Broadway theatre,^{[nb 1]} orBroadway, is a theater genre that consists of thetheatrical performances presented in 41 professionaltheaters, each with 500 or more seats, in theTheater District andLincoln Center alongBroadway, inMidtown Manhattan, New York City.^[1][2] Broadway andLondon'sWest End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in theEnglish-speaking world.^[3]

While theBroadway thoroughfare is eponymous with the district, it is closely identified withTimes Square. Only three theaters are located on Broadway itself: theBroadway Theatre,Palace Theatre, andWinter Garden Theatre. The rest are located on the numbered cross streets, extending from theNederlander Theatre one block south of Times Square on West 41st Street, north along either side of Broadway to53rd Street, andVivian Beaumont Theater, atLincoln Center on West 65th Street. While exceptions exist, the term "Broadway theatre" is used predominantly to describe venues with seating capacities of at least 500 people. Smaller theaters in New York City are referred to asoff-Broadway, regardless of location, while very small venues with fewer than 101 seats are calledoff-off-Broadway, a term that can also apply to non-commercial,avant-garde, or productions held outside of traditional theater venues.^[4]

The Theater District is an internationally prominenttourist attraction in New York City. According toThe Broadway League, shows on Broadway sold approximately US$1.54 billion worth of tickets in both the 2022–2023 and the 2023–2024 seasons. Both seasons featured theater attendance of approximately 12.3 million each.^[5]

Most Broadway shows aremusicals. HistorianMartin Shefter argues that "Broadway musicals, culminating in the productions ofRodgers and Hammerstein, became enormously influential forms ofAmerican popular culture" and contributed to making New York City thecultural capital of the world.^[6]

New York City's first significant theatre was established in the mid-18th century, around 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at theTheatre on Nassau Street inLower Manhattan, which held about 280 people. They presentedWilliam Shakespeare's plays andballad operas such asThe Beggar's Opera.^[7] In 1752,William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brotherLewis as their manager. They established a theatre inWilliamsburg, Virginia, and opened withThe Merchant of Venice andThe Anatomist. The company moved to New York in 1753, performingballad operas and ballad-farces likeDamon and Phillida.

During theRevolutionary War, theatre was suspended in New York City. But after the war's end, theatre resumed in 1798, when the 2,000-seatPark Theatre was built on Chatham Street on present-dayPark Row.^[7] A second major theatre,Bowery Theatre, opened in 1826,^[8] followed by others.

By the 1840s,P.T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in Lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street,Niblo's Garden opened and soon became one of New York's premier nightspots. The 3,000-seat theatre presented all sorts ofmusical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844,Palmo's Opera House opened and presented opera for only four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burton's Theatre. TheAstor Opera House opened in 1847. A riot broke out in 1849 when the lower-class patrons of the Bowery Theatre objected to what they perceived as snobbery by the upper-class audiences at Astor Place: "After theAstor Place Riot of 1849,entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper-middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for the middle-class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle-class."^[9]

The plays ofWilliam Shakespeare were frequently performed on the Broadway stage during the period, most notably by American actorEdwin Booth who was internationally known for his performance asHamlet. Booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at theWinter Garden Theatre in 1865 (with the run ending just a few months before Booth's brotherJohn Wilkes Booth assassinatedAbraham Lincoln), and would later revive the role at his ownBooth's Theatre (which was managed for a time by his brotherJunius Brutus Booth Jr.). Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era wereHenry Irving,Tommaso Salvini,Fanny Davenport, andCharles Fechter.

Theatre in New York moved fromDowntown gradually toMidtown Manhattan, beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the area that now comprises theTheater District was owned by a handful of families and comprised a few farms. In 1836, MayorCornelius Lawrence opened42nd Street and invited Manhattanites to "enjoy the pure clean air."^[10] Close to 60 years later, theatrical entrepreneurOscar Hammerstein I built the iconicVictoria Theater on West 42nd Street.^[10]

Broadway's first "long-run" musical was a 50-performance hit calledThe Elves in 1857. In 1870, the heart of Broadway was inUnion Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were nearMadison Square. Theatres arrived in theTimes Square area in the early 1900s, and the Broadway theatres consolidated there after a large number were built around the square in the 1920s and 1930s. New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London,^[11] butLaura Keene's "musical burletta"The Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances.

The first theatre piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical, adding dance and original music that helped to tell the story, is considered to beThe Black Crook, which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866. The production was five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year,The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy".^[12]

Tony Pastor opened the firstvaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, whereLillian Russell performed. ComediansEdward Harrigan andTony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 (The Mulligan Guard Picnic) and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-lawDavid Braham. These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from the everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward from vaudeville and burlesque, towards a more literate form. They starred high-quality professional singers (Lillian Russell,Vivienne Segal, andFay Templeton), instead of the amateurs, often sex workers, who had starred in earlier musical forms.

As transportation improved, poverty in New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of potential patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. As in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with lessprostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women.Gilbert and Sullivan's family-friendlycomic opera hits, beginning withH.M.S. Pinafore in 1878, were imported to New York (by the authors and also in numerous unlicensed productions). They were imitated in New York by American productions such asReginald Dekoven'sRobin Hood (1891) andJohn Philip Sousa'sEl Capitan (1896), along with operas, ballets, and other British and European hits.

Charles H. Hoyt'sA Trip toChinatown (1891) became Broadway's long-run champion when it surpassedAdonis and its 603 total performances in 1893, holding the stage for 657 performances.Chinatown itself was surpassed by the musicalIrene (1919) in 1921 as the longest-running Broadway musical, and even earlier, in March 1920, byLightnin' (1918) as the longest-running Broadway show. In 1896, theatre ownersMarc Klaw andA. L. Erlanger formed theTheatrical Syndicate, which controlled almost every legitimate theatre in the U.S. for the next sixteen years.^[13] However, smaller vaudeville and variety houses proliferated, andOff-Broadway was well established by the end of the nineteenth century.

A Trip to Coontown (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed byAfrican Americans in a Broadway theatre (inspired largely by the routines of theminstrel shows), followed by theragtime-tingedClorindy: The Origin of the Cakewalk (1898), and the highly successfulIn Dahomey (1902). Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 1900s made up of songs written in New York'sTin Pan Alley involving composers such asGus Edwards,John Walter Bratton, andGeorge M. Cohan (Little Johnny Jones (1904),45 Minutes From Broadway (1906), andGeorge Washington Jr. (1906)). Still, New York runs continued to be relatively short, with a few exceptions, compared with London runs, untilWorld War I.^[11]A few very successful British musicals continued to achieve great success in New York, includingFlorodora in 1900–01.

In the early years of the twentieth century, translations of popular late-nineteenth century continental operettas were joined by the "Princess Theatre" shows of the 1910s, by writers such asP. G. Wodehouse,Guy Bolton, andHarry B. Smith.Victor Herbert, whose work included some intimate musical plays with modern settings as well as his string of famous operettas (The Fortune Teller (1898),Babes in Toyland (1903),Mlle. Modiste (1905),The Red Mill (1906), andNaughty Marietta (1910)).^[14]

Beginning withThe Red Mill, Broadway shows installed electric signs outside the theatres. Since colored bulbs burned out too quickly, white lights were used, and Broadway was nicknamed "The Great White Way". In August 1919, theActors' Equity Association demanded a standard contract for all professional productions. After a strike shut down all the theatres, the producers were forced to agree. By the 1920s, theShubert Brothers had risen to take over the majority of the theatres from the Erlanger syndicate.^[15]

During this time, the playLightnin' byWinchell Smith andFrank Bacon became the first Broadway show to reach 700 performances. From then, it would go on to become the first show to reach 1,000 performances.Lightnin' was the longest-running Broadway show until being overtaken in performance totals byAbie's Irish Rose in 1925.

The motion picture mounted a challenge to the stage. At first, films weresilent and presented only limited competition. By the end of the 1920s, films likeThe Jazz Singer were presented with synchronized sound, and critics wondered if cinema would replace live theatre altogether. While live vaudeville could not compete with these inexpensive films that featured vaudeville stars and major comedians of the day, other theatres survived. The musicals of theRoaring Twenties, borrowing from vaudeville,music hall, and other light entertainment, tended to ignore plot in favor of emphasizing star actors and actresses, big dance routines, and popular songs.

Florenz Ziegfeld produced annual spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets and elaborate costumes, but there was little to tie the various numbers together. Typical of the 1920s were lighthearted productions such asSally;Lady Be Good;Sunny;No, No, Nanette;Harlem;Oh, Kay!; andFunny Face. Their books may have been forgettable, but they produced enduring standards fromGeorge Gershwin,Cole Porter,Jerome Kern,Vincent Youmans, andRodgers and Hart, among others, andNoël Coward,Sigmund Romberg, andRudolf Friml continued in the vein of Victor Herbert. Live theatre has survived the invention of cinema.

Leaving these comparatively frivolous entertainments behind and taking the drama a step forward,Show Boat premiered on December 27, 1927, at theZiegfeld Theatre. It represented a complete integration of book and score, with dramatic themes, as told through the music, dialogue, setting, and movement, woven together more seamlessly than in previous musicals. It ran for 572 performances.^[16]

The 1920s also spawned a new age of American playwright with the emergence ofEugene O'Neill, whose playsBeyond the Horizon,Anna Christie,The Hairy Ape,Strange Interlude, andMourning Becomes Electra proved that there was an audience for serious drama on Broadway, and O'Neill's success paved the way for major dramatists likeElmer Rice,Maxwell Anderson,Robert E. Sherwood,Clifford Odets,Tennessee Williams, andArthur Miller, as well as writers of comedy likeGeorge S. Kaufman andMoss Hart. Classical revivals also proved popular with Broadway theatre-goers, notablyJohn Barrymore inHamlet andRichard III,John Gielgud inHamlet,The Importance of Being Earnest andMuch Ado About Nothing,Walter Hampden andJosé Ferrer inCyrano de Bergerac,Paul Robeson and Ferrer inOthello,Maurice Evans inRichard II and the plays ofGeorge Bernard Shaw, andKatharine Cornell in such plays asRomeo and Juliet,Antony and Cleopatra, andCandida.

In 1930,Theatre Guild's production ofRoar, China! was Broadway's first play with a majority Asian cast.^[17]

AsWorld War II approached, a dozen Broadway dramas addressed the rise of Nazism in Europe and the issue of American non-intervention. The most successful wasLillian Hellman'sWatch on the Rhine, which opened in April 1941.^[18]

After the lean years of theGreat Depression, Broadway theatre had entered a golden age with the blockbuster hitOklahoma!, in 1943, which ran for 2,212 performances. According toJohn Kenrick's writings on Broadway musicals, "Every season saw new stage musicals send songs to the top of the charts. Public demand, a booming economy and abundant creative talent kept Broadway hopping. To this day, the shows of the 1950s form the core of the musical theatre repertory."^[19]

Kenrick notes that "the late 1960s marked a time of cultural upheaval. All those changes would prove painful for many, including those behind the scenes, as well as those in the audience."^[20] Of the 1970s, Kenrick writes: "Just when it seemed that traditional book musicals were back in style, the decade ended with critics and audiences giving mixed signals."^[21]

Ken Bloom observed that "The 1960s and 1970s saw a worsening of the area [Times Square] and a drop in the number of legitimate shows produced on Broadway."^[22] By way of comparison, in the 1950 to 1951 season (May to May), 94 productions opened on Broadway; in the 1969 to 1970 season (June to May), there were 59 productions (fifteen were revivals).^[23][24] In the 1920s, there were 70–80 theaters; however, by 1969, there were 36 left.^[25]

During this time, many Broadway productions struggled due to low attendance rates, which resulted in perceived mediocrity among such plays. For this reason, theTheatre Development Fund was created with the purpose of assisting productions with high cultural value that likely would struggle without subsidization, byoffering tickets to those plays to consumers at reduced prices.^[26]

In early 1982,Joe Papp, the theatrical producer and director who establishedThe Public Theater, led the "Save the Theatres" campaign.^[27] It was a not-for-profit group supported by theActors Equity union to save the theater buildings in the neighborhood from demolition by monied Manhattan development interests.^{[28][29][30][31]} Papp provided resources, recruited a publicist and celebrated actors, and provided audio, lighting, and technical crews for the effort.^[29]

At Papp's behest, in July 1982, a bill was introduced in the97th Congress, entitled "H.R.6885, A bill to designate the Broadway/Times Square Theatre District in the City of New York as a national historic site".^[32] The legislation would have provided certain U.S. government resources and assistance to help the city preserve the district.^[32] Faced with strong opposition and lobbying byMayor Ed Koch's Administration and corporate Manhattan development interests, the bill was not passed. The Save the Theatres campaign then turned their efforts to supporting the establishment of the Theater District as a registeredhistoric district.^[33][34] In December 1983, Save the Theatres prepared "The Broadway Theater District, a Preservation Development and Management Plan", and demanded that each theater in the district receive landmark designation.^[34] MayorEd Koch ultimately reacted by creating a Theater Advisory Council, which included Papp.^[29]

Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic in New York City, Broadway theaters closed on March 12, 2020, shuttering 16 shows that were playing or were in the process of opening. The Broadway League shutdown was extended first to April, then to May, then June, then September 2020 and January 2021,^[35] and later to June 1, 2021.^[36] Then-governorAndrew Cuomo announced that most sectors ofNew York would have their restrictions lifted on May 19, 2021, but he stated that Broadway theatres would not be able to immediately resume performances on this date due to logistical reasons. In May 2021, Cuomo announced that Broadway theaters would be allowed to reopen on September 14, and the League confirmed that performances would begin to resume in the fall season.^[37]

Springsteen on Broadway became the first full-length show to resume performances, opening on June 26, 2021, to 1,721 vaccinated patrons at theSt. James Theatre.^[38]Pass Over then had its first preview on August 4, and opened on August 22, 2021, becoming the first new play to open.^[39][40]Hadestown andWaitress were the first musicals to resume performances on September 2, 2021.^[41] The74th Tony Awards were also postponed; the Tony nominations were announced on October 15, 2020,^[42] and took place on September 26, 2021.^[43] On July 30, 2021, it was announced that all Broadway theaters required attendees to provide proof of fullCOVID-19 vaccination. The rule applied to guests ages 12+. Those under age 12 were required to provide a negative COVID-19 test (PCR within 72 hours or antigen within six hours of the performance start time). Beginning November 8, those ages 5–11 also had the option to provide proof of at least one vaccination shot. Effective December 14, in accordance with NYC's vaccination mandate, guests ages 5–11 were required to have at least one vaccination shot until January 29, 2022, where they had to be fully vaccinated.^[44] The vaccine mandate lasted until April 30,^[45][46] and attendees were also required to wearface masks until July 1.^[47]

During the COVID-19 shutdown, the Shubert Organization, the Nederlander Organization, and Jujamcyn had pledged to increase racial and cultural diversity in their theaters, including naming at least one theater for a Black theatrical personality.^[48] TheAugust Wilson Theatre, owned by Jujamcyn, had been renamed after Black playwrightAugust Wilson in 2005.^[49] The Shuberts announced in March 2022 that theCort Theatre, which was under renovation at the time, would be renamed after actorJames Earl Jones.^[50][51] In June 2022, the Nederlanders announced that theBrooks Atkinson Theatre would be renamed afterLena Horne,^[52][53][49] The James Earl Jones Theatre was rededicated in September 2022,^[54] while the Lena Horne Theatre was rededicated that November.^[55]

Although there are some exceptions, shows with open-ended runs generally have evening performances Tuesday through Saturday, with a 7:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. "curtain". The afternoon "matinée" performances are at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays and at 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. This makes for an eight-performance week. On this schedule, most shows do not play on Monday and the shows and theatres are said to be "dark" on that day.^[56][57] The actors and the crew in these shows tend to regard Sunday evening through Monday evening as their weekend. The Tony award presentation ceremony is usually held on a Sunday evening in June to fit this schedule.

In recent years, some shows have moved their Tuesday show time an hour earlier to 7:00 pm.^[56] The rationale for this move was that since fewer tourists take in shows midweek, Tuesday attendance depends more on local patrons. The earlier curtain makes it possible for suburban patrons to get home by a reasonable hour after the show. Some shows, especially thoseDisney produces, change their performance schedules fairly frequently depending on the season. This is done in order to maximize access to their target audience.

Most Broadway producers and theatre owners are members ofThe Broadway League (formerly "The League of American Theatres and Producers"), a trade organization that promotes Broadway theatre as a whole, negotiates contracts with the various theatrical unions and agreements with the guilds, and co-administers theTony Awards with theAmerican Theatre Wing, a service organization. While the League and the theatrical unions are sometimes at loggerheads during those periods when new contracts are being negotiated, they also cooperate on many projects and events designed to promote professional theatre in New York.

Of the four non-profit theatre companies with Broadway theatres, all four (Lincoln Center Theater,Manhattan Theatre Club,Roundabout Theatre Company, andSecond Stage Theatre) belong to theLeague of Resident Theatres and have contracts with the theatrical unions which are negotiated separately from the other Broadway theatre and producers. (Disney also negotiates apart from the League, as didLivent before it closed down its operations.)

The majority of Broadway theatres are owned or managed by three organizations: theShubert Organization, a for-profit arm of the non-profit Shubert Foundation, which owns seventeen theatres; theNederlander Organization, which controls nine theatres; andATG Entertainment, which owns seven Broadway houses.

Both musicals and straight plays on Broadway often rely on casting well-known performers in leading roles to draw larger audiences or bring in new audience members to the theatre. Actors from film and television are frequently cast for the revivals of Broadway shows or are used to replace actors leaving a cast. There are still, however, performers who are primarily stage actors, spending most of their time "on the boards", and appearing in screen roles only secondarily. As Patrick Healy ofThe New York Times noted:

Broadway once had many homegrown stars who committed to working on a show for a year, asNathan Lane has forThe Addams Family. In 2010, some theater heavyweights like Mr. Lane were not even nominated; instead, several Tony Awards were given for productions that were always intended to be short-timers on Broadway, given that many of their film-star performers had to move on to other commitments.^[58]

According to Mark Shenton, "One of the biggest changes to the commercial theatrical landscape—on both sides of the Atlantic—over the past decade or so is that sightings of big star names turning out to do plays has [sic] gone up; but the runs they are prepared to commit to has gone down. Time was that a producer would require a minimum commitment from his star of six months, and perhaps a year; now, the 13-week run is the norm."^[59]

The minimum size of the Broadway orchestra is governed by an agreement with the musicians' union (Local 802, American Federation of Musicians) and The Broadway League. For example, the agreement specifies the minimum size of the orchestra at the Minskoff Theatre to be eighteen, while at the Music Box Theatre it is nine.^[60]

Most Broadway shows are commercial productions intended to make a profit for the producers and investors ("backers" or "angels"), and therefore have open-ended runs (duration that the production plays), meaning that the length of their presentation is not set beforehand, but depends on critical response, word of mouth, and the effectiveness of the show's advertising, all of which determine ticket sales. Investing in a commercial production carries a varied degree of financial risk. Shows need not make a profit immediately; should they make their "nut" (weekly operating expenses), or lose money at a rate acceptable to the producers, they may continue to run in the expectation that, eventually, they will pay back their initial costs and become profitable. In some borderline situations, producers may ask that royalties be temporarily reduced or waived, or even that performers—with the permission of their unions—take reduced salaries, to prevent a show from closing. Theatre owners, who are not generally profit participants in most productions, may waive or reduce rents, or even lend money to a show to keep it running.

Some Broadway shows are produced by non-commercial organizations as part of a regular subscription season—Lincoln Center Theatre,Roundabout Theatre Company,Manhattan Theatre Club, andSecond Stage Theater are the four non-profit theatre companies that currently have permanent Broadway venues. Some other productions are produced on Broadway with "limited engagement runs" for several reasons, including financial issues, prior engagements of the performers, or temporary availability of a theatre between the end of one production and the beginning of another. However, some shows with planned limited engagement runs may, after critical acclaim or box office success, extend their engagements or convert to open-ended runs. This was the case with 2007'sAugust: Osage County, 2009'sGod of Carnage, 2012'sNewsies, and 2022'sTake Me Out.^[61]

Historically, musicals on Broadway tend to have longer runs than "straight" (i.e., non-musical) plays. On January 9, 2006,The Phantom of the Opera at theMajestic Theatre became the longest-running Broadway musical, with 7,486 performances, overtakingCats.^[62]The Phantom of the Opera closed on Broadway on April 16, 2023, soon after celebrating its 35th anniversary, after a total of 13,981 performances.^[63][64]

Attending a Broadway show is a commontourist activity in New York. TheTKTS booths sell same-day tickets (and in certain cases, next-day matinee tickets) for many Broadway andOff-Broadway shows at a discount of 20 to 50%.^[65] The TKTS booths are located inTimes Square, inLower Manhattan, and atLincoln Center. This service is run byTheatre Development Fund. Many Broadway theatres also offer special student rates, same-day "rush" or "lottery" tickets, or standing-room tickets to help ensure that their theatres are as full—and their grosses as high—as possible.^[66]

According toThe Broadway League, total Broadway attendance was 14.77 million in 2018–2019, compared to 13.79 million in 2017–2018.^[67] The average age of the Broadway audience in the 2017–18 theater season was 40, the lowest it had been in nearly two decades.^[68] By 2018, about 20% of Broadway tickets were sold to international visitors, although many visitors reported not being able to use their tickets.^[69] In 2022–2023, the first full season since the COVID-19 pandemic, Broadway theaters sold 12.3 million tickets, of which 35% were to local residents and 17% to international visitors. At the time, the average age of theatergoers was 40.4; nearly two-thirds of the audience were women; and 29% identified as a racial minority.^[70]

The classification of theatres is governed by language inActors' Equity Association contracts. To be eligible for a Tony, a production must be in a house with 500 seats or more and in the Theater District, which are the criteria that define Broadway theatre.Off-Broadway andoff-off-Broadway shows often provide a more experimental, challenging, and intimate performance than is possible in the larger Broadway theatres. Some Broadway shows, however, such as the musicalsHair,Little Shop of Horrors,Spring Awakening,Next to Normal,Rent,Avenue Q,In the Heights,Fun Home,A Chorus Line,Dear Evan Hansen, andHamilton, began their runs Off-Broadway and later transferred to Broadway, seeking to replicate their intimate experience in a larger theatre. Other productions are first developed throughworkshops and then out-of-towntryouts before transferring to Broadway.Merrily We Roll Along famously skipped an out-of-town tryout and attempted to do an in-town tryout—actuallypreview performances—on Broadway before its official opening, with disastrous results.^[71][72]

After, or even during, successful runs in Broadway theatres, producers often remount their productions with new casts and crew for the Broadway national tour, which travels to theatres in major cities across the country. Sometimes when a show closes on Broadway, the entire production, with most if not all of the original cast intact, is relaunched as a touring company, hence the name "Broadway national tour". Some shows may even have several touring companies out at a time, whether the show is still running in New York or not, with many companies "sitting down" in other major cities for their own extended runs. For Broadway national tours of top-tier cities, the entire Broadway production is transplanted almost entirely intact and may run for many months (or years) at each stop. For example, the first U.S. tour ofThe Phantom of the Opera required 26 53-foot-long (16.1 m)semi-trailers to transport all its sets, equipment, and costumes, and it took almost 10 days to properly unload all those trucks and install everything into a theater.^[73]

Second-tier and smaller cities can also attract national tours, but these are more likely to be "bus and truck" tours.^[73] These are scaled-down versions of the larger, national touring productions, historically acquiring their name because the casts generally traveled by bus instead of by air, while the sets and equipment traveled by truck. Tours of this type often run for weeks rather than months, and frequently feature a reduced physical production to accommodate smaller venues and tighter schedules, and to fit into fewer trucks.^[73] A typical second-tier city can usually sell only up to about eight shows (one week) of tickets.^[73] For cities smaller than that, a touring production might move twice a week ("split weeks") or every day ("one-nighters").^[73] For "bus and truck" tours, the production values are usually less lavish than the typical Broadway national tour or national touring production, and the actors, while still members of the actors' union, are compensated under a different, less lucrative union contract. TheTouring Broadway Awards, presented byThe Broadway League, honored excellence in touring Broadway.

Broadway productions and artists are honored by the annual Antoinette Perry Awards (commonly called the "Tony Awards", or "Tonys"), given by theAmerican Theatre Wing andThe Broadway League, and that were first presented in 1947.^[74] The Tony is Broadway's most prestigious award, comparable to theAcademy Awards forHollywood film productions. Their importance has increased since 1967 when the awards presentation show began to be broadcast on national television. In a strategy to improve the television ratings, celebrities are often chosen to host the show, some with scant connection to the theatre.^[75] The most recent Tony Awards ceremony was held onJune 16, 2024. Other awards given to Broadway productions include theDrama Desk Award, presented since 1955, theNew York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, first given in 1936, and theOuter Critics Circle Award, initially presented in 1950.

• An * after the opening date indicates that the listed production has yet to open and is scheduled for the given date at that theatre.
• An * after the closing date indicates that there is another show scheduled for that theatre.
• If the next show planned is not announced, the applicable columns are left blank.
• Capacity is based on the capacity given for the respective theatre at theInternet Broadway Database.^[76]

The following shows are confirmed as future Broadway productions. The theatre in which they will run is either not yet known or currently occupied by another show.

• Ackerman, Alan. "Liberalism, Democracy, and the Twentieth-Century American Theater",American Literary History (2005) 17#4 pp. 765–780.
• Bordman, Gerald.American Musical Comedy (Oxford University Press, 1982)
• Bordman, Gerald.American Operetta (Oxford University Press, 1981)
• Knapp, Raymond.The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity (Princeton University Press, 2005)
• Middeke, Martin, et al.The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights (2013)
• Mordden, Ethan.Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre (2013)
• Roudane, Matthew Charles.American Drama Since 1960: A Critical History (1996)
• Shiach, Don.American Drama 1900–1990 (2000)
• Stempel, Larry.Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater (WW Norton, 2010) 826 pp.
• Weales, Gerald Clifford.American drama since World War II (1962)
• White, Timothy R.Blue-Collar Broadway: The Craft and Industry of American Theater (2014)
• Wolf, Stacy.Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical (2010)

• The Internet Broadway Database
• The Houses of Broadway,The New York Times, April 30, 2010