List of Broadway theaters

There are 41 active Broadway theaters listed by The Broadway League in New York City, as well as eight existing structures that previously hosted Broadway theatre. Beginning with the first large long-term theater in the city, the Park Theatre built in 1798 on Park Row just off Broadway, the definition of what constitutes a Broadway theater has changed multiple times. The current legal definition is based on a 1949 Actors' Equity agreement with smaller theaters in New York to allow union members to perform, dividing theater spaces in the city into the system of Broadway and Off-Broadway seen today. Current union contracts clearly spell out if a production is "Broadway" or not, but the general rule is that any venue that mostly hosts legitimate theater productions, is generally within Manhattan's Theater District, and has a capacity over 500 seats is considered a Broadway theater. Previous to this legal demarcation a Broadway production simply referred to a professional theatrical production performed in a theater in Manhattan, and the theaters that housed them were called Broadway theaters.
While Broadway theaters are colloquially considered to be "on Broadway", only two active Broadway theaters are physically on Broadway. The Vivian Beaumont Theater, located in Lincoln Center, is the furthest north and west of the active theaters, while the Nederlander Theatre is the southernmost and the Belasco Theatre is the easternmost space. The oldest Broadway theaters still in use are the Hudson Theatre, Lyceum Theatre, and New Amsterdam Theatre, all opened in 1903, while the most recently constructed theater is the Lyric Theatre, built in 1998. The largest of the Broadway theaters is the 1,933-seat Gershwin Theatre, while the smallest is the 597-seat Hayes Theater.
The beginning of Broadway theater can be traced to the 19th-century influx of immigrants to New York City, particularly Yiddish, German and Italian, who brought with them indigenous and new forms of theater. The development of indoor gas lighting around this same time period allowed for the construction of permanent spaces for these novel theatrical forms. Early variety, burlesque, and minstrelsy halls were built along Broadway below Houston Street. As the city expanded north, new theaters were constructed along the thoroughfare with family-friendly vaudeville, developed by Tony Pastor, clustering around Union Square in the 1860s and 1870s, and larger opera houses, hippodromes, and theaters populating Broadway between Union Square and Times Square later in the century. Times Square became the epicenter for large scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression.
There is no standard date that is considered the beginning of Broadway-style theatre. A few landmarks that are considered the beginning of the Broadway era include the 1866 opening of The Black Crook at Niblo's Garden, considered the first piece of American style musical theater, the 1913 founding of the Actors' Equity Association, the union for New York Theater performers, and the 1919 Actors' Equity Association strike which gave actors and performers the recognition of a "fully legitimate professional trade". Mary Henderson in her book The City and the Theatre breaks down theater on the street Broadway into three time periods. "Lower Broadway" from 1850 to 1870, "Union Square and Beyond" from 1870 to 1899, and "Times Square: the First Hundred Years". The current official Broadway/Off-Broadway division began with the 1949 Actors' Equity agreement.

Active Broadway theaters

The current definition of a Broadway theater is based on the 1949 Actors' Equity agreement dividing Broadway from Off-Broadway, but in the general psyche Broadway theaters are considered theatrical houses which host productions that can be nominated for Tony Awards. The American Theater Wing and The Broadway League, as presenters of these awards, have sole discretion to include or omit theaters from the list of Tony-eligible houses, but use the same standards and criteria as Actors' Equity does. The four main underlying criteria these organizations use to determine a Broadway theater are:

Has a capacity of over 500 seats.
Produces mostly legitimate theater productions.
Is generally within Manhattan's Theater District
Is under an Actors' Equity "Production" contract if the theater is for-profit, or follows an Actors' Equity "LORT A" contract if the theater is run by a non-profit.

The following list contains the 41 theaters listed on the Internet Broadway Database, which is run by The Broadway League, that are considered active Broadway theaters and can host productions eligible for Tony Awards.

Existing former Broadway theaters

There are eight theaters that once were considered Broadway houses that are still standing but no longer present Broadway theatre performances.

Theater former name	Address	Opened	Last Broadway production	Current use	Owner/operator	Image
Edison Theatre The Edison Ballroom The Arena Theatre Edison Theatre		1931	1991 Those Were the Days	Event space	Hotel Edison
Ed Sullivan Theater CBS Studio No. 50 CBS Radio Playhouse No. 1 Manhattan Theatre Billy Rose's Music Hall Manhattan Theatre Hammerstein's Theatre		1927	1936 Help Yourself	Television studio	CBS
Empire Theatre Laff Movie Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre		1912	1931 First Night	Movie theater	AMC Theatres
Liberty Theatre		1904	1933 Masks and Faces	Event space	Liberty Theater Catering & Events
New Victory Theater The Victory Theatre Republic Belasco Theatre Theatre Republic		1900	1930 Pressing Business	Off-Broadway Theatre for Young Audiences	New 42nd Street
Sony Hall The Diamond Horseshoe Century Theatre Mayfair Theatre Stairway Theatre Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe		1938	1982 Waltz of the Stork	Concert venue	Blue Note Entertainment Group
Times Square Church Mark Hellinger Theatre 51st Street Theatre Hollywood Theatre Warner Brothers Theatre		1930	1989 Legs Diamond	Nondenominational church	Times Square Church
Times Square Theater		1920	1933 Forsaking All Others	vacant	New 42nd Street

Demolished Broadway theaters

The definition of "Broadway Theater" was more subjective before the Tony Awards era. Variety, burlesque, minstrelsy halls, vaudeville, opera houses, hippodromes, and theaters all laid claim to the moniker. There are multiple historic moments considered the beginning of Broadway theatre as a style including:

1866 – The Black Crook, considered the first piece of American style musical theater, opened at Niblo's Garden.
1919 – The newly-formed actors' union, Actors' Equity, went on a month-long strike. This strike gave actors and performers the recognition of a "fully legitimate professional trade", framing this style of theater as not just being an art, but also a full trade with the actors as laborers.
1949 – Actors' Equity came to an agreement with smaller theaters in New York to allow union members to perform for a "token salary" alongside non-union members in their houses. This created the current legal division between Broadway and Off-Broadway theaters.

The Internet Broadway Database lists all large venues in the general Theater District or Broadway areas of their time. The following lists organize all 95 demolished venues which hosted legitimate theater and appear on the Database. The theaters are organized into four lists based on when their last theatrical production opened compared to the three moments that may be considered the beginning of Broadway theatre. All theaters are listed by the name in use when their last theatrical production took place.

Post-1949 agreement

The 1949 Actors' Equity agreement is the largest defining moment in the classification of Broadway theaters. It granted smaller theaters in New York the ability to hire union members to perform, as long as they were paid a "token salary", alongside non-union members in their houses. This new union contract laid out a legal division between Broadway and the newly defined Off-Broadway theaters. The following list notes the 19 theaters that housed Broadway productions after this agreement went into effect and have since been demolished.

Theater former name	Opened	Last theatre production	Demolished
48th Street Theatre Windsor Theatre 48th Street Theatre	1912	1951 Jotham Valley	1955
Bijou Theatre Bijou Theatre Toho Cinema D. W. Griffith Theatre CBS Studio No. 62 Bijou Theatre	1917	1981 Passionate Ladies	1982
Center Theatre RKO Center RKO Roxy Theatre	1932	1950 Howdy, Mr. Ice of 1950	1954
Central Theatre Club USA Movieland Forum 47th Street Theatre Forum Theatre Odeon Theatre Holiday Theatre Gotham Theatre Central Theatre Columbia Theatre Central Theatre	1918	1956 Debut	1998
Empire Theatre	1893	1953 The Time of the Cuckoo	1953
George Abbott Theatre 54th Street Theatre Adelphi Theatre Yiddish Arts Theatre Radiant Center Adelphi Theatre Craig Theatre	1928	1970 Gantry	1970
Harkness Theatre RKO Colonial Theatre Hampden's Theatre New Colonial Theatre Keith's Colonial Theatre Colonial Theatre Colonial Music Hall	1905	1977 Ipi Tombi	1977
Helen Hayes Theatre Folies-Bergere Fulton Theatre	1911	1981 I Won't Dance	1982
International Theatre Columbus Circle International Theatre Park Theatre Theatre of Young America Cosmopolitan Theatre Minsky's Park Music Hall Park Theatre Majestic Theatre	1903	1949 The Young and Fair	1954
Latin Quarter Princess Theatre 22 Steps Cine Lido Latin Quarter Cotton Club Ubangi Club Palais Royal	1913	1986 Mayor	1989
Morosco Theatre	1917	1981 The Moony Shapiro Songbook	1982
New Apollo Theatre Academy Theatre New Apollo Theatre Apollo Theatre Bryant Theatre	1910	1983 The Guys in the Truck	1996
New Century Theatre Jolson's 59th Street Theatre Molly Picon Theatre Jolson's 59th Street Theatre Venice Theatre Shakespeare Theatre Central Park Theatre Jolson's 59th Street Theatre	1921	1954 The Azuma Kabuki Dancers and Musicians	1962
Playhouse Theatre	1911	1967 The Impossible Years	1969
President Theatre Mamma Leone's restaurant Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop President Theatre 48th Street Theatre Show Shop American Show Shop Acme Theatre Artef Theatre President Theatre Midget Theatre Caruso Theatre Hindenburg Theatre President Theatre Edyth Totten Theatre	1926	1954 Stockade	1988
Rialto Theatre	1916	1982 Blues in the Night	2002
Vanderbilt Theatre	1918	1954 Ruth Draper	1954
Ziegfeld Theatre	1927	1965 Anya	1966

Post-1919 actors' strike

The 1919 Actors' Equity Association strike was a turning point for the profession of acting in New York City. Actors' Equity, the union for performers and actors, founded only a few years earlier in 1913, used this month-long strike to cement acting as a "fully legitimate professional trade", where the performers produced labor for a now-official industry, Broadway theatre. The following list notes the 34 theaters that housed Broadway productions after this strike ended but closed before the 1949 Actors' Equity agreement.

Theater former name	Opened	Last theatre production	Demolished
39th Street Theatre Nazimova's 39th Street Theatre	1910	1926 Laff That Off	1926
44th Street Theatre Weber and Fields' Music Hall	1912	1945 On the Town	1945
49th Street Theatre Cinema 49 49th Street Theatre	1921	1938 The Wild Duck	1940
American Music Hall American Theatre	1893	1939 The Girl from Wyoming	1932
Astor Theatre	1906	1925 June Days	1982
Avon Theatre CBS Radio Playhouse No. 2 Avon Theatre Klaw Theatre	1921	1934 Tight Britches	1954
Belmont Theatre Theatre Parisien Belmont Theatre Norworth Theatre	1918	1940 Mum's the Word	1951
Broadway Theatre Metropolitan Concert Hall	1880	1929 Broadway Fever	1929
Casino de Paris Century Grove Century Promenade Cocoanut Grove Theatre	1909	1928 The Optimists	1930
Casino Theatre	1882	1930 Faust	1930
Casino Theatre Casa Manana French Casino Theatre Casino Theatre Earl Carroll Theatre	1922	1933 Melody	1990
Century Theatre Century Opera House Century Theatre New Theatre Millionaires' Theatre	1909	1926 The Student Prince	1930
Charles Hopkins Theatre Embassy 49th Street Theatre World Theatre Westminster Cinema Charles Hopkins Theatre Punch and Judy Theatre	1914	1932 Housewarming	1987
Civic Repertory Theatre Haverly's 14th Street Theatre 14th Street Theatre Theatre Français	1866	1936 Bitter Stream	1938
Concert Theatre Elysee Theatre Cort's 58th Street Theatre Rock Church Concert Theatre Fine Arts Filmarte Theatre Cort's 58th Street Theatre John Golden Theatre	1926	1942 Of V We Sing	1985
Criterion Theatre Vitagraph Theatre Criterion Theatre Olympia Theatre: Lyric	1895	1920 The Letter of the Law	1935
Daly's 63rd Street Theatre Experimental Theatre Gilmore's 63rd Street Theatre Park Lane Theatre Recital Theatre Coburn Theatre Daly's 63rd Street Theatre 63rd Street Music Hall Cort's 63rd Street Theatre 63rd Street Music Hall	1914	1941 Ghost for Sale	1957
Fay's Bowery Theatre Thalia Theatre Bowery Theatre New York Theatre	1826	1929 Under the Gaslight	1929
Fifth Avenue Theatre New Fifth Avenue Theatre St. James Theatre Gilsey's Apollo Hall	1868	1935 Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl	1939
Gaiety Theatre Embassy Five Theatre Victoria Theatre Gaiety Theatre	1908	1932 Collision	1982
Garrick Theatre Theatre du Vieux Columbier Garrick Theatre Harrigan's Theatre	1890	1930 Winter Bound	1932
George M. Cohan's Theatre	1911	1933 The Dubarry	1938
Hippodrome Theatre	1905	1936 Jumbo	1939
Jardin de Paris New York Roof Cherry Blossom Grove Winter Garden Theatre Olympia Theatre: Roof Garden	1895	1911 Ziegfeld Follies of 1911	1935
Knickerbocker Theatre Abbey's Theatre	1893	1929 Sweet Land of Liberty	1930
Lyric Theatre	1903	1934 Gypsy Blonde	1934
Maxine Elliott's Theatre CBS Studio No. 51 CBS Radio Playhouse No. 5 WOR Mutual Radio Maxine Elliott's Theatre	1908	1948 Ballet Ballads	1960
Mercury Theatre Artef Theatre Mercury Theatre Comedy Theatre Collier's Comedy Theatre Comedy Theatre	1909	1939 Tell My Story	1942
Nora Bayes Theatre Lew Fields' 44th Street Roof Garden	1913	1939 First American Dictator	1945
Princess Theatre Cinema Verdi Little Met Cinema Dante Princess Theatre Labor Stage Theatre Reo Cinema Assembly Theatre Princess Theatre Lucille La Verne Theatre Princess Theatre	1913	1947 Virginia Reel	1955
Sam H. Harris Theatre Cohan and Harris Candler Theatre	1914	1933 Pigeons and People	1996
Waldorf Theatre	1926	1933 Dangerous Corner	1968
Wallack's Theatre Wallack's Theatre Frazee Theatre Harris Theatre Hackett Theatre Lew M. Fields Theatre	1904	1930 Find the Fox	1997

Post-1866 ''Black Crook'' production

In 1866 The Black Crook opened at Niblo's Garden, a theater on Broadway, near Prince Street. While there are strong arguments against it, this piece is considered the first piece of American-style musical theater. Whether or not it is truly the first musical, The Black Crook marks a turning point where Broadway became less about the variety, burlesque, and minstrel shows of the past, and began to be known more for the large-scale book musical which still reigns today.
The following list notes the 30 theaters that housed Broadway productions after The Black Crook opened but closed before the 1919 Actors' Equity strike.

Theater former name	Opened	Last theatre production	Demolished
Abbey's Park Theatre New Park Theatre	1847	1882 Divorçons	1882
Academy of Music	1854	1912 The Girl from Brighton	1926
Bandbox Theatre Adolf Philipp's Fifty-Seventh Street Theatre	1912	1917 Nju	1969
Barnum's New American Museum Buckley's Opera House Chinese Rooms	1850	1866 Jack and Gill Went Up the Hill	1868
Bijou Theatre Brighton Theatre	1878	1912 The Truth Wagon	1915
Broadway Theatre Wallack's Lyceum Theatre Brougham's Lyceum Theatre	1850	1868 A Flash of Lightning	1869
Circle Theatre	1901	1910 The Chocolate Soldier	1954
Daly's Theatre Broadway Theatre Wood's Museum and Metropolitan Banvard's Museum	1867	1912 The Drone	1920
Garden Theatre Madison Square Garden Gilmore's Garden	1870?	1917 Three Plays for a Negro Theater	1925
Grand Opera House Pike's Opera House	1868	1915 Jack's Romance	1960
Herald Square Theatre New Park Theatre	1883	1908 The Worth of a Woman	1915
Hoyt's Theatre Madison Square Theatre Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre Brougham's Theatre Fifth Avenue Opera House	1865	1912 Everywoman	1908
Koster and Bial's Music Hall Bon Ton Koster and Bial's Music Hall Bryant's Opera House	1870	1901 Nell Gwynne	1924
Lyceum Theatre	1885	1902 The Girl and the Judge	1902
Madison Square Roof Garden	1890	1908 Ski-Hi	1925
Manhattan Theatre Standard Theatre Eagle Variety	1875	1907 The Mills of the Gods	1909
New Bowery Theatre	1859	1867 Little Boy Blue	1866
New Theatre Comique Globe Theatre Worrell Sisters' New York Theatre New York Theatre Lucy Rushton's New York Theatre Athenaeum	1865	1868 Pickwick Papers	1884
Olympia Theatre Loew's New York New York Theatre Moulin Rouge New York Theatre Olympia Theatre: Music Hall	1895	1914 The Traffic	1935
Niblo's Garden	1829	1894 A Tale of Corsica	1895
Olympic Theatre Laura Keene's Theatre	1856	1879 Assommoir	1880
Paradise Roof Garden Venetian Terrace Roof Garden	1899	1903 Punch, Judy & Company	1935
Princess Theatre Hermann's Gaiety Theatre San Francisco Music Hall Jack's Theatre Theatre Comique Jonah Theatre	1875	1907 A Doll's House	1907
Savoy Theatre Schley Music Hall	1900	1910 Children of Destiny	1933
Star Theatre Wallack's Theatre	1861	1901 The Convict's Daughter	1901
Theatre Comique Wood's Minstrel Hall	1862	1872 Ixion	1872
Victoria Theatre Rialto Theatre Victoria Theatre	1899	1904 Lew Dockstader's Minstrels	1915
Wallack's Theatre Palmer's Theatre Wallack's Theatre	1882	1915 The Doctor's Dilemma	1915
Weber's Music Hall Weber and Fields' Broadway Music Hall Imperial Music Hall	1892	1913 Alibi Bill	1917
Winter Garden Theatre Burton's New Theatre Laura Keene's Variety House Metropolitan Hall Jenny Lind Hall Tripler Hall	1850	1867 The Merchant of Venice	1867
Windsor Theatre German Winter Garden New Stadt Theatre Windsor Theatre	1855		1910

Pre-musical

The following list notes the 12 theaters that housed Broadway productions from the beginning of theater in New York City but closed before the opening of The Black Crook.
Before the advent of the musical there were multiple theaters in New York that claimed the moniker of "Broadway", including an 1847 theater named the Broadway Theatre. While most early theaters were short-lived and housed touring productions from Europe, that changed with the construction of the Park Theatre in 1798. These newly constructed, long-term theaters grew in number through the nineteenth century, clustered around Broadway, and began hosting a wide array of ethnic and new forms of entertainment.

Theater former name	Opened	Last theatre production	Demolished
American Theatre Broadway Boudoir Fellow's Opera House	1854	1864 The House That Jack Built	1866
Anthony Street Theatre Pavilion Theatre Olympic Theatre	1800	1820 Virginius	1821
Barnum's American Museum	1841	1865 The Green Monster	1865
Booth's Theatre	1869	1838 The Outlaw	1965
Broadway Theatre	1847	1856 King Charming	1859
Burton's Chambers Street Theatre Ferdinand Palmo's Opera House	1844	1860 The Romance of a Poor Young Man	1876
John Street Theatre Theatre Royal John Street Theatre	1767	1796 Edwin and Angelina	1797
Nassau Street Theatre Van Dam Theatre New Theatre	1732	1754 King Lear	1758
National Theatre Italian Opera House	1833	1853 Uncle Tom's Cabin	1841
Olympic Theatre	1837	1848 A Glance at New York In 1848	1854
Park Theatre New Theatre	1798	1848 Met-A-Mora	1848
Richmond Hill Theatre New York Opera House Italian Opera House Richmond Hill Theatre	1831	1832 The Hunchback	1849