Broadway
By: megan schafer
History
Broadway Theatre (commonly known as Broadway), is is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in America. New York did not have a significant theatre presence until about 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company. A riot broke out in 1849 when the lower-class patrons of the Bowery objected to what they perceived as snobbery by the upper class audiences at Astor Place: "After the Astor Place Riot of 1849, entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for the middle class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle class.
Carol Burnett
Kristen Chenoweth
Ethel Merman
Works Cited:
Wikepedia.com