July 2012, followed at the end of that year by the short-lived musical Scandalous . The Andrew Lippa musical Big Fish was then booked for the Neil Simon in early 2013, but the theater stood dark for most of that year because Big Fish
12040-435: 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
12180-476: 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
12320-550: 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
12460-436: The company had unfairly evicted both shows. The Alvin's next non-flop was Your Arms Too Short to Box with God with Al Green and Patti LaBelle , which opened in September 1982. Brighton Beach Memoirs , the first play in Neil Simon's Eugene trilogy , opened at the Alvin in March 1983. The Nederlanders renamed the theater for Simon shortly afterward on June 29, 1983. The renaming was unrelated to Brighton Beach Memoirs ;
12600-422: 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
12740-628: 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,
12880-555: The end of the next year. Tony Kushner 's play Angels in America then opened in March 2018 for a three-month run. The musical The Cher Show opened that December and ran until August 2019, and The Illusionists returned in late 2019 for their magic show, Magic of the Holidays. After The Cher Show closed, MJ the Musical had been booked at the Neil Simon for mid-2020. The theater did not host another show for two years due to
13020-422: 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. Herbert J. Krapp Of
13160-456: 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,
13300-467: 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
13440-451: The front lead to the ticket lobby. The exit signs above each door are flanked by friezes that depict lyres and griffins. The balcony level is divided into front and rear sections by an aisle halfway across its depth, which in turn is delineated by a metal railing. The crossover aisle connects to exit doors on both of the side walls, which in turn are topped by friezes with lyres and griffins. Exit doors with similar friezes are also placed on
13580-688: The late 1930s. I'd Rather Be Right opened with George M. Cohan in 1937, running for 289 performances, and The Boys from Syracuse opened in 1938, lasting 235 performances. The Alvin's first production of the 1940s was a limited run of The Taming of the Shrew in February 1940, staged by acting couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne for the Finnish Relief Fund . That April, Lunt and Fontanne appeared in Robert E. Sherwood 's play There Shall Be No Night , which ran for several months with
13720-485: 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
13860-420: 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
14000-411: The next year, running for 796 performances over two years. The theater hosted several moderately successful productions in the late 1950s, including the musicals Oh, Captain! in 1958 and First Impressions in 1959. In addition, Jerome Robbins choreographed his dance special Ballet U.S.A. in 1958, and the musical Bells Are Ringing relocated from the Shubert to the Alvin that year. CBS sold
14140-584: The north wall, which lead from the street. The south wall contains paneled wooden doors to the auditorium, while the east wall contains a staircase to the mezzanine lounge. The inner lobby's ceiling is decorated with plasterwork in the Adam style and contains a pair of crystal chandeliers. When the Alvin was built, the mezzanine lounge was designed as an English lounge measuring 100 by 35 ft (30 by 11 m). The mezzanine lounge's walls are wainscoted and contain lighting sconces. The space also originally contained
14280-490: The northernmost venues in the Theater District that still hosted legitimate shows. The original production of the Gershwins' American folk opera Porgy and Bess opened at the Alvin in October 1935. While Porgy and Bess closed at the Alvin after 124 performances, its revivals proved more successful. This was followed in October 1936 by Porter's Red, Hot and Blue with Merman and Jimmy Durante , which lasted 181 performances. The Alvin hosted two musicals by Rodgers and Hart in
14420-557: 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
14560-412: The orchestra seating are separated by two columns, designed to resemble marble pillars; they are topped by Doric -style capitals . The south (left) wall of the orchestra has metal doorways, alternating with paneled wall sections that contain sconces. The north (right) wall has two sets of paneled wooden doors, separated by a panel with a sconce; the doors in the rear lead to the inner lobby, while those in
14700-410: The original interior decorations. Above the auditorium were three stories of offices. The orchestra level is raked , sloping down toward an orchestra pit in front of the stage. The rear of the orchestra contains a promenade with a paneled wall to the east, with sconces. The rear of the orchestra has a standing rail made of marble, separating the promenade from the rear rows of seats. The promenade and
14840-516: The original production of the Stephen Sondheim/ George Furth musical Company , which premiered in 1970 and ran just over 700 performances during the next two years. A couple of short runs followed, including Molly (1973) and The Freedom of the City (1974). The Alvin's next success was the musical Shenandoah , which opened in 1975 and stayed two years before transferring. By July 1974, Matthaei had defaulted on
14980-556: 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
15120-468: 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
15260-423: 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
15400-645: 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
15540-703: The rear balcony is a half-dome with ornamental bands and technical-booth openings. Air-conditioning vents are placed in the ceiling. Times Square became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression . The Alvin Theatre was one of the later theaters to be built before the Depression. The theater's name was an amalgamation of the first names of its original operators: Alex A. Aarons (1891–1943) and Vinton Freedley (1891–1969). Both men hailed from Philadelphia . Aarons
15680-531: 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
15820-473: 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
15960-407: The side walls next to the front balcony. The rest of the balcony's side walls are divided into sections by pilasters with Ionic capitals, which support an entablature around the auditorium. Each side-wall section contains crystal-and-brass lighting sconces. The front rail of the balcony contains swags , urns, and cameo patterns, which have been partly covered over with light boxes. The underside of
16100-655: The sites at 244–254 West 52nd Street from the Lebanon Estates Corporation, with plans to develop a legitimate theater on the site. Pincus had previously developed the Longacre and Imperial theaters; he and Goldstone planned to fund the theater's $ 1.4 million cost. The same month, Pincus submitted plans to the New York City Department of Buildings for a theater at the site, designed by Herbert J. Krapp. Pincus and Goldstone awarded
16240-400: The south wall contains paneled wooden doors to the auditorium's orchestra level. A cornice surrounds the ceiling. which is decorated with plasterwork in the Adam style. The middle of the ceiling has a pair of crystal lamps. The inner lobby is rectangular in plan. It is accessed by the niche on its western wall, which leads from the ticket lobby, as well as from the six glass-and-bronze doors on
16380-470: 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
16520-413: The stage house are rectangular, with terracotta lintels above each window. The center bays of the stage house also have terracotta panels above the third and fourth floors. There is a cornice and paneling above the fifth floor, as well as a parapet with a balustrade above the sixth floor. The leftmost bay of the stage house, nearest the auditorium, rises to a seventh story. The stage house's rightmost bay has
16660-647: The success it had enjoyed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., closing in January 2010 after 57 performances. Musician Harry Connick Jr. had a limited performance at the Neil Simon in July 2010; his appearance was recorded for the 2011 album In Concert on Broadway . The concert Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles opened at the Neil Simon that October, relocating to the Brooks Atkinson at
16800-434: 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
16940-444: The theater until 1959, when Max and Stanley Stahl bought it. The Alvin was further sold in 1967 to Rock-Time Inc. and in 1975 to the Nederlanders. Through the 1960s and 1970s, the Alvin hosted long runs of shows such as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , High Spirits , The Great White Hope , Company , Shenandoah , and Annie . After the theater was renamed for Neil Simon, it hosted several of his plays during
17080-695: The theater's mortgage loan, and the Bowery Savings Bank acquired the Alvin in foreclosure . The theater was then placed for sale at $ 1.2 million. The Nederlander Organization acquired the Alvin in 1975, and the venue became the family's fourth Broadway theater after the Palace , Uris , and Brooks Atkinson . The sale involved $ 100,000 in cash and a $ 1.16 million mortgage loan. The original Broadway production of Annie opened in 1977 and ran for five years before transferring. The next five musicals in 1981 and 1982 were short runs. The Little Prince and
17220-534: 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
17360-481: 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
17500-461: 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
17640-435: The top. Both pavilions are flanked by fluted terracotta pilasters , which rest on the frieze that runs above the base. Between these pilasters are double-height niches at the second story, each surrounded by terracotta imposts and keystones. The niches contain terracotta urns, placed above seashell motifs. Above each niche, the fourth story contains two windows with rectangular terracotta frames. Each pair of pilasters supports
17780-568: 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 ,
17920-568: 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
18060-692: 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
18200-434: Was Betty Comden , Adolph Green , and Morton Gould 's musical Billion Dollar Baby , which opened at the end of 1945 and lasted for 200 performances. By December 1945, broadcast network CBS was negotiating to buy the Alvin for use as a studio, as CBS's lease at the nearby Hammerstein's Theatre was about to expire. Howard S. Cullman , who owned Hammerstein's, intended to return that theater to legitimate use. CBS bought
18340-519: 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,
18480-539: 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
18620-644: 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
18760-451: Was a producer of musical comedies, while Freedley was "the only Broadway producer whose name was listed in the social register". The men had formed a partnership in 1923 or 1924, but they only worked together until 1933. Since 1983, it has been named for Neil Simon (1927–2018), one of Broadway's most prolific playwrights. The Neil Simon is operated by the Nederlander Organization . In January 1927, Alexander Pincus and M. L. Goldstone bought
18900-456: Was done to create the impression that theater-goers were "entering the producer's home". When the Alvin was built, one critic said the exterior design had "an appearance in keeping with the dignity of its neighbor" across the street, now the Wilson. In both sections, the base is made of rusticated blocks of terracotta , designed to resemble marble. On the eastern side of the ground-floor facade
19040-507: Was extended two weeks past its original one-week run. The same year saw the opening of the Maxwell Anderson play Mary of Scotland with Helen Hayes . Freedley next produced Cole Porter 's musical Anything Goes at the Alvin in 1934, featuring Merman, William Gaxton , Victor Moore , and Vivian Vance ; it ran for 420 performances. By the mid-1930s, the Alvin Theatre and the neighboring Guild (now August Wilson) Theatre were
19180-438: Was performing elsewhere. Big Fish only ran from October to December 2013. This was followed by two similarly short runs: Robert Schenkkan 's play All the Way from March to June 2014, and Sting 's musical The Last Ship from October 2014 to January 2015. A revival of Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner 's musical Gigi opened at the Neil Simon in April 2015, only for the show to close after two months. In July 2015,
19320-514: Was revived in 1996. The King and I closed in early 1998 to make way for the Arthur Miller play A View from the Bridge , which lasted through August 1998. The Neil Simon hosted the dance special Swan Lake in late 1998, as well as a concert by Natalie Merchant and a revised version of the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1999. A revival of the musical The Music Man opened at
19460-602: 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
19600-477: Was well known for his ability to use his building space to its fullest potential. For the Majestic Theatre , Krapp incorporated stadium seating into the plans for the orchestra level, creating better sightlines and allowing for the creation of larger lounge and lobby areas. He designed the Ambassador Theatre on a diagonal plan to fit it into a small site. Krapp renovated the Winter Garden Theatre and
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