Astor Place Theater: The History Of Broadway

Broadway has been around since the 1750s and is still extremely popular today. There are 41 theaters in the Theater District that are considered to be on Broadway. The Theater District/Broadway specifically refers to the area of 42nd to 53rd streets and from 6th to 8th avenues (“History of Theater on Broadway”). Broadway has changed exponentially over the centuries that it has been around. Through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to now, there has been a lot of history surrounding Broadway.

The 18th century is when the first reports of any theaters being established in the Theater District. In the article “The History of Broadway” it states that Walter Murray and Thomas established the first significant theater on Nassau Street in 1750. This

There were many theaters established during the 19th century, such as the Astor Place Theatre that was established in 1849. When the Astor Place Theatre was established there was riot that occurred because the lower class citizens, who attended shows at the much smaller Bowery Theatre, were offended by the upper class citizens that were able to attend shows at the new Astor Place Theatre. This caused separation between the theater performances in New York with the upper class going to the operas, the middle class going to the melodramas and the minstrel shows while the lower/working class went to the variety shows (“The History of Broadway Theatre”). One of the premier spots for night time shows was Niblo’s Garden. One of the first musicals, The Black Crook, took place in 1866. It was considered to be the first musical in terms of dance and original score (“History of Theater on Broadway”). One of the last theaters to be established during the 19th century was the Victoria Theater which was established in 1899 (“History of Theater on

During this time, many of the actors became unemployed and so they ran off to Hollywood to pursue their acting careers in film. Because of the lack of business many theaters were forced to close their doors (“History of Theater on Broadway”). The Roaring Twenties also had a large impact on Broadway. The music in during the Roaring Twenties took the focus away from the plot of the show and moved it to the individual cast members themselves. The motion pictures also began to have sound and music during this time period so this caused a loss of interest in the Broadway productions (“The History of Broadway Theatre”). While all of the attention was being drawn away from the Theater District they found a way to grab everyone’s attention again. The Theater District and Broadway together were deemed “The Great White Way” due to the new bright lights on the electric signs outside all of the theaters. They used white light bulbs, hence the name “The Great White Way”, because the colored bulbs seemed to burn out too quickly (“The History of Broadway”). There was another change to the productions that were shown during this time. A new style of shows began called “Princess Theatre” which was just translations of popular operettas into modern times (“The