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Broadway is an iconic and exciting aspect of the American performing arts scene. From classic musicals to cutting-edge plays, Broadway productions have captivated audiences and pushed the boundaries of theater for generations. Trivia questions about Broadway can provide a fun and engaging way to test your knowledge and deepen your appreciation for this dynamic and diverse world.
Whether you're a seasoned theater-goer or just starting to explore the world of Broadway, Broadway trivia questions offer a glimpse into the rich history and culture of this vibrant and exciting industry. From the classic shows and performers to the behind-the-scenes details of production and performance, these questions can challenge you on your knowledge of Broadway history, culture, and art.
1. A deal is made to make Washington, DC, the nation's new capital, in "The Room Where It Happens.” What smash hit Broadway musical is the song from?
Answer: Hamilton
2. Talk about a circle of life! Rafiki hoisted a fuzzy baby one more time as what movie musical-turned-musical musical that took home six Tony Awards in 1998?
Answer: The Lion King
3. Known as the hottest ticket on Broadway for years after its 2015 debut, what musical, penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, was loosely based on a biography written by Ron Chernow?
Answer: Hamilton
4. Of all the “Romeo and Juliet” Broadway rip-offs, the most famous is what Hudson-adjacent drama that features Tony and Maria’s love in the context of a teenage street gang war?
Answer: West Side Story
5. “You're the One that I Want" was a 2007 reality competition show to cast the lead roles of Danny and Sandy in what Broadway musical revival?
Answer: Grease
6. One of Broadway's longest-running musicals, what Jonathan Larson show with a four-letter title featured characters singing about how they couldn't afford to pay their New York City landlord?
Answer: Rent
7. Billing itself as a "farm-to-fable" musical, the wildly popular Broadway show "Shucked" is about farmers raising what staple crop?
Answer: Corn
8. What lyricist and composer (who died in 2021) had a Broadway theater named for him on the occasion of his 80th birthday?
Answer: Stephen Sondheim
9. "Titanique" was a 2023 Off-Broadway musical that mashed up the plot of the Oscar-winning film "Titanic" with the music of what Canadian chanteuse?
Answer: Celine Dion
10. Named for a major Midwestern city, what long-running Broadway musical features songs like "All That Jazz," "Cell Block Tango," and "Mr. Cellophane?"
Answer: Chicago
11. “I Dreamed a Dream,” “One Day More,” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?” are three of the most famous musical numbers from what Broadway musical set in early 19th-century France?
Answer: Les Misérables
12. Denzel Washington took on the title role, and Jake Gyllenhaal antagonized him like a pesky parrot in a Broadway run of what "O" Shakespeare tragedy?
Answer: Othello
13. What classic Leonard Bernstein Broadway musical re-envisioned Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" in the world of white and Puerto Rican gangs fighting in New York City?
Answer: West Side Story
14. The title character and his comrade in arms, Lafayette, tell the story of the Battle of Yorktown in "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)," a rousing number in what hit Broadway musical?
Answer: Hamilton
15. “Angelica! Eliza! (And Peggy!)” So sing The Schuyler Sisters as they rebut Aaron Burr in Act I of what Broadway musical named after the latter’s rival?
Answer: Hamilton
16. What classic Broadway musical, adapted for film in 1961 and again in 2021, features warring New York City gangs known as the Jets and the Sharks?
Answer: West Side Story
17. Referring to then-future president John Adams, the songs "Sit Down, John" and "But, Mr. Adams" come from what Broadway musical named for an important year in American history?
Answer: 1776
18. Before "Hamilton" was a worldwide sensation, Lin-Manuel Miranda was best known for writing the music for what musical, which opened on Broadway in 2008, and detailed the lives of Dominican-Americans in the neighborhood of the title?
Answer: In the Heights
19. With over 10,000 performances, what spooky performance is the longest running show in Broadway history?
Answer: The Phantom of the Opera
20. If you had tickets to the Off-Broadway venue The Public Theater for a preview performance on January 20, 2015, you'd be scheduled to see what musical that later won 11 Tonys?
Answer: Hamilton
21. What 2004 smash-hit teen comedy movie opened as a musical on Broadway in Spring 2018? The Hollywood Reporter noted in its review that one character changed from an "imperious arbiter of high school hotness to full-blown arch villainess."
Answer: Mean Girls
22. Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington took to Broadway in the spring of 2025 with Denzel in the title role of what classic Shakespeare tragedy?
Answer: Othello
23. After 35 years and almost 14,000 performances, “The Music of the Night” finally came to a stop at the Majestic Theater in 2023. “All I Ask Of You” is: what’s the name of the longest-running Broadway musical?
Answer: The Phantom of the Opera
24. Born in Sacramento, Adrienne Barbeau became famous for her role in the Broadway Musical “Grease,” playing which character?
Answer: Rizzo
25. Traveling salesman Harold Hill declares his love for Marian Paroo in the song "Marian the Librarian" in what classic Broadway musical?
Answer: The Music Man
26. The 1932 election of FDR over Herbert Hoover serves as the backdrop to what 1977 Broadway musical about anorphaned protagonist who actually gets to meet Roosevelt in Act II?
Answer: Annie
27. The smash Broadway hit "Hamilton" is staged in a theater named for what legendary songwriting partner of Oscar Hammerstein?
Answer: Richard Rodgers
28. All featuring in the new Broadway jukebox musical "& Juliet,” the songs "Stronger,” "Overprotected,” and "...Baby One More Time,” were all originally performed by which pop star and icon of the 1990s?
Answer: Britney Spears
29. On Wednesdays we wear white, Elphaba! If you followed the Yellow Brick Road to Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre at any point between 2003 and 2022, you’d have found the production of what pop-u-lar musical?
Answer: Wicked
30. Running on Broadway from 2005 to 2017, what musical tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and features songs like "Sherry" and "Big Girls Don't Cry?"
Answer: Jersey Boys
31. "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" is a famous lyric from what classic Broadway musical by Lerner and Loewe?
Answer: My Fair Lady
32. Inspired by Alanis Morissette's 1995 album of the same name, what Broadway show closed on December 17, 2021, after winning two Tony Awards and the 2021 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album?
Answer: Jagged Little Pill
33. A 1967 Film, a 2001 Musical, and a 2005 Film. The two men who served in the title role in real life for the film were Mel Brooks and Jonathan Sanger. However, it was Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick who formed “Bialystock & Bloom” to play the roles in what movie that gave us the classics “Keep it Gay” and “Springtime for Hitler?”
Answer: The Producers
34. Famous in the 2000s for hits like "Buttons" and "Don't Cha," what lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls had her turn starring in a Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Sunset Blvd?"
Answer: Nicole Scherzinger
35. A bunch of clique-ish high school blondes who share the same name provided the title of what 1988 Winona Ryder black comedy that ended up getting the full Broadway musical treatment in 2010?
Answer: Heathers
36. "There's No Business Like Show Business" is a song written by Irving Berlin for what classic Broadway musical about the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley?
Answer: Annie Get Your Gun
37. Debuting in London's West End in 1986 and on Broadway in 1988, what Andrew Lloyd Webber musical features the songs "All I Ask of You" and "The Music of the Night?"
Answer: The Phantom of the Opera
38. What 1959 Broadway musical is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea?"
Answer: Once Upon a Mattress
39. After seeing her on Broadway, Walt Disney wanted to cast Julie Andrews in his next live-action film. Not only was it Andrews’ first movie, but she went on to get her first Academy Award nomination—and Oscar win—for the role. What was the name of the 1964 film?
Answer: Mary Poppins
40. A chorus line on Broadway and, in her later years, the picturesque town of Stars Hollow, must have felt far from home for which Denver-raised Tony Award-winning actress?
Answer: Kelly Bishop
41. Although John Williams is known for writing original film scores, he also won an Oscar for adapting the score in the 1971 film version of what Broadway musical set in a shtetl?
Answer: Fiddler on the Roof
42. Without a U, it's a tree of the willow family. With a U in the middle, it's a song sung by Glinda in the Broadway show "Wicked." What are the two words?
Answer: Poplar and Popular
43. Ending its run in 2023, Hugh Jackman’s revival of what musical included such notable show tunes as "(Ya Got) Trouble," "Seventy-Six Trombones," and “Shipoopi?”
Answer: The Music Man
44. Harold Hill sings, "I love you madly, madly, Madam Librarian, Marian" in the song "Marian the Librarian," in what classic and alliteratively titled Broadway musical?
Answer: The Music Man
45. What is the minimum number of seats that a venue in the Theater District must have in order to be considered a "Broadway" theater, rather than "Off-Broadway"?
Answer: 500
46. Played by Frank Sinatra in a film version, Nathan Detroit is a gambling boss in what classic 1950s Broadway musical?
Answer: Guys and Dolls
47. A 2012 Adam Shankman movie adaptation of an 80s-themed Broadway musical, about an aspiring singer falling in love with a bar employee, shares its name with what 1983 Def Leppard song where the titular period is still rolling?
Answer: Rock Of Ages
48. What famous Nebraskan got his start in show business dancing with his sister Adele? After working in vaudeville, they first performed on Broadway in 1917. He later had an extensive film career.
Answer: Fred Astaire
49. What colorful three-word term for Broadway, alluding to its distinction of being one of the first electrically illuminated streets in the country, was coined in 1901?
Answer: Great White Way
50. Now located at 315 West 44th Street, what legendary "avian" NYC jazz club opened in its first incarnation in December 1949 on Broadway near 52nd Street?
Answer: Birdland
51. The antics of sailors who have 24 hours of shore leave in New York City are the premise for what classic 1940s Broadway musical with music by Leonard Bernstein?
Answer: On the Town
52. With songs like "One" and "What I Did for Love," what classic 1970s musical centers around Broadway dancers auditioning for eight spots in a stage show?
Answer: A Chorus Line
53. What 1960 Broadway musical is based on the life and times of American philanthropist and survivor of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, Margaret Brown?
Answer: The Unsinkable Molly Brown
54. Rob, who is a puppet, angrily denies that he is gay by singing the song "My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada" in what Broadway musical named after a thoroughfare in New York City's Brooklyn borough?
Answer: Avenue Q
55. Elder Price dreams of being sent to Orlando for his Latter-Day Saints mission, but is instead sent to Uganda, in what hit Broadway musical that debuted in 2011?
Answer: The Book of Mormon
56. Annie’s mutt Sandy has been played by different dogs on stage and screen, but a mix of which terrier breed was the first to bring the role to life on Broadway in 1977?
Answer: Airedale Terrier
57. What Broadway musical with an exclamation point in its title is about the man who was mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945?
Answer: Fiorello!
58. What Hollywood-set 2016 film, famously mis-announced as the winner of a Best Picture Oscar, will get the Broadway treatment in an upcoming live stage musical?
Answer: La La Land
59. "A Raisin in the Sun," the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway, opened in March 1959. Who was the author, a 29-year-old woman who won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play?
Answer: Lorraine Hansberry
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