Subway Circuit is a term that was created before 1914 to define a group of legitimate

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

theaters featuring shows passing out from

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and usually prefacing their "going on tour" or used to get a try-out of a show before being sent to Broadway for a verdict. The theater also had to be reachable by New York City Subway.

History

Unlike

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic compositio ...

managers, who cut salaries of actors when they took the "small time", or entered houses of lesser importance, there were no cuts made in the salaries of the legitimate actors playing the "Subway Circuit". To the actors, four weeks of some subway before or after going on the road was a boon, for the theaters were all within 30 minutes of Broadway and after a performance, they were within easy reach of the theatrical clubs in the theater district.

Theaters

The number of theaters part of the Subway Circuit has changed over time. This is a non-exhaustive list.

1918

* the Montauk Theatre in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

* the Teller's Shubert Theatre in

* the Shubert Majestic Theatre in

* the

Bronx Opera House The Bronx Opera House is a former theater, part of the Subway Circuit, now converted into a boutique hotel in the Bronx, New York It was designed by George M. Keister and built in 1913 at 436 East 149th Street on the site of Frederick Schnaufer's ...

* the Loew's Seventh Avenue Theater * the Standard Theatre

1921

* the Montauk Theatre in

* the Teller's Shubert Theatre in

* the Shubert Majestic Theatre in

* the

* the Shubert Crescent in

* the Riviera Theatre at Broadway and 97th Street

1923

* the Montauk Theatre in

* the Teller's Shubert Theatre in

* the Shubert Majestic Theatre in

* the

* the Broad Street Theatre in Newark * the Riviera Theatre at Broadway and 97th Street

References

{{reflist Theatres in New York City 20th century in New York City Roaring Twenties