Theater posters are as old as the Middle Ages, when performers would tack announcements for shows to posts ("posters"!). Through the years, they became mirrors of the times, reflecting advancements in printmaking, the advent of cinema and television, and the whims of the advertising and art worlds. With a few ingenious brush strokes or a photomontage, they tell many stories at once.
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Russell & Morgan's 1903 poster for the first stage adaptation of L. Frank Baum's children's book The Wizard of Oz depicts the perfectly wobbly Scarecrow.
Picture Perfect
Film, and later television, was an influence on theater posters, which began to showcase stars' photos. Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story was written for Katharine Hepburn and opened on Broadway in 1939. She later brought the story to the screen (and starred in the movie).
Posters become events, memorable as shows.
“The ad agency wanted her to be more cheerful,” said renowned poster designer Paul Davis of his artwork for Caroline, or Change. “[Author and composer Tony] Kushner said absolutely not, and saved it.”
Playing With the Grid
According to SpotCo, the company that designed the now-iconic poster for Rent (1996), the image was made using stencils and spray paint from a local hardware store (fitting for the struggling-artist characters). Amy Gulp took the gritty photos.
The Cats logo came to be the indelible symbol of the longest-running Broadway show of all time.
Bold Graphics
Milton Glaser's poster for The Wiz (1974) is a lithograph on wove paper. A signed copy lives at the Cooper Hewitt in New York. Imaginative poster art had a renaissance after the emergence of Pop Art.
Our favorite posters could fill a book, but here's a handful that represent their evolution: