Broadway History (synthesis)

Broadway is a theatre district located in Manhattan in New York City, and for a performance to be considered Broadway it must be held in any of the 40 professional theaters that have 500 or more seats found in this area, for a show to be held here is a great success (https://www.theaterseatstore.com/history-of-broadway (paragraph 1)).

Broadway did not begin until 1750 when Thomas Kean and Walter Murray opened a theater company on Nassau Street. Usually Shakespearian plays and ballad operas were performed. In the city theatre stopped because of the Revolutionary War but started back up in 1798, and the Park Theatre was built.

In the 19th Century more theatre’s were built and put on both musical and non-musical shows. “In 1849 the Astor Place Theatre opened and a riot occurred when the lower class audience that frequented the Bowery took offense to the snobbery of the upper class audiences that attended the Astor. This riot separated theater in New York as the upper classes attended the opera, the middle class attended melodramas and minstrel shows and the working class attended the variety shows”(https://www.theaterseatstore.com/history-of-broadway (19th Century)). Shakespeare was still very popular and his plays were put on, in 1868 Burlesque came to New York when the theatre troupe “British Blondes” arrived.

Moving into the 20th century the “Princess theatre” shows became popular. During this time the famous Broadway signs had begun with “The Red Mill” as the first show to get it’s own sign. Later on theatre experienced a low point because of silent films.