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(All photographs are items from the author's private
collection, and should nit be used without permission.)
Technology Advances
 This postcard shows an aerial view of
Times Square in the 1930s with the distinctive shimmer of light that made it
"The Great White Way."
Gaslight was too dull to be used with colored filters, so theatre district
advertising was fairly dull through the 1890s.
Electric light was far brighter, making new kinds of lighting effects possible.
The first animated electric billboard appeared in Times Square in 1903, when
Victor Herbert's
musical The Red Mill
installed a sign with carbon lights that imitated the revolving arms of a
windmill. Soon every show had some kind of electrified signage. Colored
light bulbs were too unstable, so white light was standard. By 1905, the
largest of these electric billboards -- called "spectaculars" --
were actually stopping traffic in Times Square. The nightly glow earned Broadway
its new nickname, "The Great White
Way." With the the introduction of neon in 1927, bright colors
became part of the eye-popping mix.
Many Broadway producers treated their casts and crews like cattle. It
was common practice to schedule extra performances on holidays without
giving extra pay. Producers also fired people without notice, offered no
pay during rehearsals, and could insist on actors paying for their own
costumes. These abusive practices led to the formation of theatrical
unions, which most producers tried to ignore. In August 1919, the Actors
Equity Association called a strike, demanding that all professional
productions offer a standard contract. When the stage hands and musicians
refused to cross the picket lines, every show in Broadway was forced shut
down. After weeks of wrangling, the producers finally agreed to Equity's
demands. Some producers continued to abuse the new contract, but the power of
theatrical unions had been established.
Early Off-Broadway
Theatre in the 19th and early 20th centuries was not limited to the main
theatre district. Vaudeville and
burlesque venues thrived
in every borough, and there was a so-called "subway circuit" of
legitimate theatres in key neighborhoods.
Now and then, a Broadway hit was launched from one of these theatres –
the all-black revue Shuffle Along
premiered at the 63rd Street Music Hall
and remained there for 504 performances. But as a rule, these
neighborhood theatres housed the post-Broadway tours of major hits.
In the 1910s, smaller off-Broadway theatre groups were established
downtown with the express purpose of developing and promoting new
experimental works. The Washington Square Players (later renamed the
Theatre Guild), The Provincetown Players and The Neighborhood Playhouse
were among the early pioneers in this field. Eva Le Gallienne headed a
repertory company in the 1920s, and the next decade saw the Group Theatre
present a series of socially challenging dramas. It would be some time before
musicals became a regular part of the off-Broadway scene.
Best of Times, Worst of Times
By the 1920s, the Shubert Brothers had crushed the Erlanger syndicate, and were
the most powerful figures in the American commercial theatre. Although the upper
East and West sides of Manhattan filled with residential housing, the theatre
district remained firmly centered in an around Times Square. The
1920s saw a final burst of theatrical construction, with more than
thirty new venues appearing in the area. Most of the theatres the Shubert
built in New York and elsewhere were designed by architect Herbert J.
Krapp.
Krapp quickly won favor with the Shuberts
because of his ability to crowd as many seats as possible into a
theater., even if the public amenities had to be sacrificed. Often he
had to work with odd-shaped sites, but he always came up with a workable
solution. A Krapp-designed house is compact, intimate, and economical;
its acoustics are generally excellent; and its sightlines range from
satisfactory to very good. The facades are generally eclectic in a style
that might be best described as Krapp Conservative. Of the forty
theatres built in the immediate Times Square area, Krapp's playhouses
have proven to be the most enduring. Most of them still fly the Shubert
flag and have undergone periodic renovations that prolonged their
existence.
- Henderson, Theatre in America, p. 256.
The business of
Broadway peaked in season of 1927-28, when more 70 legitimate theatres
housed well over 250 shows. The proliferation of theatres in Times Square
created a unique opportunity for producers as well as ticket buyers.
At theater time, when many of the theatergoers
were wearing evening dress, the combination of streetcars and taxis made
the traffic sluggish. Most people walked. Theatres were built close
together because pedestrians were accustomed to shop from theater to
theater. Out for a good time, they provided some sort of audience for
the plays that were not hits. . . Theaters that had not sold out by six
o'clock sent bunches of their tickets to Joe Leblang's shop to be sold
at half price.
- Brooks Atkinson, Broadway (New York: Macmillan Publishing
Co., 1974), p. 176.
Within a few years, the
Great Depression and the popularity of talking film took their toll, and
the 1930s saw a perilous drop in the number of productions as well as
attendance. When the Shuberts were forced to declare bankruptcy, Lee Shubert
was the only man with money to bid when their theatres were auctioned off.
So he bought back his most profitable properties at a fraction of their
former value, and simultaneously put his brother Jacob in an inferior
position. Some lesser theatres were sold off and demolished, and others
were converted to use as film houses, but by and
large Lee kept Broadway's key venues intact and in use.
World War II re-energized the American economy, and many great musicals
appeared in the 1940s, particularly after Oklahoma (1943)
redefined the genre. But theatre rents, union minimums and advertising costs
rose, making it harder than ever for shows to turn a profit. So even as the
American musical enjoyed what many have called its "golden age,"
the number of Broadway productions continued (with occasional exceptions) to
gradually decline. The decades that followed saw their share of hits, but an
increasing number of producers looked for a less expensive alternative to
Broadway.
Off-Broadway Flourishes
Small downtown theatres in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side had been
home to experimental theatre since the 1920s. The environment changed in the
1950s as musicals became part of the off-Broadway mix. An ongoing parade of
profitable intimate revivals (Leave It to Jane), revues (Greenwich
Village USA) and quirky new book shows (Little Mary Sunshine)
began to prove that off-Broadway had unrealized commercial and artistic
possibilities. The Fantasticks opened in 1960, its forty-plus year
run marking a time when successful musical productions could emerge far
beyond the bounds of Broadway. From the tiny Cherry Lane Theatre
(Godspell - 1971) to the massive Brooklyn Academy of Music
(Candide - 1974 revival), hit musicals kept emerging all over the city.
Several small to midsize musicals conceived for off-Broadway rank among the
most popular works ever written, including Little Shop of Horrors (1982)
and Nunsense (1985). Broadway hits as diverse as Bring in Da'
Noise, Bring in Da' Funk (1996) and Urinetown (2001) were born
off-Broadway, and every season brings new, innovative works to New York's
smaller venues.
Resurrection of 42nd Street
 Once-squalid Times Square now greets theatergoers with
bright lights and familiar chain restaurants.
By the 1970s, Times Square was one of the tawdriest and most dangerous
neighborhoods in New York. The last quarter century saw the demolition of dozens
of old Broadway theatres, and the construction of only four new ones. The once
glamorous theatres along 42nd Street (including the New Amsterdam) were
all in varying states of disrepair, showing pornography and kung fu films. Many
felt the decline of Times Square was irreversible.
In 1975, the legendary entertainment and media
district – whose name and glittering image still drew tens of millions
of visitors each year – had degenerated in many places into a squalid,
crime-ridden twilight zone of sex shops, strip clubs and seedy bars. New
Yorkers themselves often took a kind of ironic civic pride in the fact
that the crossroads of the world now looked more like Skid Row than the
Great White Way, a prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics and swarms of
men in search of sex patrolled 42nd Street and the storied side streets
off Broadway and Times Square.
- Rick Burns & James Sanders with Lisa Ades, New York: An
Illustrated History (New York: Alfred Knopf, 2003), p. 554.
The 1980s saw Broadway dominated by imported
mega-musicals
(Cats, Les Miserables), and the 1990s saw the rise of
producing corporations like Disney (Beauty and the Beast, Lion King).
These hits brought more theatergoers to Times Square, proving that the district
had fresh commercial potential. As several new hotels were built, and a series
of major corporations (MTV, ABC, etc.) established a new presence there,
tawdriness gave way to a renewed sense of high tech glamour.
By the late 1990s, a new Times Square had emerged
– cleaner, better lit, and more wholesome than it had been in half a
century, and busier and more profitable than it had been in decades. Each
night as the sun went down, the district was transformed into a glowing,
shimmering diaphanous dish of light.
- Burns & Sanders, p. 554.
On the down side, theatrical production costs continued to
rise, and so did the price of tickets. Orchestra seats that went for $8 in 1965 were
$45 by 1985, and $100 by 2001 – a far steeper rise than the overall increase
in the cost of living. Theatre attendees became increasingly old and increasingly
well-heeled. With the young and the poor effectively shut out, the once popular
pastime of theatre was becoming a subculture for the select few who could either
afford it or secure complimentary tickets.
But New York's theatre
district is once again a prime tourist attraction, and the theatre remains a key
factor in the city's financial well-being. According to the League of Theatre
Owners and Producers, Broadway shows currently sell one and a half billion dollars worth
of tickets annually. Figure in hotels, restaurants and stores, and it is estimated that
theatergoers contribute four and a half billion dollars to the local economy.
However much skeptics may grumble about the future of New York and the viability of
commercial theatre, neither one is about to disappear.
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