Photo FeaturesGlimpse Back Through the History of PlaybillA look at some of the earliest Playbills all the way to the newest cover design.
By
Playbill Staff
August 04, 2017
A little over a year ago Playbill implemented its new cover design, eliminating the borders around the logo and cover art for most Broadway programs, the first major design change to the iconic magazines in more than 40 years.
There have been a few experiments in the history of our iconic logo. In June 2014 the company exchanged the yellow logo for a rainbow-colored one to celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month. The substitution has now become an institution and the logo turns rainbow every June. As of July 1, Playbill changed to a new, sleeker, design to go hand-in-hand with Playbill.com’s redesign that unveiled in February of 2016.
Flip through the history of Playbill covers below:
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Glimpse Back Through the History of Playbill
Glimpse Back Through the History of Playbill
A look at some of the earliest Playbills all the way to the newest cover design.
25 PHOTOS
Madison Square Theatre Playbill – 1885 Reproduction of an image from an 1885 program published by the company that would someday become Playbill.
Winter Garden Playbill – 1866 The newspaper-style program used in the 1880s when it was known as The Stage.
Wallacks Playbill – 1899 Art nouveau style cover for James W. and Lester Wallack's theatres, used at the turn of the 20th century.
Winter Garden Standard Cover Playbill – 1925
Martin Beck Theatre Standard Cover Playbill – 1925. In this era the cover was the same for every show that played at a particular theatre.
Viva O'Brien Playbill. Showing a script logo, but no show title.
Saint Joan – Playbill – 1936. With a more delicate font, but still no play title.
Ambassador Theatre Standard from the 1940s. Displaying a curly-serif logo.
On the Town Playbill — 1944. With the sepia cover and Egyptian hollow font.
Annie Get Your Gun Playbill – 1946. Showing the Egyptian hollow font logo. The play title finally appears.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof Playbill – 1955. Sepia covers were used from the 1920s to the 1950s, usually with the solid Egyptian font for the logo. Note that it is still called “The” Playbill.
Auntie Mame Playbill – 1958. New logo design with the new logo in Latin Wide font on a colored background (here, green) with the theatre name in a box in the upper left. And no more “The” Playbill.
Auntie Mame Playbill – 1958. Showing a blue logo.
West Side Story Playbill – 1958
Promises, Promises Playbill – 1969. The standard look from the late 1950s to 1973, with the Latin Wide logo on a yellow background, with the theatre name in a box in the upper left.
Grease Playbill, 1973. A sample of the tri-color logo used from February to December 1973.
A Little Night Music Playbill
Chicago Playbill – 1975. The classic cover design that lasted from 1974 to 2016. The tall official Playbill font on the yellow background with the theatre name beneath. Both the logo and the cover art have a white border around them,
Angels in America Millenium Approaches Playbill – 1993. The cover style used from 1974 to 2016 with the tall “Playbill” font on the yellow background with the theatre name beneath, and a white border around both the logo and the cover art.
Fun Home Playbill - June 2015
Hamilton Playbill – 2015. One of the last of the old bordered covers.
The black-on-yellow Playbill logo has been woven into the theatregoing experience for most of the lives of those who now attend theatre. Playbills get pressed into albums, read at intermissions, clutched on trains, framed like posters, given as gifts, sought by collectors and opened eagerly by young actors, a certification that they have at last “arrived.”
Playbill continues to be proud and grateful to serve the artists and audiences who share our passion for the performing arts.
