Transatlantic Broadway

Transatlantic Broadway traces the infrastructural networks and technological advances that supported the globalization of popular entertainment in the pre-World War I period, with a specific focus on the production and performance of Broadway as physical space, dream factory, and glorious machine.

“Transatlantic Broadway makes an important contribution to theatre and performance studies, American cultural history, histories of capitalism, and studies of print and material culture. … Essential for scholars and teachers of theatre history, Schweitzer’s study prompts readers to envision historiography as competing and overlapping threads or networks. … Transatlantic Broadway attends to performers, spaces, and archives that have been neglected in previous studies of the theatre, thus encouraging scholars to rethink the literal and disciplinary borders of US theatre history.” (Nicole Berkin, Theatre Survey, Vol. 58 (1), January, 2017)

“This finely wrought book significantly expands the fields of US theatre history and performance studies by mapping a new historiographical framework for understanding Broadway’s formation. … Schweitzer’s combined application of ANT and ‘scriptive thing’ theory to transatlantic Broadway offers an inspiring historiographical model for performance scholars.” (Kim Marra, Theatre Journal, Vol. 68 (4), December, 2016) 

“Transatlantic Broadway examines a wide range of theatrical media, tracing their circuits through Europe and the United States and considering the ways that they establish communities. … Though the book will be most immediately valuable to scholars of performance and mobility, it will also be useful to mobility studies scholars interested in media, business, and urban geography.” (Sunny Stalter-Pace, Transfers Review, Vol. 5 (3), Winter, 2015)

'As she traces the transatlantic passage of ocean liners, telegrams, producers, artists and objects, Marlis Schweitzer reshapes our understanding of the Broadway theatre wars of the Gilded Age. Sophisticated, impressively readable, and impeccably researched, this is theatre history at its best.' - Alan Filewod, University of Guelph, Canada

'Schweitzer's compelling study shifts scholarly inquiry away from the traditional space-bound landscape of Broadway and offers a long-overdue investigation of the transnational reach of Broadway's theatrical productions. With impressive archival research and riveting prose, Transnational Broadway characterizes early twentieth-century theatre as a machine that manufactured a powerful cultural imaginary in the deployment of American Empire. Transatlantic Broadway also uniquely examines the infrastructural politics of theatre, including interactions between human and non-human actors, such as the rise of the telegraph, office technologies, transnational ocean liners, economic booms (and crashes), and geo-political moments. Schweitzer's impressive theoretical framing and global focus make this a ground-breaking work for scholars and students alike!' - Katie N. Johnson, Miami University, USA

Marlis Schweitzer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at York University, Canada. Her publications include When Broadway Was the Runway: Theater, Fashion, and American Culture and Performing Objects and Theatrical Things (co-edited with Joanne Zerdy, 2014). Her articles have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, Theatre Research International, and TDR. She is the editor of Theatre Research in Canada/Recherches théâtrales au Canada.