Broadway Theatre (53rd Street)


The Broadway Theatre is a Broadway theatre located in midtown Manhattan. It has a large seating capacity of 1,761, and unlike most Broadway theaters, it is actually located on Broadway, at number 1681.
Designed by architect Eugene De Rosa for Benjamin S. Moss, it opened as B.S. Moss's Colony Theatre on Christmas Day, 1924, as a venue for vaudeville shows and motion pictures. The theater has operated under many names and owners. It was renamed Universal's Colony Theatre, B.S. Moss' Broadway Theatre, and Earl Carroll's Broadway Theatre before becoming a legitimate theater house simply called Broadway Theatre on December 8, 1930. In 1937, known as Ciné Roma, it showed Italian films. For a short time during the 1950s it showed Cinerama films.
On November 18, 1928, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released to the public, Steamboat Willie, debuted at the Colony. Producer Walt Disney returned on November 13, 1940, to debut the feature film Fantasia in Fantasound, an early stereo system.
The legitimate theater opened in 1930 with The New Yorkers by Cole Porter. Stars such as Milton Berle, Alfred Drake, José Ferrer, Eartha Kitt, Vivien Leigh, Zero Mostel, and Mae West have appeared on stage.
The Shubert Organization bought the theater in 1939 and renovated it extensively in 1956 and 1986. It has long been a popular theatre for producers of musicals because of large seating capacity, and the large stage, which is nearly sixty feet deep. Often plays that have become successful in smaller theaters have transferred to the Broadway Theatre.
The theatre has been closed as of March 12, 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. It does not plan on opening until January 3, 2021.

Notable productions

ProductionFirst previewOpening dateClosing dateNotes
The Three MusketeersOctober 26, 1984November 11, 1984November 18, 1984
The King and IJanuary 7, 1985June 30, 1985
Les MisérablesFebruary 28, 1987March 12, 1987October 14, 1990Moved to the Imperial Theatre three days later to run until May 18, 2003.
Miss SaigonMarch 23, 1991April 11, 1991January 28, 2001
Blast!April 5, 2001April 17, 2001
La bohèmeNovember 29, 2002December 8, 2002June 29, 2003Staged by Baz Luhrmann
SexaholixNovember 11, 2003December 7, 2003
Bombay DreamsMarch 29, 2004April 29, 2004January 1, 2005
The Color PurpleNovember 1, 2005December 1, 2005February 24, 2008
Shrek The MusicalNovember 8, 2008January 3, 2010
Promises, PromisesMarch 27, 2010April 25, 2010January 2, 2011
Sister ActMarch 24, 2011April 20, 2011August 26, 2012
Rodgers and Hammerstein's CinderellaJanuary 25, 2013March 3, 2013January 4, 2015
Doctor ZhivagoMarch 27, 2015April 21, 2015May 10, 2015
Fiddler on the RoofNovember 20, 2015December 20, 2015December 31, 2016Fifth Broadway revival
Miss SaigonMarch 1, 2017March 23, 2017January 14, 2018Limited engagement; first Broadway revival
RocktopiaMarch 20, 2018April 29, 2018Limited engagement
King KongOctober 5, 2018November 8, 2018August 18, 2019
West Side StoryDecember 10, 2019February 20, 2020Broadway revival