Broadway Theatre

The Broadway Theatre at 1681 Broadway between 52nd and 53rd Street, opened on 30 December 1924 as B. S. Moss's Colony Theatre, is one of the few Broadway theatres located directly on the eponymous avenue (most are on side streets). With 1,761 seats it is also the largest house under the Shubert Organization umbrella and ranks among the four largest theatres on Broadway. Architect Eugene De Rosa designed it as a movie palace in the late Beaux-Arts style — the venue presented films through the 1930s, including the New York premiere of Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" featuring the world debut of Mickey Mouse on 18 November 1928. The conversion to a live theatre took place in 1940. Since then the Broadway has hosted some of the most iconic large-scale productions of the American musical: "This Is the Army" by Irving Berlin (1942), "South Pacific" (Lincoln Center revival, 1949), the original production of "Evita" (1979–1983), Cameron Mackintosh's blockbuster "Les Misérables" (1990–2003 in its second long run after the Imperial Theatre), Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard" (1994–1997), the multi-Tony-winning "Miss Saigon" revival (2017), and "King Kong" (2018–2020) with its half-ton animatronic puppet. The auditorium combines width with relatively shallow depth — orchestra, mezzanine, and balcony create unusually broad sightlines that suit spectacle productions. The Grand Beaux-Arts proscenium remains preserved, while the interior was modernised in stages from the 1960s onward. The Broadway Theatre belongs to the Shubert Organization, the largest theatre owner in New York; its prominent street-facing marquee on Broadway makes it one of the most photographed theatre frontages in Manhattan.