designating the kind of experimental, low-budget, or noncommercial productions associated with theatre outside the Broadway area in New York
(of theatres) not located on Broadway
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In March, Slater wrapped the off-Broadway run of “Marcel on the Run.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
Mantello, who found an early home with the off-Broadway company Naked Angels, had an appreciation for what he called her “ensemble-based way of working.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026
Reviewing the off-Broadway production, our critic praised it as “a freewheeling, not to say completely deranged, spoof.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 12, 2026
First produced in New York by Second Stage off-Broadway, the play was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2009.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 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.
