Broadway Media history

Supporters of each actor would attend the other’s performances to heckle and throw items at them, with tensions eventually leading to the riot itself on 10 May 1849.

A “musical burletta,” had a then-record 253 show run in 1860.

The performance of this show took place in 1866, and it ran for 474 performances.

One of the early theaters, around 1899, was the Victoria Theater on 42nd Street.

Located on West 45th Street, it was built in 1903, and its first production was The Proud Prince.

For example, the Interborough Rapid Transit, or IRT, opened in 1904 and made it easier for more people to travel to the Theater District and was highly beneficial to the area’s growth.

The 1906 release of The Red Mill at the Knickerbocker Theatre saw the first use of electronic signage outside theaters.

Lightnin’ was the first Broadway show to reach the landmarks of 700 and 1,000 shows within a single run, eventually closing on 1,291 performances after its 1918 premiere.

By the late 1920’s, there were between 70 and 80 Broadway theaters drawing in audiences with a variety of shows.

During the 1927-28 season, Broadway had its busiest season of productions, with as many as 280 performances, and its highest numbers in terms of attendance.

During and after World War II, several big productions, such as Oklahoma! in 1943, would propel Broadway theater to new heights and its Golden Age.

Louis Armstrong’s 1964 recording of Hello Dolly! hit number one in the US Billboard Chart, knocking The Beatles’ Can’t Buy Me Love from the top spot and ending the group’s 14-week run at the top.

In 1974, the theater was named a landmark, the first Broadway theater to earn the designation.

The New Amsterdam was added to the National Register of Historic Places six years after the Lyceum Theater, in 1980.

However, in 1983, today’s Theater Subdistrict was established, which led to the protection of many buildings.