New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
's Theater District (sometimes spelled Theatre District, and officially
zoned as the "Theater Subdistrict"
) is an area and
neighborhood in
Midtown Manhattan where most
Broadway theater
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...
s are located, as well as many other theaters, movie theaters, restaurants, hotels, and other places of entertainment. It is bounded by West
40th Street on the south, West
54th Street
54th Street is a two-mile-long (3.2 km), one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.
Notable places, west to east
Twelfth Avenue
*The route begins at Twelfth Avenue ( New York Route 9A). Opposite the intersection is the N ...
on the north,
Sixth Avenue on the east and
Eighth Avenue on the west, and includes
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
.
The Great White Way is the name given to the section of
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
which runs through the Theater District.
It also contains recording studios, record label offices, theatrical agencies, television studios, restaurants, movie theaters,
Duffy Square,
Shubert Alley
Shubert Alley is a pedestrian alley in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The alley, a privately owned public space, connects 44th and 45th Streets and covers about . It runs through the middle of a city block, paral ...
, the
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It was built in 1931 as t ...
, and
Madame Tussauds New York
Madame Tussauds New York (UK /təˈsɔːdz/, US /tuːˈsoʊz/; the family themselves pronounce it /ˈtuːsoʊ/) is a tourist attraction located on 42nd Street in the Times Square neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Madame Tussaud ...
.
Boundaries
The City of New York defines the subdistrict for zoning purposes to extend from 40th Street to 57th Street and from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue, with an additional area west of Eighth Avenue from
42nd Street to 45th Street. The Times Square Alliance, a
Business Improvement District organization dedicated to improving the Theater District, defines the district as an irregularly shaped area within the
bounding box
In geometry, the minimum or smallest bounding or enclosing box for a point set in dimensions is the box with the smallest measure (area, volume, or hypervolume in higher dimensions) within which all the points lie. When other kinds of measure ...
of 40th Street, 6th Avenue, 53rd Street, and 9th Avenue. As of 2018, the
Vivian Beaumont Theater
The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a Broadway theater in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Operated by the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), the Beaumont is the only Bro ...
(part of
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
) is the only Broadway-class theater not located in the Theater District.
Other nearby theater areas
The area known as
Theatre Row is an area on 42nd Street from
Ninth Avenue to
Eleventh Avenue, which includes many
Off-Broadway and
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the pro ...
theaters.
History
Origins and early history
In 1836, mayor
Cornelius Lawrence opened 42nd Street to encourage the city's northern expansion, saying "
move up town and enjoy the pure, clean air".
The Theater District began attracting theaters and restaurants after the
Metropolitan Opera House moved to West 39th Street and
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in 1883.
Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 18461 August 1919) was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was ...
opened his
Victoria Theatre on 42nd Street in 1899.
Accessibility to the Theater District improved as electrified trolley lines started in 1899, followed by the opening of the
New York City Subway's
first line in 1904.
"The Great White Way" is a nickname for a section of Broadway in
Midtown Manhattan that encompasses the Theater District. In 1880, Broadway between
Union Square
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
and
Madison Square
Madison Square is a town square, public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway at 23rd Street (Manhattan), 23rd Street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. The square ...
was illuminated by
Brush arc lamps, making it among the first electrically lighted streets in the United States. By the 1890s,
23rd Street to
34th Street was so brightly illuminated by electrical advertising signs people began calling it "The Great White Way". As the theater district shifted uptown just before the turn of the century, the nickname stuck and became synonymous.
Over the years, the district has been referred to by New Yorkers as "the Rialto", "The Main Stem", and "Broadway". Around the turn of the 20th century, it was simply called "The Street".
By the 1970s, 42nd Street was seedy and run-down;
X-rated
An X rating is a rating used in various countries to classify films that have content deemed suitable only for adults. It is used when the violent or sexual content of a film is considered to be potentially disturbing to general audiences.
Aust ...
movie houses,
peep show
A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot.
Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the c ...
s, and so-called
grind houses began to locate there. It was considered by some New Yorkers as a somewhat dangerous place to venture. However, in the 1990s the entire area was significantly revitalized by the city. Most of the adult theater businesses closed and an array of new theaters, multiplex movie houses, restaurants, and tourist attractions opened.
In 1974, the exterior of the
Lyceum Theatre became the first Broadway theatre to receive the landmark status designation from the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC).
This was followed in 1979 by the exterior and interior of the
New Amsterdam Theatre
The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater on 214 West 42nd Street, at the southern end of Times Square, in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City. One of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, the New Amsterdam was built fro ...
.
Preservation
Joe Papp's "Save the Theatres" campaign
In early 1982,
Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created ...
, the Broadway theatrical producer, and director who had established
The Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...
, led a campaign called "
Save the Theatres
Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a y ...
" in Manhattan. The primary initial goal of the "Save the Theatres" effort, which was sponsored by Papp's not-for-profit group and supported by the
Actors Equity
The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a boo ...
union, was to save several theater buildings in the Theatre District neighborhood from their impending demolition by monied Manhattan development interests.
Papp provided financial resources, campaign buttons, posters, and newspaper ads for the effort; recruited a publicist and actors to promote the cause; and provided a various stage and street venues for public events in support of the campaign for saving the historic theatres.
At Papp's behest, in July 1982, U.S. Representative
Donald J. Mitchell of New York, and 13 co-sponsors, introduced a bill entitled "A bill to designate the Broadway/Times Square Theatre District in the City of New York as a national historic site" ().
The proposed legislation, which was not enacted, would have required the
Federal Government to aid financially and otherwise in preserving the district and its historic theatre houses as an official
National Historic Site.
[
The Save the Theatres campaign then turned their efforts toward supporting the establishment of the Theater District as a New York City historic district under the purview of the LPC.] 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. Mayor Ed Koch
Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was ma ...
ultimately responded by creating a Theater Advisory Council, that included Papp as a member, and which eventually led to the area being officially zoned as the "Theater Subdistrict". Each theater's land lot could be developed with a certain maximum floor area, but many theaters used far less floor area than the maximum. The zoning plan allowed the unused development rights on the theaters' site to be sold to developers of nearby buildings that needed more than the maximum floor area.
Landmark status for individual theaters
The LPC considered protecting close to 50 "legitimate theaters" as individual city landmarks in 1982, following the destruction of the Helen Hayes and Morosco theatres. A city-landmark status would prevent the theaters from being modified without the LPC's permission, thereby protecting them from development. The landmarks under consideration included both facades and interiors, which were designated separately. Manhattan Community Board 5, under whose jurisdiction the vast majority of the theaters fell, supported many of the proposed landmark protections. An advisory panel under mayor Koch voted to allow the LPC consider theaters not only on their historical significance but also on their architectural merits. In response to objections from some of the major theatrical operators, several dozen scenic and lighting designers offered to work on the LPC for creating guidelines for potential landmarks.
The first theaters to be landmarked under the 1982 plan were the Neil Simon
Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...
, Ambassador, and Virginia (August Wilson) in August 1985. The landmark plan was then deferred temporarily until some landmark guidelines were enacted; the guidelines, implemented in December 1985, allowed operators to modify theaters for productions without having to consult the LPC. The three theaters' operators objected to the landmark statuses.
Landmark designations of theaters increased significantly in 1987, starting with the Palace in mid-1987. The LPC designated the Al Hirschfeld, Belasco, Booth
Booth may refer to:
People
* Booth (surname)
* Booth (given name)
Fictional characters
* August Wayne Booth, from the television series ''Once Upon A Time''
*Cliff Booth, a supporting character of the 2019 film ''Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' ...
, and Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for '' The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of hi ...
, as well as the Broadhurst, Ethel Barrymore, and Biltmore in early November 1987. This was followed by the Cort, 46th Street (Richard Rodgers), John Golden
John Lionel Golden (June 27, 1874 – June 17, 1955) was an American actor, songwriter, author, and theatrical producer. As a songwriter, he is best-known as lyricist for " Poor Butterfly" (1916). He produced many Broadway shows and four films. ...
, Hayes, Hudson, Imperial, and Mark Hellinger
Mark John Hellinger (March 21, 1903 – December 21, 1947) was an American journalist, theatre columnist and film producer.
Biography Early life
Hellinger was born into the Orthodox Jewish family of Mildred "Millie" (nee Fitch) and Pol Helli ...
later the same month, as well as the Embassy, which was never a Broadway venue. In December 1987, the LPC designated the Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
, Henry Miller's (Stephen Sondheim), Longacre, Lunt-Fontanne, Majestic, Music Box
A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or ''lamellae'' ...
, and Plymouth (Gerald Schoenfeld) as landmarks, as well as the Lyceum's interior. These actions brought the number of current or former Broadway theaters with landmark status to 26. Five more landmarks were designated by early 1988: the Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American television personality, impresario, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the ''New York Daily News'' and the Chicago Tribune New Yor ...
, Royale (Bernard B. Jacobs), Shubert, St. James, and Winter Garden
A winter garden is a kind of garden maintained in wintertime.
History
The origin of the winter garden dates back to the 17th to 19th centuries where European nobility would construct large conservatories that would house tropical and subtro ...
.
In March 1988, the New York City Board of Estimate
The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments effec ...
approved the 28 landmark designations that had been approved in 1987 and 1988. Of these, both the interior and exterior of 19 theaters were protected, while only the interiors of seven theaters (including the Lyceum, whose exterior was already protected) and the exteriors of two theaters were approved. Several theater owners argued that the landmark designations impacted them negatively, despite Koch's outreach to theater owners. The Shuberts, the Nederlanders, and Jujamcyn
Jujamcyn Theaters LLC , formerly the Jujamcyn Amusement Corporation, is a theatrical producing and theatre-ownership company in New York City. For many years Jujamcyn was owned by James H. Binger, former Chairman of Honeywell, and his wife, Virgi ...
collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which the theaters could be modified. The New York Supreme Court upheld the LPC's designations of these theaters the next year. The dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which upheld the designations in 1992.
Theater Subdistrict zoning
In January 2001, the New York Appellate Division, First Department in ''Fisher v. Giuliani'', partially upheld the 1998 expansion of the Theater Subdistrict zoning regulations, which added receiving sites along Eighth Avenue where development rights from the landmarked Broadway theaters could be sold. Community and civil society organizations opposed the expansion of the district as it would impinge the nearby residential neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen/Clinton. The court objection, filed in 1999, did not challenge the pre-existing Theater Subdistrict itself or the original development rights zoning legislation.
Under the 1998 zoning regulation, New York City also created the Theater Subdistrict Council (TSC), a not-for-profit corporation. The TSC administers the Theater Subdistrict Fund and allocates grants.
The New York City Zoning Resolution for special purpose districts, as amended on April 30, 2012, contains special regulations for the Theater Subdistrict, including the transfer of development rights, incentives for the rehabilitation of existing theaters, the creation of a theater council to promote theaters, and zoning and signage for theaters, and contains a list of theaters that qualify for special provisions in the regulations.
Points of interest
* Statue of Francis P. Duffy by Charles Keck
Charles Keck (September 9, 1875 – April 23, 1951) was an American sculptor from New York City, New York.
Early life and education
Keck studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York with Philip Martiny ...
( Duffy Square, Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
)
* Statue of George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...
by Georg John Lober and architect Otto Langman ( Duffy Square, Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
)
See also
*
* List of Broadway theaters
*Boston Theater District
The Boston Theater District is the center of Boston's theater scene. Many of its theaters are on Washington Street, Tremont Street, Boylston Street, and Huntington Avenue.
History
Plays were banned in Boston by the Puritans until 1792. Bos ...
* Buffalo Theatre District
*Cleveland Theater District
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in Northeast Ohio along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the U.S. maritime border with ...
* Theater in Detroit
*Houston Theater District
The Houston Theater District, a 17-block area in the heart of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States, is home to Houston's nine professional performing arts organizations, the Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas, and ...
*Broadway Theater District (Los Angeles)
The Broadway Theater District in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch ...
* Theatre District, San Francisco
* Yiddish Theatre District
References
Informational notes
Notes
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* Bianco, Anthony (2004). ''Ghosts of 42nd Street: A History of America's Most Infamous Block''. New York: HarperCollins Books, . A detailed history that focuses primarily of the Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
Theater District from the beginning of the 20th century through its successful revival/restoration in the late 20th century.
External links
NYC.com Visitor Guide: Theater District
(official site of New York City)
Theater District Dining
(official site of Times Square)
{{authority control
Entertainment districts in New York (state)
Neighborhoods in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
Theatre in New York City