New York – Broadway Theater

The center of theater life in New York is Broadway, with musical performances for all tastes. Broadway is the theater district in Times Square between 41st and 53rd Streets and between Sixth and Ninth Avenues. There are about 40 large theaters in this neighborhood and about 1500 off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway performances per year in smaller theaters.

The first theater to move from the previous theater district in Herald Square to Times Square was the Empire Theater. The building was built by Charles Frohman in 1893 with 1000 seats. It was located directly opposite the Metropolitan Opera House, at its old location between 39th and 40th Streets, at the corner of Broadway. Broadway experienced a large number of new theatres in the period from 1910 to 1930. The oldest theatre from this period is the Lyceum, which opened in 1903. It was the first theatre with electric light in the entire building. The lighting was installed by Thomas Alva Edison at the time.

In the 1980s, Broadway was overwhelmed by a veritable death of theatre. However, due to a complete restructuring of the theatre industry, this crisis is now a thing of the past. The biggest Broadway successes were Cats, 42nd Street, Les Misérables, Lion King and The Producers.

Not far from Central Park is the Metropolitan Opera House MET. The Metropolitan Opera Company is firmly established here. In addition to the large well-known theatres, there are a large number of small houses, the Off-Off Broadway houses, which enrich the scene.