Marquis Theatre

The Marquis Theatre is a large modern Broadway house built inside the Marriott Marquis hotel tower in Times Square, currently hosting the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Operated by the Nederlander Organization, it is one of the newer theaters on Broadway and one of the few built as part of a hotel complex rather than as a standalone playhouse. Visitors should expect a big, contemporary auditorium reached through the hotel's lobby and elevators, with the scale to support large-cast productions. It suits theatergoers looking for a large, spectacle-forward show in an unusually modern Broadway setting.

The Marquis Theatre opened in 1986 as part of the Marriott Marquis hotel development in Times Square, a large-scale commercial project that required the demolition of several older Broadway theaters on the site, a decision that was strongly opposed by preservationists and became a turning point in later efforts to protect Broadway's historic playhouses.

Because it was built within a hotel tower rather than as a freestanding building, the Marquis has a distinctive backstage layout and audience approach, with theatergoers entering through the hotel lobby and traveling up by escalator or elevator, unlike most of Broadway's older street-level houses.

Since opening, the theater has hosted a range of large-scale musicals suited to its sizable stage and seating capacity, including several long-running productions aimed at broad commercial audiences, operated throughout by the Nederlander Organization.

Despite its comparatively short history next to Broadway's early twentieth-century houses, the Marquis has become an established part of the Theater District's working stock of large theaters.

The Marquis continues to serve as one of Broadway's larger modern venues, hosting big commercial productions in the heart of Times Square.