OFF-BROADWAY

noun

professional drama produced in New York City in small theaters often away from the Broadway area and characterized by experimental productions.

Also, Off Broadway.

Origin:
1950–55, Americanism

Related forms

off-Broad·way, adjective, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

experimental or avant-garde drama produced in New York City, in small theaters, halls, churches, etc.

Also, Off Off Broadway.

Related forms

off-off-Broad·way, adjective, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To off-broadway

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an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

off-Broadway

—*adj*
1.	designating the kind of experimental, low-budget, or noncommercial productions associated with theatre outside the Broadway area in New York
2.	(of theatres) not located on Broadway

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

off-Broadway

1953, "experimental theater productions in New York City." Even more experimental off-off-Broadway is attested from 1967.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

off-Broadway definition

A descriptive term for part of the theatrical community of New York City that presents small-scale, often experimental dramas. The costs of off-Broadway productions are generally much lower than those of Broadway plays.

Matching Quote

"Their leader was a handsome man about thirty years old, of good height, but not apparently robust, of gentlemanly address and faultless toilet; such a one as you might expect to meet on Broadway. In fact, in the popular sense of the word, he was the most "gentlemanly" appearing man in the stage, or that we saw on the road. He had a fair white complexion, as if he had always lived in the shade, and an intellectual face, and with his quiet manners might have passed for a divinity student who had seen something of the world. I was surprised to find, on talking with him in the course of the day's journey, that he was a hunter at all,—for his gun was not much exposed,—and yet more to find that he was probably the chief white hunter of Maine, and was known all along the road.... In the spring, he had saved a stage-driver and two passengers from drowning in the backwater of the Piscataquis in Foxcroft on this road, having swum ashore in the freezing water and made a raft and got them off,—though the horses were drowned,—at great risk to himself, while the only other man who could swim withdrew to the nearest house to prevent freezing. He could now ride over this road for nothing. He knew our man, and remarked that we had a good Indian there, a good hunter; adding that he was said to be worth $6000. The Indian also knew him, and said to me, "the great hunter.""

-Henry David Thoreau

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OFF-BROADWAY

off Broadway

off off Broadway

off-Broadway definition