Off Broadway

Down the middle of the section of New York City where most of the major theatre productions are made runs the street called Broadway. This street is so filled with major theatres that the name Broadway has become synonymous with theatre productions. But Broadway is not the only street in New York where theater-goers enjoy plays and musicals.

In the first half of the twentieth century, small budget plays and musicals could not afford the high costs of these big Broadway theatres, and so the producers looked for smaller, lower-cost places that were located off Broadway. Soon, the theaters in the so-called off-Broadway sections of New York City became home for plays that were considered experimental and therefore not potential big moneymakers. In the 1950s, many avant-garde playwrights like Edward Albee and Sam Shepard had their plays produced off Broadway, as did Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett...