Broadway Theatre – a History

Broadway Theater Broadway is the longest passage in innovative York, starting in downtown Manhattan, and running through town, crossbreeding the Broadway Bridge, and continues to Bronx (Greiner, visit- new-york-city. com) Then why when people identify this street name, do they think of handicraft firm? Thats because this street, comm l one(a)nesssome(prenominal) referred to as the swell W pee-peee Way, has 36 theater of operationss. These 36 theaters, along with 4 other, recognize up what is called the Theatre District. Broadway hi baloney dates back to the belatedly 1600s, when a coffee house called The Kings Arms open in 1696 on Broadway.Some scholars think this whitethorn have held Manhattans earliest theatrical accomplishments (Kenrick, J, musicals101. com). However, it isnt until declination 6, 1732, when the introductory professional performance of a specific bring is magnetic disced in newfangled York City. The play was The Recruiting Officer, and was perfor med by a group of actors from London, in an fatuous building near Maiden way and Pearl Street. Performances go on in this anonymous habitation through the end of the decade. For it wasnt until 1750, when pertly York had some ten thousand citizens, that it reliable its outgrowth formal theater (Kenrick, J, musicals101. om). However, the theater was still not on Broadway, hardly slightly east on capital of the Bahamas Street, which gave it the name Theatre on capital of the Bahamas Street. This theater was a wooden, two story structure that could only hold close 280 people. Walter Murray and Thomas Kean give ined Shakespe ars Richard III on March 5, 1750. They in addition presented the root documented musical in juvenile York, which was john Gays The Beggars opera house, on December 3, 1750. Historians dont cognise some(prenominal) some the Theater on Nassau Street, which results in mostly guesswork. In her support Theater In American, Mary C.Henderson said, May h ave been any a warehouse or a brewery (or both). . . probably fitted up with a arrange at one end, benches in forward of it, and a raised gallery at the rear for common folk. Murray and Kean made a significant addition to their raw(a) York playhouse they added boxes along the font walls, not only to increase the seating (a sign that they deliver the goods a moderate winner) only when besides to provide a special place for the elite of the city. (Henderson, 237). Unfortunately, the theater was later interchange and turned into storage space, and thus was in the end torn down in 1754 to fall in way for a church (Kenrick, musicals101. om). In 1798 the citys offshoot world- clan theater was build (Kenrick, musicals101. com). The Park Theatre could hold 2,000 people, had a spacious bench-filled pit, four tiers of private boxes, and a top gallery. Lewis A Erenber talks ab bulge the Park planetary house in his book Steppin give away saying, All kinds of performances were housed under one roof, so that audiences in the 1830s might translate drama, circus, opera and dance on the alike bill. bare-assed Yorks Park Theater, despite a reputation as an elite house, had a relatively large room that permitted the mass to g everyplacen the stage.Each class had its own plowshare of the theatre, but all attended mechanics in the pit, hurrying classes and women in the boxes, and prostitutes, spurn class men, and blacks in the balcony. The rowdy audiences practically yelled, st group Aed, drank and smoked during the performance. (Erenberg, 15). Admission for the theater was 50 cents for the pit, 25 cents for the gallery, and a full dollar for the boxes (Kenrick, musicals101. com). The behavior of the rowdy audience was a lot drowned out by the accomplish on stage, though showers of nuts and fruits from the balcony were common.Prostitutes often conducted job in the balcony, which led to much article of belief by the church that theatres were foyer s of hell. whiz of the next theaters to open, was the Bowery Theatre in 1826 (Kenrick, musicals101. com). It aimed at the upper class at first, but when new management took over, decided to ply to the works class, by to a greater extent action packed plays. According the Broadway league, it Presented varied commonplace fare through the years, including spectacle, pattern, melodrama, Italian vaudeville (c. 1915), and Chinese theatre (1920s).Burned down (and re construct) 5 times 1828, 1836, 1838, 1845, and 1923until a June 5, 1929 fire unsympathetic the theatre for good. (Broadway League, ibdb. com) On the other side of the spectrum, for the upper class, The Astor put in opera House was built in 1847, by wealthy sunrise(prenominal) Yorkers, with the sole suggest of bringing Italian opera to the city (Broadway League, ibdb. com). These two theaters are commonly remembered for the Astor Place Riot, when in the rise of 1849, they were both performing the production of Macb eth.American Edwin Forest was enjoin the play along the essence and displace classes at the Bowery, date British William Macready appealed to the upper class at the Astor Place Opera House. As one source states, A volatile combination of press ballyhoo and widespread anti- British sentiment incited a claque of Forrests fans to disrupt a few of Macreadys performances. (Kenrick, musicals101. com). On the iniquity of May 10, 1849 while the in the first place upper class audience was enjoying their performance of Macbeth at the Astor Place Opera House, a mob of twenty thousand trim back and working class men skint into a full-scale riot.When the violence got out of control, the police fired their guns directly into the crowd, killing at least twenty-two, while hurt much than than 150 (Kenrick, musicals101. com). Robert W. Snyder says in the cyclopaedia of New York City that, After the Astor Place Riot of 1849 entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines ope ra was chiefly for the upper middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for the middle class, variety shows in cin one casert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle class. (Jackson, 1226).While there go away alship canal be fighting surrounded by the classes, it never again was centered around a theatrical sluicet. As New York City grew in population, more ways of entertainment were on the rise. Laura Keene became one of the first nationally recognized actress managers of the American degree (Kenrick, Musicals101. com). She produced and starred in many comedies and musicals at 622 Broadway. She set Broadways first long-run record with a 50 performance hit called The Elves in 1857, and continued to astound everyone with her musical Seven Sisters in 1860, which had 253 performances.With the Civil state of war going on during this time (1861-1865), this vastly expanded and upgraded railroads, which made it much more easier and affordable for the theatrical productions to tour. It was during one of these tours, when Laura Keenes troupe came to Fords Theater in Washington, DC for the pass over of 1865, that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while attending the performance of Our American cousin-german on April 14. Even though Keene had no control over Lincolns assignation, her name because so linked to the tragedy, that it soon forced her into retirement.Charles Hoyts A excite to Chinatown (1891) became Broadways long-run champion, with 657 performances (Kenrick, Musicals101. com). A Trip to Coontown was performed in 1898, and was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans in a Broadway theatre. In 1894, The Passing submit was the first Broadway revue. However, it received little attention, and revues would not really catch in popularity until Floren Ziegfeld introduced his Follies in 1907. (Zenrick, musicals101. om) Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 1900s, but New York Runs continued to be relatively short, in comparison to London runs. In 1910, smaller off-Broadway theatre groups really took up. They would setup grass over in smaller downtown venues, with the purpose of promoting experiments works, with people who may not make it to the city to see them. Some of the first groups were The Washington Square Players (later renamed the Theatre Guild), The Provincetown Players, and The vicinity Playhouse (Zenrick, Musicals101. om). Most of the first off-Broadway performances were socially challenging dramas (Zenrick, musicals101. com), for it wasnt until later when musicals became a discover of the off-Broadway scene. Since gaslight was not strong enough to be used with colored filters, theatre regularize advertising was dull through the 1890s. The first animated galvanising billboard appeared in quantify Square in 1903, with captain Herberts musical The Red Mill, install a sign with carbon lights that imit ated the revolving armor of a windmill.This sign used electric light, which was far brighter, and made advertising much easier. Soon, every Broadway show had some split up of electric sign, but since colored bulbs burned-over out too quickly, at first white lights were standard. This is where Broadway gets its name The Great albumin Way, because the largest of these eletric billboards, oftenly called spectaculars, were actually stopping business with the night glow that they gave off. (Zenrick, musicals101. com) In 1927, northeast lighting was introduced, which helped elongate shapes and bright colors.Broadways business peaked in the 1927-1928 season, as more ten 70 legitimate theatres housed over 250 shows, but then later dropped staggeringly in the 1930s in the depression, some Broadway productions even had to file for bankruptcy, such as lee side Shuberts productions (Zenrick, musicals101. com). Though eventually, World War II booseted the American economy, and many great musicals appeared in the 1940s, such as Oklahoma. Off-Broadway also increased, in small downtown theatres in Greenwich Village, and the Lower East Side that had been kin to experimental theatre since the 1920s.Such shows such as The Fantasticks opened in 1960, Godspell (1971), Little take a crap of Horrors (1982) Nunsense (1985) were born off-Broadway, and were very lucky (Zenrick, musicals101. com) During this time, mark the beginning of the Theatre Wings Tony Award. This award is theatres most prestigious and coveted prize, intentional to celebrate excellence in theatre (Tony Awards, tonyawards. com) The 1980s Broadway was took over by imported Mega-Musicals (Cats, Les Miserables), and the 1990s see the rise of big corporations such as Disney (Beauty and the Beast, Lion King).These hits brought more people to propagation Square, showing that the district had fresh commercial message potential. Big, new, hotels were built, and a series of corporations (MTV, ABC, etc) were n ow present in the neighborhood. (Zenrick, musicals101. com). For the book, New York, An Illustrated History states, By the late 1990s, a new Times Square had emerged cleaner, better lit, and more square than it had been in half a century, and busier and more profitable than it had been in decades. Each night as the sun went down, the district was modify into a glowing, shimmering diaphanous dish of light. (Burns, Sanders, & Ades, 554). Unfortunately, As theatrical productions got more technologically advanced, and theatrical production costs continued to rise, so did the price of tickets. Orchestra seats that erst went for $8 in 1965, were $45 in 1985, and up to $100 in 2001, which is a much higher rise than the overall price of living (Zenrick, musicals101. com) Modern mean solar day Broadway shows that can very expensive. The production of the play Wicked, which is currently in its one-seventh year on Broadway, has grossed nearly $1. one trillion million dollars, and ha s been seen by nearly 23 million people worldwide (Wicked Facts, newsobserver. com). The Phantom of the Opera is another Broadway play that has seen phenomenal success in its run. The show has received 7 Tony Awards, and been see by more then 10 million people. It has been on Broadway for over 17 years, making it the most successful production in the history of Broadway. In conclusion, New Yorks theatre district is once again a prime tourist attraction, and the theatrical productions remain a extensive factor in the citys financial well-being.According to the League of Theatre Owners and Producers, Broadway shows currently sell one and a half billion dollars expenditure of tickets annually (Zenrick, musicals101. com). Broadway Theater is a staple fiber in live entertainment, and something that is amazing to be able to see. Works Cited Kenrick, John. Theatre in New York A design History. Musicals101. com The Cyber cyclopaedia of Musicals. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 June 2010. <h ttp//www. musicals101. com/bwaythhist1. htm>. Henderson, Mary C.. Theater in America 200 Years of Plays, Players, and Productions. commencement ceremony Edition ed.New York Harry N Abrams, 1991. Print. Erenberg, Lewis A.. Steppin Out New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture. simoleons University Of Chicago Press, 1984. Print. IBDB The positive source for Broadway Information. IBDB The official source for Broadway Information. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 June 2010. <http//www. ibdb. com>. Jackson, Kenneth T. (Edited). The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven Yale University Press, 1955. Print. Ades, Lisa, Ric Burns, and James Sanders. New York An Illustrated History. Exp Sub ed. New York Knopf, 2003. Print.Greiner, Julie. A truncated Early History of Broadway Plays. A Brief Early History of Broadway Plays. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 June 2010. <http//broadway-plays. visit-new Wicked facts . News, Sports, Business, regime Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill T he News Observer. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 June 2010. http//www. newsobserver. com/ TonyAwards. com The American Theatre Wings Tony Awards Official Website by IBM. TonyAwards. com The American Theatre Wings Tony Awards Official Website by IBM. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 June 2010. <http//www. tonyawards. com>