Broadway, located in New York City from 42nd to 53rd streets and from 6th to 8th avenues, is one of the cultural capitals of the United States. The Theater District is home to 40 theaters, each of which has more than 500 seats, and has hosted stage productions of some of the most iconic stories in American history. Once referred to as “The Great White Way” for the bright, illuminating lights outside the theaters during the early 1900s, Broadway has a storied history spanning more than 100 years.
Below are five interesting facts and statistics about Broadway theaters and productions over the years.
Broadway Theater Qualifications
While there are 40 Broadway theaters, only four of these are actually located on Broadway. The rest are dispersed throughout the Theater District and include notable venues such as the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, Ambassador Theatre, Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Hayes Theater, and the James Earl Jones Theatre. There are also several off-Broadway venues, including The Theater Center and the Laura Pels Theatre, located within the Theater District. However, what sets Broadway venues apart from off-Broadway theaters is the seating capacity.
In order to be classified as a Broadway theater, the venue must have at least 500 seats and be situated within the Theater District. Off-Broadway theaters have a seating capacity between 100 and 499, whereas off-off-Broadway theaters have fewer than 100 seats. While the off-Broadway movement began in the early 1950s as an alternative to the more commercialized Broadway, off-Broadway theaters have since shown early productions of some of the most popular plays and musicals in American theater, including Hair, Rent, Grease, Avenue Q, and Hamilton.
The Oldest Theaters
The Elves and The Black Crook are considered among the earliest plays and musicals on Broadway, both of which were shown during the mid-1800s. The Lyceum Theatre, meanwhile, is the oldest surviving Broadway theater that continues to host stage productions. Built in 1903 and located on West 45th Street, the relatively small theater has only 950 seats and was the first Broadway theater to become a designated landmark. The Proud Prince was the first production at the Lyceum, while its longest-running and most successful was Born Yesterday, which premiered in 1946.
The New Amsterdam Theatre and Hudson Theatre were also built in 1903. The New Amsterdam, however, closed temporarily in 1936 due to the Great Depression. It reopened the following year on a limited basis, but went through decades of instability and disrepair until it was taken over by New York City and New York State. Now leased to The Walt Disney Company, the venue has hosted Disney musicals such as Mary Poppins, Aladdin, and The Lion King. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Longest-Running Show of All-Time
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running Broadway production of all-time. The seven-time Tony Award winner debuted at the Majestic Theatre in 1988 and was still in production as of the 2022-23 Broadway season. Since its debut, it has been staged more than 13,300 times. More than 15 actors have played the lead role in the musical on Broadway, while Norm Lewis made history in 2014 as the first Black actor to play the Phantom.
The 1996 revival of Chicago is the second longest-running Broadway production of all-time with more than 9,600 stagings. The revival has been far more successful than the original, which was shown 936 times in the 1970s. The Lion King, Cats, and Wicked round out the top five longest-running Broadway productions.
The Billion-Dollar Show
Although it hasn’t been staged as many times as The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King is the highest-grossing Broadway show of all-time. The Disney musical, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre and is now playing at the Minskoff Theatre, surpassed Phantom in 2012 with more than $853 million cumulative gross. It surpassed the billion dollar mark the following year, at which point fewer than a dozen of the 6,600-plus stagings had less than 80 percent capacity.
The Most Expensive Flop Ever
While The Lion King is proof that film adaptations can work on the Broadway stage, that isn’t the case for every adaptation attempt. The Stephen King film Carrie has the unfortunate distinction of being the most expensive flop of all-time. The $8 million production, dubbed the “mother of all weirdness,” was brought to the stage by Lawrence D. Cohen, screenwriter of the film, and composer Michael Gore. It was in development for four years before a trial run in England, where it was subject to several technical and production issues.
Those same issues were present for the musical’s Broadway run, which lasted only 16 previews and five performances. While each of the five performances were sold out, audiences and critics gave poor reviews of the production. New York Times critic Frank Rich famously compared it to the Hindenburg disaster.