From 19th century burlesque to Irving Berlin, from the Great Depression to the popular musical blockbuster Wicked, the history of the Broadway theatre district has been an eventful one. The oldest Broadway theatre, the Fifth Avenue Theatre, came into existence in 1873 when an old theater was renamed and opened by theatre manager Augustin Daly. Popular burlesque and vaudeville shows could be seen there, in addition to Gilbert and Sullivan operettas such as The Pirates of Penzance. Soon after that, the circus came to Broadway–the Garden Theatre on Madison Avenue, converted from an old railroad station in 1890, was then leased by P. T. Barnum for his shows. Demolished and rebuilt first as Madison Square Garden, it was later renamed the Garden Theatre by the famous architectural firm McKim, Mead, & White.
What would Broadway be without Irving Berlin? The Music Box Theater, built in 1921, is best known for Berlin’s “Music Box Reviews,” which ran for four years, after which it has housed both musicals and plays. Then, of course, there’s the Ziegfield Follies. The New Amsterdam theatre, opened in 1903 with an elaborate Art Nouveau faade, was the home of the Follies until Ziegfield later opened his own theater. When the Great Depression struck, the theatre district was hit hard, with 31 theatres forced to close by 1931. The New Amsterdam was henceforth converted to a movie house, the old Art Nouveau faade unceremoniously stripped off. Many years later, in 1997, it was restored and reopened as a theatre again by Disney, though the faade remains absent.
Another theatre to remember is The Winter Garden, built in 1911. Its large size convenient for musical productions, it is most well-known for running Cats for 19 years, and is now the home of Mamma Mia. And the Ziegfield, located at 6th and 54th, was opened in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfield with financial backing from William Randolph Hearst. Its second show was the famed Show Boat, and it premiered other notable musicals such as Brigadoon and Kismet. It was razed in 1966 to great public outcry, but a movie house was soon built and named in honor of it. Today there are forty active Broadway theatres in existence, and just a little research into their pasts reveals the setting for some of Broadway’s greatest moments.