Off-Broadway-Theater

In New York City theaters are generally diveded into three categories: Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway. Back in the beginnings of New York theater life, these terms were meant literally i.e. Broadway theaters were situated directly on the "Great White Way", Off-Broadway venues were in one or another of the streets of the Times Square neighborhood. Outside the theater district there were still Off-Off-Broadway theaters. As they were some way apart, Off-Broadway theaters were rented at lower rates, so quite a few plays were launched off Broadway and moved to Broadway theaters after having become a success. Some famous examples for these are Hair (First Night Off-Broadway on October 17, 1967, starting on Broadway on April 29, 1968) and A Chorus Line (Off Broadway on April 16, Broadway on July 25, 1975).

In the meantime the categorization of theaters as well as the attitude towards plays presented there has somehow changed: A theater is counted "Broadway" if it has got more than 500 seats, venues between 100 and 500 seats are called "Off-Broadway", 100 seats and below mark an "Off-Off-Broadway" theater.

During the last few decades it has become common practice to conceive plays for those smaller venues. Off-Broadway musicals are nowadays no longer grand-scale productions waiting in a small theater whether they are going to be a success, but small, lively plays which form a clear contrast to the lavish shows of Broadway. For example at the beginning of the 1980s when Broadway was harbouring more and more of the lofty, fully composed opera of the Les Misérables type, Little Shop of Horrors had its first night Off-Broadway, and it has been a success ever since then.

The Ensemble OffBroadway (OffBroadway Austria Society) have set themselves the target of staging these small, sophisticated plays and making their audiences more familiar with musicals off the mainstream. Still we are not aiming at working strictly according to the categories, but want to stay interested in everything outside the grand-scale commercial theaters.