Read the catalogue freely and use the facts in it however you like. We ask three things: do not hammer the site, do not pass the catalogue off as your own, and do not ask us to point you at an unofficial recording.
Version 2026-08-16.1 — describes the site as of August 16, 2026.
Researched carefully and with sources, but written by someone not qualified to give legal advice, and not yet checked by a solicitor.
A catalogue of Broadway and West End theatre history, and everything that documents it. One person runs it, as a personal project. It is free, there is nothing to buy, and there is no advertising.
Using the site means accepting what is on this page.
Read it, search it, link to any page on it, quote it in your work, cite it in a book. None of that needs our permission. Link straight to a deep page if you want to — we try hard not to break those.
The facts here belong to everyone: titles, dates, casts, catalogue numbers, labels, track listings. We claim no ownership of them. The writing, the design and the arrangement are ours.
For anything more than a page or two, use the free public API. It is faster than scraping, easier on the server, and it comes with a licence telling you what you may do with what you get.
Two things we ask. Do not request pages so fast that the site falls over for everyone else. And do not republish the whole catalogue as though it were yours — cite it as you would any other reference work.
This is built from archives, record sleeves, programmes and other people's research, and those sources disagree with each other more often than you would think. When we know a fact is disputed, the page says so instead of quietly picking a winner.
So please do not rely on this alone for anything that matters legally or financially. If you are clearing rights, licensing a work, or about to spend real money, check the original source. We would love to hear what you find.
Found a mistake? Tell us, or fix it yourself. Corrections are the whole idea.
Some recordings were never meant to be public — audience tapes, in-house archive recordings, things that circulate privately among collectors. We record that they exist, because most productions in history were never recorded commercially, and leaving these out would make whole decades unanswerable.
Saying a recording exists is where we stop. This site will never hold one, link to one, or tell you where to find one. Please do not ask, do not post links in contributions, and do not email for a copy.
Cover art and photographs are here so you can match the object in your hand to the entry on the page. They are shown at a size that does that job, served from our own storage, and credited wherever we know the source.
If you hold the rights to a picture here and want it taken down, email us and it will come down. No argument, no review period. We can talk about it afterwards if you want to.
Corrections, additions and evidence are welcome from anyone. You do not need to be an expert. Knowing one thing about one show is enough, and it is how most of this gets better.
Contributions are public and permanent, credited to the name you choose. A separate agreement sets out what you grant and what stays yours: the contributor licence. Worth reading before your first edit.
What we ask: contribute your own work rather than somebody else's, do not copy records out of another database, and say where you got it.
We can turn down or undo a contribution. When we do, we say why, in writing, on the page.
Contributions can be discussed. Keep it about the record — the evidence, the dating, the pressing, what the sleeve actually says. Argue with each other about the facts.
We hide abuse and harassment, anything aimed at a person rather than a claim, links to unofficial recordings, copyrighted material, and spam.
Hidden is the right word, and we use it rather than deleted. A moderated comment stops being visible, and the row stays, with a note of who hid it and why. That is so the decision can be checked or reversed later.
If you would rather your hidden comment were gone rather than hidden, ask and we will remove the text. What stays is the note that a comment was here and why it went. We will not do that to a comment nobody has ruled on. Taking down something still public would be us removing your words, not doing what you asked.
Anyone can report a comment, and a person reads every report. If something of yours is hidden, or your account is restricted, we tell you and you can argue about it.
An account can also be suspended. That signs it out everywhere and stops it contributing, and deletes nothing it has written. It comes with a reason.
An account is optional. The whole catalogue is readable without one, and it always will be. You need to be 13 or over. Keep your sign-in to yourself.
You can close your account whenever you like. We can close it too, if it is being used to vandalise the catalogue or to harass people, and we will say why.
Pages here link out to shops, libraries, streaming services and archives, so you can go and hear the thing. Those are other people's sites under their own rules, and a link is not a recommendation.
Availability goes stale fast. A shop sells out, a licence lapses, a streaming service drops a whole catalogue overnight. We do not control any of it, and if you find a dead link we would like to know.
The site comes as it is. We do not promise it will always be up, or complete, or free of mistakes.
We are not liable for what happens if you rely on it. A record that turned out to be a different pressing. A production you could not track down. A fact that was simply wrong.
Where the law says liability cannot be signed away, it is not signed away here. Nothing on this page ducks responsibility for our own fraud, or for causing injury. Nothing here affects your rights as a consumer.
When the site changes. The date under the heading is when they were last accurate. Anything substantial gets said out loud on the site rather than slipped in quietly.
One address for everything — a correction, a takedown, a report, a legal notice, or a question about anything on this page: john@musicaltheatrehistory.com. A person reads it. Takedowns and anything urgent get read first.