off Broadway
noun
professional drama produced in New York City in small theaters often away from the Broadway area and characterized by experimental productions.
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off Broadway
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off-Broadway
off-Broadwayadjectivedesignating the kind of experimental, low-budget, or noncommercial productions associated with theatre outside the Broadway area in New York
off Broadway
American
Or
Off Broadway
noun
off-Broadway
British
adjective
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designating the kind of experimental, low-budget, or noncommercial productions associated with theatre outside the Broadway area in New York
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(of theatres) not located on Broadway
off-Broadway
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of off Broadway
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
An hour later, Johnny and Beansie were at the Salvation Army storefront south of Canal off Broadway, volunteering to be street Santas, ringing bells, quarters clanking into their tin buckets.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2024
She worked at a local dinner theater and saved money to pay her way to New York, where she spent more than a decade performing on and off Broadway.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2024
He also appeared on and off Broadway in “Look Back in Anger and the revival of Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This.”
From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2023
In the past week, more than a dozen productions on and off Broadway canceled performances because of covid outbreaks detected within their casts or crew or, in some cases, mere fears of covid-19 exposure.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 20, 2021
He suggested to Quirin and Heinck to check in to the nearby Hotel Chesterfield, just off Broadway on Forty-Ninth Street.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
One of Lloyd’s London plays, “Shifters,” is currently playing in the off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theater.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
Mr. Weiler made an impressive off-Broadway debut with “Well, I’ll Let You Go,” a moving drama about grieving first staged in Brooklyn last year and recently brought back for a return engagement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
They also starred alongside each other in the off-Broadway production of “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” in 2023.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
He appeared in award-winning off-Broadway productions including “Rent,” “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “Enter Laughing,” among others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
I’d seen it off-Broadway and loved it so much that I went to see it again when it hit the big stage.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
