The Words on the Ticket
The Broadway Glossary
73 terms you'll meet on a ticket, in a Playbill or in a review — swing, standby, rake, rush, the eleven o'clock number — defined in plain English, with a link to the piece that goes deeper.
A
- Act break
The point where one act ends and the intermission begins. A strong act break leaves the audience with an unresolved question to carry into the lobby.
- ASL-interpreted performance
A scheduled performance with American Sign Language interpreters positioned near the stage, with a block of seats set aside where both the interpreters and the action are visible.
- Assistive listening device
A headset or receiver, compatible with many hearing aids, that delivers the show’s sound directly to the listener. Broadway houses lend them free, usually against a photo ID.
- Audio description
Live or recorded narration of a show’s visual action, delivered through an earpiece in the pauses of the dialogue, for blind and low-vision patrons.
B
- Balcony
The highest seating level in a house, above the mezzanine. Farthest from the stage and usually cheapest; in many houses it has the best view of a big musical’s full stage picture.
- Book
The spoken script of a musical — the scenes and dialogue between the songs. The person who writes it is the book writer.
- Book musical
A musical in which songs and dances grow out of a continuous plot with developed characters, as opposed to a revue or a loosely connected song cycle.
- Box office
The theater’s own ticket window. Buying here avoids most online service fees and is the place to ask about rush, accessible seats and returns.
- Box seats
Small private seating areas along the side walls of older houses. Glamorous to sit in, but usually angled sharply away from the stage, so part of the action is cut off.
- Broadway house
One of the 41 professional theaters of roughly 500 seats or more in Manhattan’s Theater District (plus Lincoln Center). Only productions in these houses are eligible for the Tony Awards.
C
- Cast album
A studio recording of a musical’s score sung by its cast, usually made shortly after opening. For many people it is their first encounter with a show.
- Closing notice
The formal announcement, posted to the company, that a production will end its run on a given date. Once posted, it is usually the last chance to see the show.
- Concept musical
A musical organized around a theme, idea or image rather than a straight linear plot; scenes and songs comment on the idea from different angles.
- Curtain call
The bows at the end of the performance, usually built up from the ensemble to the leads. Clapping through it — and staying for it — is part of the show.
- Curtain time
The scheduled start of a performance, printed on the ticket. Broadway evening curtains are mostly at 7, 7:30 or 8 p.m.; doors usually open about 30 minutes earlier.
D
- Dark
A night with no performance. Most shows are dark one day a week — traditionally Monday, though many choose another day. A “dark theater” has no show booked at all.
- Digital lotteryalso: Lottery
A drawing, usually entered online the day before or day of a performance, for a limited number of deeply discounted seats. Winners buy at the lottery price; everyone else tries again.
- Downstage / upstage
Downstage is the front of the stage, nearest the audience; upstage is the back. The terms date from raked stages that sloped down toward the audience.
E
- Eight-show week
The standard Broadway performance schedule: eight performances a week, typically evenings plus matinees on two or three afternoons, with one dark day.
- Eleven o’clock number
A show-stopping song late in the second act, usually for the lead. The name dates from when evening curtains were later and this number landed around 11 p.m.
- Ensemblealso: Chorus
The performers who sing and dance in group numbers and play the smaller roles. Ensemble members often understudy principal roles too.
- Entr’acte
The short orchestral piece that opens the second act of a musical, playing the audience back to their seats after intermission.
F
- Flies / fly system
The tall space above the stage and the system of ropes, counterweights or motors used to raise and lower (“fly”) scenery, curtains and sometimes performers.
- Front mezzanine
The first rows of the mezzanine level. Slightly elevated and close enough to read faces, it is often the best-value view in the house, especially for big musicals.
- Frozen
Said of a show once the creative team stops making changes, usually shortly before opening night. After that, the production is played as set.
G
- Ghost light
A single bare bulb on a stand left burning on an empty stage overnight — a safety light so no one falls into the pit, and a theater tradition in its own right.
H
- House
The auditorium, where the audience sits — and by extension the audience itself (“a full house”). House lights are the auditorium lights; a house manager runs the front of house.
- House left / house right
Directions from the audience’s point of view as they face the stage — the opposite of stage left and stage right.
- House seats
Good seats held back by the producers and theater for the creative team, cast and VIPs, released for sale (often at premium prices) if unclaimed.
I
- Intermissionalso: Interval
The break between acts, typically about 15 minutes on Broadway. Many plays now run straight through without one; the show’s listed running time tells you which.
J
- Jukebox musical
A musical built from previously released popular songs — often one artist’s catalog — rather than an original score.
L
- Limited engagement
A run announced with a fixed closing date from the start, common for plays with film or TV actors whose schedules allow only a few months.
- Load-in
The days or weeks of moving a production’s scenery, lighting and sound into a theater and installing it before rehearsals in the space begin.
M
- Matinee
An afternoon performance. On Broadway matinees are usually on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday around 2 p.m., though schedules vary by show.
- Mezzanine
The raised seating level above the orchestra, often split into front and rear mezzanine. In some houses it is the only upper level; in others a balcony sits above it.
O
- Off-Broadway
Professional New York productions in theaters of roughly 100 to 499 seats. The line is size and contracts, not quality; Off-Broadway shows are not eligible for the Tonys.
- Off-Off-Broadway
New York theater in spaces of fewer than about 100 seats — black boxes, studios and basements, where much experimental work is developed.
- Open-captioned performance
A scheduled performance with the dialogue and lyrics displayed as text on a screen beside the stage, readable from a designated seating area.
- Open-ended run
A production with no announced closing date — it plays as long as it sells. The opposite of a limited engagement.
- Opening night
The official first performance after previews, when the show is “frozen” and critics’ reviews are published. It is usually not the first public performance.
- Orchestra (seating)also: Stalls
The ground-floor seating level, closest to the stage. Generally the most expensive; center seats about ten to fifteen rows back are the classic “great seats.”
- Orchestra pit
The sunken area between the stage and the front row where the musicians play. Some productions cover it or place the band onstage or offstage instead.
- Out-of-town tryout
A run of a new show in another city before New York, to fix it in front of audiences. Previews in the Broadway house itself have largely replaced it.
- Overture
The orchestral medley of the score’s tunes that opens many musicals. Audiences traditionally applaud when it ends.
P
- Partial view
A seat where a pillar, overhang or angle blocks part of the stage. Sold at a discount and labeled as such — know what you are buying.
- Playbill
The free program handed out by ushers, listing the cast, creative team, bios and musical numbers. An insert slip announces any understudies performing that day.
- Preview
A full-price public performance before the official opening, while the creative team is still rewriting and restaging. Critics traditionally do not review previews.
- Principal
A performer in a leading or named supporting role, as distinct from the ensemble.
- Proscenium
The arch that frames the stage like a picture, with the audience all on one side. Most Broadway houses are proscenium theaters.
R
- Rake
A slope. A raked stage tilts up away from the audience; a raked house slopes the seating so each row sees over the one in front.
- Rear mezzanine
The back rows of the mezzanine level. Farther away and cheaper, with a full view of the stage picture.
- Revival
A new production of a show that has been produced on Broadway before. The Tonys give separate awards for the best revival of a play and of a musical.
- Rush
Discounted tickets sold the day of the performance — in person at the box office when it opens, or through an app — first come, first served.
S
- Score
The music and lyrics of a musical, written by the composer and lyricist. Orchestrations arrange that music for the show’s band.
- Showstopper
A number that draws applause so long the performance literally has to pause before it can continue.
- Sitzprobe
The first rehearsal where the cast sings with the full orchestra, seated, without staging — often an emotional day in a musical’s rehearsal process.
- Stage door
The performers’ entrance to a theater. After many shows fans wait there for autographs and photos; performers are not obliged to come out.
- Stage left / stage right
Directions from the performer’s point of view facing the audience — stage left is the audience’s right.
- Standby
A performer who covers one or more principal roles but is not in the show nightly; they wait offstage or nearby, ready to go on.
- Standing ovation
Rising to applaud at the curtain call. Common on Broadway, which is why critics argue about whether it still means anything — give it when you mean it.
- Standing roomalso: SRO
Cheap places to stand at the back of the house, sold only at some shows and usually only when the performance is otherwise sold out.
- Swing
An offstage performer who learns several ensemble “tracks” and can step into any of them, sometimes at a moment’s notice — the most versatile job in the building.
T
- Tech rehearsal
Long rehearsals in the theater where lighting, sound, scenery and costume changes are added and timed, cue by cue, before previews.
- Thrust stage
A stage that juts into the audience, which sits on three sides. Rare on Broadway, where nearly every house is a proscenium.
- TKTS
Discount ticket booths, run by the nonprofit Theatre Development Fund, selling discounted same-day seats. The best-known booth is in Times Square.
- Tony Awards
Broadway’s annual awards, presented each June by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, for productions that opened in a Broadway house during the season.
- Track
One performer’s complete path through a show — every entrance, costume change, line and position. Swings learn many tracks.
- Transfer
Moving a production from Off-Broadway, a regional theater or London into a Broadway house, usually with a bigger budget and commercial producers.
- Two-show day
A day with both a matinee and an evening performance — on Broadway, usually Saturday and often Wednesday.
U
- Understudy
A cast member, usually from the ensemble, who learns a principal role and goes on when that actor is out. An insert in the Playbill tells you when one is on.