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Six-part series

Film & Stage Original

The History of Broadway

A century of the American stage told through the buildings, the unions and the audiences that kept them full.

Release year
2025
Running time
6 × 52 min
Genre
Theatre · Documentary · Film Heritage
Certificate
Certificate 12
Languages
English · Subtitles available

Synopsis

The series begins not with a star but with a lease: the property deals that made forty blocks of Manhattan the centre of the theatrical world.

Each episode pairs a landmark production with the labour, money and civic argument that surrounded it, from the 1919 actors' strike to the reopening of the houses after 2020.

Cast

Audra McDonald
Narrator
André Bishop
Contributor
Julie Taymor
Contributor
Tonya Pinkins
Contributor

Creative Team

Daniel Reyes
Series director
Margot Lindqvist
Executive producer
Peter Nsangou
Director of photography
Hana Ito
Series editor
Film & Stage Media Group
Production

From the magazine

Featured articles

Writing published alongside this programme by Film & Stage Magazine.

Long read

The lease that built a theatre district

Film & Stage Magazine · 18 min read

Analysis

What the 1919 strike actually won

Film & Stage Magazine · 9 min read