Perhaps the most well-known instance of a show changing titles during the development process belongs to the groundbreaking 1943 phenomenon, Oklahoma! The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that changed the art form in terms of subject matter, integration of elements, and more was originally titled Away We Go! when it went out of town for a New Haven tryout. Oklahoma! is far from the only instance where a musical changed its title along the development road.

Friendship is nearly always a side element in musicals. From the comic sidekick of the leading character to the backup pals who provide background vocals, friends are part of the fabric of many shows—but rarely are they the main event. 

Since the start of television’s legendary Saturday Night Live in 1975, there has been cross-over between the show and Broadway. Actors who have started out on Broadway have ended up gracing our televisions on Saturday night as cast members in the sketch comedy program.

Musicals and plays based on movies? Many. Based on books? Also plentiful. Based on true stories? Of course. But musicals and plays based on or inspired by magazine articles? These are a rare breed. One recently opened on Broadway at the August Wilson Theatre.

Tony winner Celia Keenan-Bolger talks ANTIGONE (This Play I Read In High School) at The Public Theater, working with direct address, the legacy of Spelling Bee, and more in this Broadway Deep Dive.

Broadway has a long history of one-person shows, including many that have been added to the canon in this century.  Seeing one actor powerfully create a whole world on stage can be an exceptional experience. Of course, one handers are hardly one-person projects; while there may only be one actor on stage, they are collaborating with an entire team of creatives, designers, and behind-the-scenes personnel to bring a show to life. 

Tony Award winner Richard Maltby, Jr. discusses with Jennifer Ashley Tepper About Time, his new revue written with collaborator David Shire which, alongside Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, completes the writing team’s trilogy. They also chat about friendship with Stephen Sondheim, how Off-Broadway has evolved since the 1960s, the role Yale University has played, and more.

Our 41 Broadway theaters provide a home for every production that hits the Great White Way. From our oldest continually operating Broadway house, the Lyceum, to our newest reopened and functioning Broadway house, the Hudson, the Broadway theaters are all located in midtown Manhattan. Who are all of our current Broadway houses named for...? 

Current star of Masquerade Telly Leung discusses with Jennifer Ashley Tepper playing the Phantom in the immersive production, the full circle from Rent fan to Rent actor, Gavin Creel’s leadership during a production that never was, and much more. 

Four of Broadway’s ten longest running musicals are currently on the boards: Chicago, The Lion King, Wicked, and The Book of Mormon. One, The Phantom of the Opera, closed in 2023 after attaining the title of longest running Broadway show of all time.  But what about Broadway’s longest running plays?

The large majority of our 41 Broadway theaters were built to be Broadway theaters. Other than the Winter Garden, which was originally a horse exchange, the Nederlander, which was originally a carpenter’s shop, and the Broadway and Lunt-Fontanne which were originally movie theaters, every current Broadway house was intended from the beginning to present Broadway shows. As for off-Broadway? The opposite is true.

This history gives context to the legacies of theatrical dynasties—considered to consist of at least three subsequent generations of theatre creators. In 2026, there is a stigma around any successful professional who follows a parent into their line of work, with this being seen as a pattern of nepotism.

For the past two seasons, 14 or 15 new musicals have opened on Broadway. Even in the challenging first two seasons coming out of the pandemic, Broadway saw 8 or 9 new musicals opening. And in the last four full seasons prior to the pandemic, Broadway saw an average of 11 new musicals per season. What gives?

During and prior to the Golden Age of Broadway, songs regularly premiered on stage and then charted, spending time on the radio and becoming popular worldwide. In the 1960s, Broadway songs and popular music diverged, and work from musicals was no longer synonymous with chart hits. There have certainly been a good share of exceptions since that decade, as Broadway has evolved to mirror popular, current music genres. Several of the songs that have broken through to the Billboard charts can be heard on Broadway! 

The history of shows that have transferred from off-Broadway to Broadway is well documented. Hundreds of Broadway plays and musicals started out off-Broadway before making the leap to a Broadway house. But much more rare is the circumstance of a show starting out off-off-Broadway (that’s right, two ‘off’s!) and traveling all the way to the main stem. One of these shows is playing right now, and is a major theatre success story with off-off-Broadway roots!

The Broadway production of Ragtime was a glorious accomplishment, a riveting testament to the original American musical and to all that America itself could be. The show ran for 834 performances at the Ford Center, closing in the final year of the 20th century. It was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, taking home four.

It wasn’t until later on in theatre history that revivals began including shows that weren’t initially well received or financially successful in their initial engagements. As musical theatre continued to evolve, and more shows entered the canon, a consensus began to grow about shows being worthy of additional exploration even if they hadn’t been hits the first time around. What about musicals that had been ahead of their time, musicals that had fallen prey to circumstances, early works by writers who became successful later on, and of course, shows that found an audience after closing via their cast recordings?

The idea of the concept album took flight at the same time as the idea of the rock musical. A concept album introduces audiences to the score of a musical by deliberately releasing an album of the songs before any live production exists at all. The concept album ostensibly stands on its own terms.

This season, three plays are receiving Broadway debuts which already made significant noise off-Broadway in their original productions, years ago. Becky Shaw, Bug, and Marjorie Prime will all be opening on Broadway in early 2026 in brand new productions. The first and last are spending time on Broadway at the Hayes under the auspices of Second Stage while Bug is being presented by Manhattan Theatre Club at their home, the Friedman. 

One of the best parts of seeing a show in New York City is how there is often a relevant historic spot to visit, just steps away from the show you’re seeing. Here's just a few examples...

Prince Faggot and Slam Frank are two of the most talked-about productions of the season so far—and both were initially inspired by tweets on the platform now known as X. 

During his prolific and storied career, Sondheim collaborated with many other artists, from book writers to directors, from actors to musicians. Seeing Sondheim’s regular collaborators, close friends, one-time associates, mentors, and rare connections make appearances in his collection was both moving and illuminating.

While the large majority of plays that make it to Broadway were written in English, a small fraction of plays were originally penned in a different language and translated. 

The collection documents songs that made it into Sondheim’s musicals, and it also documents cut or unused songs that were edited out of shows before they opened. Rarest of all, it documents songs that were never finished. These are not the rarities that made it into Marry Me a Little or a Sondheim compilation album. Rather, they are sketches of songs that provide a window into Sondheim’s process while creating a score and show him developing characters and determining the details of what are now iconic musicals.

While different tryout theaters have different relationships to the development of new shows, it’s worth looking at both which commercial rental theaters and which non-profit theaters have had the most Best Musical Tony Award winners come from their stages.