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Broadway’s biggest landmarks are easy to spot, but some of the Theatre District’s most fascinating stories are hiding in plain sight. From historic theaters and legendary rehearsal spaces to tucked-away tributes and unexpected Broadway landmarks, these lesser-known stops will add a whole new act to your next walking tour!
1. The Times Square Theatre
Did you know that there’s a former Broadway theater sitting abandoned in plain sight on 42nd Street? Millions of passerby walk past the Times Square Theatre each year and barely any know that they are in the presence of Broadway history. The long and noble exterior of the venue points to its former glory; it also telegraphs its downfall. Because of the theater’s large amount of real estate on 42nd Street, its load-in dock is on 42nd Street as well. It is this fact that has prevented the Times Square from being brought back to life as a live stage venue for decades, despite multiple attempts; Broadway theaters can no longer load in on the busy thoroughfare that is 42nd Street.
But from 1920 to 1933, the Times Square hosted plays and musicals, making a significant amount of Broadway history during its relatively short life. Shows that premiered at the Times Square include the original play version of Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1927), Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s The Front Page (1928), the Gershwin-scored Strike Up The Band (1930), and Noël Coward’s Private Lives (1931). The theater that presented those shows and more later became a movie house and then a retail space; much of its original theatrical detail still sits intact behind the columns and windows on 42nd Street, waiting for its next act.
Just east of the Times Square Theatre is another hidden spot of Broadway history: The Apollo Link. Also related to a lost Broadway theater, The Apollo Link is the real estate that remained when Broadway’s old Lyric and Apollo theaters were combined in the 1990s to create a brand new Broadway house.
The theater we know today as the Lyric, current home of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened in 1998 as the Ford Center for the Performing Arts with the original production of Ragtime. This brand new theater on 42nd Street was one of the most major projects of the new 42nd Street, which revitalized the then-run-down block. It was unprecedented to Frankenstein two debilitated Broadway houses into one brand new one, but that’s what happened in the 1990s. And when it did, the former entrance to The Apollo Theatre was left as a ghost fragment of the past, with no meaningful purpose in the new structure. Today, The Apollo Link is technically an emergency exit for the Lyric but is not frequently used. (Although you can sometimes spot actors warming up inside!)
From the street, passerby can peer into the long mirrored hallway with a decorative mosaic ceiling where theatergoers once entered to see shows like Sholom Ash’s God of Vengeance (1923) and several editions of the popular revue George White’s Scandals (1924-1931).
3. Rodgers & Hammerstein Row
Landmark musical theatre writers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, who transformed the art form, spent the large majority of their creative collaboration on 44th Street. In 1993, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership, New York City christened the block of Broadway theaters on 44th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue “Rodgers and Hammerstein Row’. A street sign on the southeast corner of 44th and 8th declares the block as such, reminding passerby that the duo made history right where they are standing.
On your way to a Broadway show at the St. James or Majestic, take a moment on the corner to be reminded that Rodgers and Hammerstein premiered Oklahoma! (1943), The King and I (1951), and Flower Drum Song (1958) at the former and Carousel (1945), Allegro (1947), South Pacific (1949), and Me and Juliet (1953) at the latter. Songs like “Oh What A Beautiful Mornin’” “Some Enchanted Evening”, and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” were first heard by Broadway audiences only steps from where you’re standing, near the R&H street sign.
4. Sardi’s
Broadway’s iconic watering hole, Sardi’s, is currently in the midst of a brief intermission. But when open, the restaurant known for its hundreds of caricatures of Broadway stars is the longest running theatrical dining hotspot in the district. From hosting hundreds of opening nights to providing a friendly neighborhood spot to get a drink and bite between shows, Sardi’s is a valued part of the landscape of Broadway.
Did you know that Sardi’s was originally located just west of its current location? When the St. James (initially the Erlanger) was built in 1927, the original Sardi’s was demolished. But The Shuberts, who had become regulars at the already-beloved joint, offered Sardi’s a spot in their new building closer to Broadway, and there Sardi’s has flourished ever since.
5. Shubert Alley
A historical marker in Shubert Alley declares: “Dedicated to all those who glorify the theatre and use this short thoroughfare”. This plaque has stood in the alley between 44th and 45th Streets, in the heart of the theatre district, for over 70 years, since 1949.
The plot of privately owned public space that splits the city block between Broadway and 8th Avenue opened in 1913 when the Shubert and Booth Theatres opened. At that time, it was a true alleyway, meant to provide emergency egress to both the Broadway houses and the Astor Hotel, on the alley’s east side. Quickly though, Shubert Alley became a gathering spot for hopeful actors to meet with producers and a popular thoroughfare for theatergoers schmoozing.
Shubert Alley was the site of the first Broadway block party in 1925, a legacy continued decades later with events like the Broadway Flea Market and Broadway Barks. Starting in the 1930s, the alley would spend time as a bus terminal, a transformation that led to the addition of posters advertising Broadway shows. This tradition continues to this day, with the Shubert Alley spots among the most coveted for in-person advertising for Broadway shows in the theatre district.
The alley has transformed multiple times. One major transition happened when the Hotel Astor was demolished in the late 1960s and replaced by One Astor Plaza. Shubert Alley has doubled in size since it first opened, and has seen countless eras of Broadway come and go—but many of its traditions involving community persist and are over a century old.
6. The A Chorus Line plaque
When A Chorus Line closed in 1990, it had become the longest running Broadway show of all time. The deeply meaningful love letter to show business and the chorus members who are its backbone danced its final kick line after nearly 15 years at the Shubert Theatre. A Chorus Line started out as an unlikely workshop experiment downtown at The Public Theater; director-choreographer Michael Bennett got Public founder and artistic director Joe Papp to give him the resources to develop real stories from Broadway dancers into an original musical, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch (music) and Edward Kleban (lyrics) and book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante.
After closing, a committee named What We Did For Love, led by A Chorus Line cast member Gary Stevens, staged a movement to have a permanent marker of the show’s history installed in the Shubert Theatre. Today, in the Shubert lobby, take a moment to appreciate the plaque that features an engraving of the entire line of now iconic characters. The Shubert has housed hundreds of productions over the years, but it will forever be the home of A Chorus Line.
7. Secret tunnel between the Schoenfeld and Broadhurst
Several of our Broadway theaters are secretly connected to each other through behind-the-scenes portals. Sometimes, theatre owners built these tunnels for pragmatic professional usage, to have access to more than one of their buildings at a time. Other times, connective tissue between theaters was created for utility in terms of shared electric systems. Whatever the reason, these hidden hallways are hardly a secret among those who work in Broadway theaters and they often inspire camaraderie between the shows that occupy each space. One example is the secret tunnel between the Schoenfeld Theatre on 45th Street and the Broadhurst Theatre on 44th Street. From the street, you can peek into the Schoenfeld’s emergency exit on 45th Street. Follow this space through in the right direction and you could wind up in an entirely different Broadway theater.
As I wrote in my book, The Untold Stories of Broadway Volume 3: In 1981, all of the costumes for Nicholas Nickleby wouldn’t fit backstage at the Schoenfeld (then Plymouth), so some had to be stored at the Broadhurst, and retrieved during each performance. In 1999, the casts of Jekyll & Hyde and Fosse would sneak back and forth through the tunnel to watch each other’s shows from the wings. In 2011, Bonnie & Clyde experienced surprise visits from Hugh Jackman, who traveled through the tunnel from where his own show was playing. These are just a few examples of community inspired by the secret tunnel.
8. The Fallen Five
Pour one out for the Fallen Five. I do this in my heart every time I pass the spot where five Broadway theaters met their demise in the Great Theatre Massacre of 1982. The Astor, Gaiety, Morosco, Bijou, and old Helen Hayes were destroyed to make way for the Marriott Marquis in a historic move that devastated the theater community and eventually led to the landmarking of nearly every other Broadway house. Despite protests, play readings on makeshift stages in the back of trucks, and even arrests of artists who refused to leave, the wrecking ball destroyed five Broadway houses. It was a key moment in the turning point of Times Square toward urban renewal and it also meant the extinction of several priceless theaters we can never get back. Remember the Fallen Five.
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