Gershwin Theatre

The Gershwin Theatre is Broadway’s largest active venue, with 1,933 seats arranged across an orchestra and two balconies. The size is the headline fact — and the most important consideration for ticket-buyers. A house this large has dramatically variable sight lines depending on where you sit, and the difference between a premium centre orchestra ticket and a rear-balcony ticket at the Gershwin is one of the widest experience gaps on Broadway.

The room has been the long-time home of Wicked since 2003, and the production’s staging is built around the Gershwin’s specific scale — the Emerald City sequences in particular use the deep stage and tall proscenium in ways that wouldn’t fit any other Broadway house. The trade-off: rear-mezzanine and balcony seats at the Gershwin are noticeably farther from the action than at any other Broadway venue. For a first Broadway visit, especially with kids, the orchestra is usually worth the markup here; for a return visit, the front mezzanine is the smarter spend.

Operated by the Nederlander Organization. Address: 222 W 51st St, slightly uptown from the central Theater District cluster.