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Glite Dictionary
off-Broadway

off-Broadway

20 6.8
Professional small theaters in New York City with fewer than 500 seats that show new or experimental plays
  • noun
  • /ɔfˈbrɔːdweɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : Off-Broadway
  • I've got a small part in an off-Broadway stage adaptation of East of Eden.
  • an off-Broadway play

I have a play that is going to be going up Off Broadway next year.

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Examples

  • The original version, which got very good reviews, ran Off-Broadway.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Soon after the Saturday Review folded, I went with my wife to an Off-Broadway play that cost $35 a ticket.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • I have a play that is going to be going up Off Broadway next year.

    Film Courage

  • So I do Off Broadway at the moment and I would love to get into a little more big time stuff.

    The Financial Diet

  • I was doing the Off Broadway show called Once Upon a Mattress.

  • Did you kids know I was once in an Off-Broadway play?

    Fiction book (2001)

  • After Carnegie Mellon, I went to New York and started doing Off Broadway theatre.

  • I can definitely see this show appearing Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway in the future.

    Blog text (19)

  • The Other Josh Cohen is now playing Off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse through November 11.

    Blog text (28)

  • On September 8, she will star in the off-Broadway play The Submission.

Antonyms

Broadway
419 3.4

A street in Manhattan, New York, that has many major theaters

How Big

Broadway
419 3.4
off-Broadway
  • Specialized
20 6.8

Surface Forms

off-Broadway singular
off-Broadways plural

Morphology

off-Broadway = Broadway (transparent) = off + Broadway

The meaning is a straightforward 'off' (not on/away from) + Broadway (the theatre district), indicating theatres outside the Broadway district.

Etymology

The word off-Broadway comes from the prefix off- meaning 'away from' placed before Broadway, the famous 'main theater street' in New York. So off-Broadway means shows 'away from' the big Broadway area, usually in smaller theaters with lower budgets and more daring work.