page_title: List of Broadway theaters
section_title: Post-1949 agreement
hierarchical_section_title: List of Broadway theaters / Demolished Broadway theaters / Post-1949 agreement
caption_attribution_description: English: The Fulton Theatre, a New York City theatre that was demolished in 1982. "NORTH (FRONT) FACADE FROM EAST - Folies Bergere Theatre, 210 West Forty-sixth Street, New York, New York County, NY"
context_page_description: There are 41 active Broadway theaters listed by The Broadway League in New York City, as well as 9 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.
context_section_description: 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 all theaters that have housed Broadway productions since this agreement went into effect.
caption: The Helen Hayes Theatre was one of five theaters demolished in 1982 to make room for the New York Marriott Marquis hotel. The other four theaters were the Morosco, Bijou, and the closed Astor and Gaiety.[64]
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