Not everyone knows exactly what Broadway is. Broadway is a 13 mile street in New York City’s Theatre District, and any venue with 500 seats or more is called a Broadway Theatre. Today there are 41 Broadway theatres. The street runs through Manhattan and the Bronx and eventually ends in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Native Americans carved the Wickquasgeck trail through Manhattan Island long before Europeans arrived. The Dutch widened and renamed the road in the 17th century. When the English took over in 1664, they renamed it Broadway for its unusual width.

The most famous form of traditional Japanese theater is called Kabuki and traces back to the early 17th century in Kyoto. It quickly spread to Edo, and kabuki theaters became popular as they featured the latest fashions and entertainment. The years 1673 – 1836 were considered to be the golden age of kabuki, where the structure of plays and character types were established.