Theatre started having a significant presence in New York beginning in 1750 when a resident theatre company was founded at the Theatre in Nassau Street. New York theatre slowly moved from downtown to midtown beginning around 1850. In 1870 theater was centralized in Union Square and by the end of the 20th century many theatre were centralized in Madison Square. Theatre did not arrive in Times Square until the 1900s, but did not begin to grow there until the 1920s-1930s. By the end of the 1920s Broadway had to begin to compete with movies. Many theatres went broke and were demolished or converted to movie theatres. In 1943 with the opening of Oklahoma! Broadway entered a golden age. In recent years Broadway has continued to boom causing tourist
Broadway was one of the first forms of entertainment. Before there were television programs, or movies, there was Broadway. Broadway originated in New York in 1750, when actor-manager Walter Murray built a theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street. A musical would show about once every weekend. The shows were very male based, and would commonly show a relationship between young boys and their fathers. Women were slowly integrated into Broadway, and as society changed its point of view on women, so did theatre.
Keith Albee Theater was opened on May 8, 1928. Early audiences came to the theater for both live performances, as well as the movies of the day. (??)In 1937, the Keith-Albee stood flooded for weeks, as did most of the city of Huntington. The theatre was re-emerged in 1940s and again brought entertainment to the Tri-State area.
The very first theatre production credited with being the first Broadway musical impacted the theatre world in many ways. (The Black Crook, p.1) In the spring of 1866, the Academy of Music in New York City burned to the ground, leaving a troupe of Parisian ballerinas with nowhere to dance. (The Black Crook, p.1) William Wheatley, who was producing playwright Charles M. Barras’s melodrama The Black Crook, approached the dancers and offered them a spot in his show. (The Black Crook, p.1)
The technological advances of the 19th century played a big role in theatre. Since America was having an Industrial Revolution, many people from the country moved to the expanding cities in the east (“Nineteenth Century Theatre”). This migration made the growth of theatres possible. Theatre seats, balconies, and the basic structural support were made of wood (“Nineteenth Century Theatre”). During the 19th century, theatre lights were “upgraded” three times, the theatre went from candle lighting, to gas lighting,
Movies were a major source of entertainment and most neighborhoods and their own movie house. However, the major theaters were the Allen, Loew 's State, Loew 's Stillman, and the Palace which were all located downtown, which is now called Playhouse Square.
Art and theater were more popular than ever in the 1920s. Early modernism in art began at the turn of the century and continued through World War II. Modern styles of art included abstract expressionism, realism, and surrealism. The best museums featured shows by the important artists who used these styles. Broadway reached an all time peak. There were 276 plays offered in 1927 in New York City. (This is a lot compared to only 50-something in the 1970s.) Historians argue over exactly how many theaters there were. Some say eighty, some say seventy, but everyone agreed that Broadway was booming in the 1920s. After the war, the American population was moving more and more into the cities. In response to the many social changes in America, the new
named after their cost and the Greek word for theater, soon spread across the country. These storefront theaters remained the prime outlet for movies among the lower and middle class. The upper class began to flock to more modern theaters called Picture Palaces. Picture Palaces reached their peaks in the 1920’s and died out when the Great Depression hit in the 1930’s. These theaters were much larger than most theaters today and offered a wide range of features such as, extravagant lobbies, neatly dressed ushers, and live music. During
There were other amenities that were lacking for the theaters. Almost all the lighting for the theater was natural light. This meant that most plays would have to be show during the daytime. The theaters did not have heating either. In the winter months they would have to shut the theater down and be transferred to indoor playhouses. This actually helped boost popularity because it gave the people something to do during the cold winter months since it was inside. There were no microphones or soundboards to be able to hear so actors had to speak loudly and clearly. Unfortunately, there were also no toilets at the theater. “But there were no toilets and the floor they stood on was probably just sand, ash or covered in nutshells” (Shakespeare Globe Education). During the summer hours when it would become real hot the pit would be called the “stinkards.”
Two great writers of American musical theatre, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, had one idea in common. They wanted to present to the American public a new and revolutionary musical that would stand out above the rest. They wanted to make an impact on the societies of the era. They wanted to be creative and do something that was considered rebellious. When they finally combined their ideas together they created an American masterpiece in musical theatre: Oklahoma!. It was the first Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, starting the most successful creative partnership in the history of American musical theatre.
In 1811, the New York city planners began a massive building execution. In 1835, Mayor Cornelius Van Wyck invited people to Manhattan to “move up there and enjoy the clean air!” In the early nineteenth century, the Theatre District between 41st street and 53rd street, was mainly just farmland and land owned by families all over. Broadway holds over 40 theatres at the moment, but it really wasn’t until the 1920’s-1930’s that theatres’ started to be built down these streets. In the 1930s, Broadway experienced a major crisis mainly caused upon the invention of the films having sound.
This, and other British ballad operas, ballets and pantomimes, formed the majority of musicals offered on American stages in the beginning of the 1800’s. The roots of the music we know today can be dated back to the French and Viennese operettas. Operettes are light musical comedies that would often provide broad satire and wit to the stage, combined with bright melodies and high energy. These would be the blueprint for all musical theatre to come. The Black Crook was the first piece to fit modern musicals. The play premiered in 1866 in New York City and was a staggering success. Once the modern musical was developed there was more opportunity for theoretical advances. Broadway saw its fair share of musicals during the 1890’s and the number continued to grow during the 20th century. The theatre experienced a boom in business with the start of World War I; given the devastation of the battlefield audiences flocked to the stages in order to get some escapism. As the 20th century continued musical theatre began to grow in popularity and quality. The public ruled heavily in favor of musicals, so the 1980s brought a succession of long-running "Brit hits" to Broadway, such as Cats, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon.
With resounding consistency, every reference to The Theatrical Syndicate begins with the same anecdotal tale: “One day in 1896, six theatre businessmen met for lunch at the Holland House Hotel.” The gentlemen gathered that day where in a consensus about a few things, but the greatest of which being the state of the American theatre and its institutional need for centralization. (Mroczka) The aim of the following discussion is to contextualize this organization within American theatre history while illustrating the positive and negative impacts of The Theatrical Syndicate on the theatre community.
Prior to the Broadway theater district, the first playhouse in the city was established in the 1700s on Nassau Street– east of Broadway. The venue was humble and primarily produced Shakespearean plays. After the American Revolution, the first theater in New York
The musical film in the United States is largely associated with Broadway theatre. Broadway is an area in New York City where the biggest theatres are located, accommodating at least 500 people. Smaller theatres are said to be located Off-Broadway and even smaller theatres are called Off-Off-Broadway. Some notable musical films such as Chicago (2002), My Fair Lady (1964) and West Side Story (1961) were adapted from musical plays and trace their origins to Broadway where they first started their production. Some Off-Broadway productions also enjoyed a surge of popularity that warranted their expansion to film such as Rent (2005) and Fame (1980). Some musical films were adapted from West End productions which is the British counterpart of Broadway in London. Examples of such films are The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Oliver! (1968), and Mamma Mia! (2008).
Greek theater can be considered to be one of the building blocks for our theater today. The advancements that the Greeks possessed in the early fifth century were the start of western theater. The Greeks were heavily involved with religion and religious festivals, comedies, tragedies, climatic drama, and took the outdoor amphitheater and made many improvements to its structure.