Bravo, Broadway! This sweeping photographic odyssey reflects the achievements of an American institution from 1893 to the present.

• Author: Fletcher, Reagan

A CENTURY AGO, New York's professional theater had its first opening night in the area that would become renowned as Broadway. Years of growth had seen the theater district move from below Union Square to above Herald Square. By the 1893-94 season, the city's showmen headed even farther uptown, to the new frontier of 42nd St. and the crossroads that would become world-famous as Times Square.

The relocation of the theater district uptown coincided with the expansion of streetcar lines, street lighting, and, in 1904, a major intersection of the new subway. Land was plentiful, and neighborhood residents were eager for entertainment closer to home. As audiences flocked to each new theater, other builders were encouraged to start construction in the growing district. Theatrical newspapers, drama schools, agents, costumers, boarding houses, and restaurants soon sprang up to serve the area's booming theater industry.

Broadway's reputation for the biggest and best in entertainment began with the theaters themselves. A number of new showplaces opened in the late 1800s before Times Square had its first premiere. The 1882 construction of the Casino--with its theater, concert hall, ballroom, and restaurant--was considered foolish because of its northern location at Broadway and 39th St. The Broadway Theatre, complete with electric lights and automatic doors, opened six years later and two blocks farther north. In 1883, two more houses opened just shy of Times Square--the Empire at 40th St. and Abbey's at 38th St. That same year, 42nd St.' first playhouse turned on its lights.

The American Theatre, with entrances on 42nd St., Eighth Ave., and 41st St., was an immediate success. The opening spectacle, "The Prodigal Daughter," featured a pack of fox hounds, 10 horses, and a live steeplechase with trained jockeys riding the thoroughbreds over a hurdle and a real water jump--all for as little as 25 cents a ticket! The American was such a hit that a second full-size theater soon opened on the roof. Patrons reached the rooftop auditorium by electric elevator, a device new enough to make the ride up practically worth the price of admission.

The other shows that entertained audiences during that season 100 years ago included "A Trip to Chinatown," Oscar Wilde's "A Woman of No Importance," "Princess Nicotine," starring Lillian Russell and introducing Marie Dressler, and "The Crust of Society," which, according to one reviewer, sent the audience home with "a comfortable feeling of wickedness at having seen such a naughty play. " During the 1893-94 season, Florenz Ziegfeld broke into show business by managing a German bodybuilder named Eugene Sandow.

The legend of the new district grew as theaters opened; plays, musicals, and spectacles premiered; and stars were made. The following timeline chronicles the major events, happenings, and milestones that have affected the course of Broadway's evolution or brightened the lights in Times Square over the past 100 years. (The list is illustrative, not definitive.)

Jan. 25, 1893--Charles Frohman opens the Empire Theatre, Broadway at W. 40th St. The operation of this theater and Frohman's producing activities are major factors in the northward shift of the theatrical district from the Herald Square area to Longacre Square (now Times Square).

May 22, 1893--T. Henry French's American Theatre on W. 42nd St., called "the handsomest theatre in the world," opens with the first U.S. performance of "The Prodigal Daughter," starring Julia Arthur, Leonard Boyne, Jefferson De Angelis, and Helen Dauvray. Ticket prices range from 25 cents to $1.50.

July 17, 1893--The National Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees is chartered in New York, establishing the first constitution for stagehands and becoming the first trade union in the industry.

Sept. 11, 1894--Charles Frohman presents the English comedy "The Bauble Shop," by Henry Arthur Jones, starring John Drew, Maude Adams, Arthur Byron, and Elsie de Wolfe, whose understudy, Drew's niece, was a 17-year-old budding actress named Ethel Barrymore.

Nov. 25, 1895--Oscar Hammerstein I, "The Father of Times Square" (and the grandfather of the famous lyricist/librettist), opens The Olympia Theatre on Broadway, between 44th and 45th Sts., the first playhouse built north of 42nd St.

Oct. 24, 1897--Benjamin Strauss forms Strauss Signs, the forerunner of The Artcraft Strauss Sign Corp., to create gaslight-illuminated theater marquees.

1901--The phrase "Great White Way" is coined by O.J. Gude, a designer of advertising displays, to describe the glow of white lights that illuminates the thoroughfare along Broadway in the theater district.

May 20, 1901--The Shubert Brothers, who moved to Manhattan a year earlier from upstate New York, open their first Broadway production, "The Brixton Burglary," thus inaugurating what has become New York's oldest theatrical producing organization.

Oct. 13, 1903--Victor Herbert's "Babes in Toyland" opens. The timeless musical continues to be revived almost a century later.

Nov. 2, 1903--Daniel Frohman opens the Lyceum Theatre with "The Proud Prince." Broadway's oldest operating theater is the first to be equipped with electricity. It now is home to Tony Randall's National Actors Theatre and the Shubert Archive.

April 19, 1904--New York City Mayor George B. McClellan officially renames Longacre Square Times Square as a result of the successful lobbying effort by subway tycoon August Belmont and in honor of The New York Times' new headquarters.

Nov. 7, 1904--George M. Cohan's first Broadway hit, "Little Johnny Jones," opens, immortalizing the song "Give My Regards to Broadway."

Dec. 16,1905--Sime Silverman publishes the first edition of Variety, a weekly trade newspaper for the entertainment industry. Sept. 24, 1906--Victor Herbert's "The Red Mill" at the Knickerbocker Theatre is the first Broadway show to advertise with a moving electric sign.

July 8, 1907--Florenz Ziegfeld opens his first " Follies," subtitled "Another One of Those Things, in 13 Acts." Patterned after the Parisian "Folies Bergere," this production establishes the tradition of the lavish Broadway revue.

Oct. 16, 1907--David Belasco opens the Stuyvesant Theatre (renamed the Belasco in 1910), with the most advanced lighting system of its time, a large elevator stage, and a studio for developing and building scenic effects, as well as apartments for himself

Dec. 13, 1912--The Authors' League of America, Inc., now known as the Dramatists Guild, adopts a constitution and bylaws to work "toward the standardization of a dramatic contract" between playwrights and producers.

Dec. 20, 1912-- "Peg o' My Heart,"...