Collection History

This collection documents changing theater marquees and exterior displays of signage and posters on Broadway from late 1997 to 2001. It features some 79 productions, including The Scarlet Pimpernel, Seussical, Chicago, The King and I, Jekyll and Hyde, The Iceman Cometh, Phantom of the Opera, and Jane Eyre. The photographs were created for a project initiated in 1997 by the Billy Rose Theatre Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to add to its collection of documentation about contemporary Broadway theater. The photographer, Christopher J. Frith (b. 1956), is a staff member of the Theatre Collection.

Background

The marquee photograph series complements the Billy Rose Theatre Collection's significant visual documentation of modern theater. In particular are the films, videotapes, and moving images created and collected since 1970 by the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), which preserves live performances on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theaters, including many of the Broadway productions documented in this digital presentation. Additional photographic documentation of Broadway productions exists in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection: the White Studio Collection, 1910-36; the Vandamm Studio Collection, 1920s-60s (selections included in NYPL Digital Gallery); and the Friedman-Abeles Collection, mid-1950s-1970s.

Related Resources

Botto, Louis . At This Theatre: An Informal History of New York's Legitimate Theatres. (1984)

Morrison, William. Broadway Theatres: History & Architecture. (1999)

NYPL. "Performing Arts in America." (c2001) <http://digital.nypl.org/lpa/nypl/lpa_home4.html>

Van Hoogstraten, Nicholas; with additional photography by Jock Pottle and Maggie Hopp. Lost Broadway Theatres. (1997)

All photographs are copyright The New York Public Library.