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Broadway Theater maintains glamour amid fierce competition

Broadway Theater maintains glamour amid fierce competition
Broadway Theater maintains glamour amid fierce competition

By Ahmad Al-Furaij

NEW YORK, Nov 24 (KUNA) -- Despite mounting challenges, the prestigious Broadway Theater, located along Broadway St, in Manhattan, New York City, was able to continue its strong presence and retain its three-century long lorry.

The challenges facing the global theatrical movement include, inter alia, the fierce competition from other means of entertainment, the high costs of production, including the fares of artists and musicians, and the scarcity of creative texts and talented dramatists.
Nevertheless, Broadway Theater, that refers to performances presented at the 41 professional theaters with 500 or more in the Theater District and Lincoln Center, continues to maintain its popularity, representing the highest level of commercial theater in the English-speaking world.
The Theater District, a tourist destination in New York City, attracted a total attendance of 13,270,343 in the 2016-2017 season, ending on May 21, according to The Broadway League. The Broadway performances had USD 1,449,399,149 in grosses, with attendance down 0.4 percent, grosses up 5.5 percent, and playing weeks down 4.1 percent. The Broadway shows are mainly musical. These musicals, "culminating in the productions of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, became enormously influential forms of American popular culture," says Martin Shefter.
They helped make New York City "the cultural capital of the nation," Shefter, a notable American political scientist, historian and author, added.
Until 1750 when Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a theater company at the Theater on Nassau St. with a seating capacity of 280, the city and the United States at large had no significant theatrical presence.
The two actors and managers often presented Shakespearean plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera, written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch.
In 1752, William Hallam - an English theatre manager (1712 - 1758), sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager.
The company established a theater in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with the Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist.
It moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida.
The American War of Independence (1775-1783), suspended theatrical movement until 1798 when the 2,000-seat Park Theater was built on Chatham Street, now called Park Row.
The Bowery Theater opened in 1826 followed by the 3,000-seat Niblo's Garden in 1829, Palmo's Opera House in 1844, and the Astor Opera House in 1847.
William Shakespeare's plays were frequently performed on the Broadway stage during the period, most notably by American actor Edwin Booth rose in eminence for role as Hamlet.
Booth played the role for 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, with the run ending just a few months before Booth's brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln; he later revived the role at his own Booth's Theatre.
During the 1868-1869 theatrical season, Lydia Thompson, an English dancer, comedian, and theatrical producer, offered her first American show Ixion that was a huge success; her troupe, the "British Blondes," was the most popular entertainment in New York in that time. Their show program, which included, parody, song, dance, spectacle and music, represents a significant milestone in the history of Broadway.
As from 1850, theater in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown, in pursuit of less expensive property.
Broadway's first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857.
In 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theaters were near Madison Square.
Only in early the 20th century theaters arrived in the Times Square area, and the Broadway theaters did not consolidate there until a large number of theaters were built there in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1947, a committee, co-founded by the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League, started presenting the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theater.
The award is named after Antoinette Perry (nicknamed as Tony), an actress, director, producer and co-founder of the American Theater Wing.
The awards are given at an annual ceremony for Broadway productions and performances, and one is given for regional theater.
The Tony Awards are considered the highest US theater honor, the New York theater industry's equivalent to the Academy Awards for film, the Emmy Awards for television and the Grammy Awards for music.
From 1997 to 2010, the Tony Awards ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in June, except in 1999 when it was held at the Gershwin Theater.
In 2011 and 2012, the ceremony was held at the Beacon Theater. From 2013 to 2015, the 67th, 68th, and 69th ceremonies returned to Radio City Music Hall.
The 70th Tony Awards were held on June 12, 2016 at the Beacon Theater. The 71st Tony Awards were offered on last June 11 at Radio City Music Hall.
The majority of audience attending Broadway shows are tourists in New York. The Theater Development Fund runs the TKTS service with booths selling same-day tickets (and in certain cases next-day matinee tickets) for many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows at a discount of 20 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent, or 50 percent.
The TKTS booths are located in Duffy Square, in Times Square, in Lower Manhattan, and in Brooklyn. This service makes seeing a show in New York more affordable. Many Broadway theaters also offer special student rates, same-day "rush" or "lottery" tickets, or standing-room tickets to help ensure that their theaters are as full and their profits (grosses) as high as possible. (end) asf.gb