Your guide to Broadway proshots

A proshot (short for "professionally shot") is an official video recording of a staged production that's released to the public, often with a paywall. Some proshots are screened in cinemas, while others are streamed on various platforms.

Proshots should not be confused with film adaptations, which translate a theatrical script into the cinematic medium. Nor is a proshot a live TV broadcast of a play or musical. For example, there’s a difference between 2008's Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway, shot at the theatre, and 2019's televised RENT: Live, filmed on a soundstage specifically for Fox.

Select proshots are available on major streamers like Netflix (Merrily We Roll Along) Disney+ (Hamilton), Apple TV+ (Come From Away), HBO Max (Alex Edelman: Just For Us), and Kanopy.

Below are other streaming services largely dedicated to theatre proshots. Unless otherwise noted, all require a subscription.

• BroadwayHD: The most popular theatre proshot streaming service, which also hosts select livestreams of Broadway shows.
• Marquee TV: A streaming service for opera, dance, jazz, and theatre performances.
• National Theatre Live: A streaming service offering filmed captures of shows produced by London's National Theatre.
• PBS: Select proshots are filmed for PBS's Great Performances TV series, and they're made available to watch for free on PBS's website for a limited time afterward. Recent shows to be filmed for Great Performances include Suffs on Broadway and Next to Normal in London.
• Met Opera on Demand: This service has over 900 full-length Metropolitan Opera performances available to stream.
• NYPL and other libraries: The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts maintains a Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), a collection of Broadway and Off-Broadway proshots. TOFT recordings can only be viewed at the library by appointment, but no payment is required. Your local library may also have physical copies of proshots on DVD or Blu-ray.

Below is a list of recently released or upcoming proshots of shows currently running in NYC. You can discover more proshots of past shows on the streaming services listed earlier in this article.

• Hamilton: See the original cast of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit bio-musical about Alexander Hamilton, via a proshot recorded in June 2016 and now streaming on Disney+.
• Six: While the Broadway production continues jamming at the Lena Horne Theatre, the SIX The Musical Live! proshot features the original West End cast as the six ex-wives of Henry VIII, reimagined as pop divas. SIX The Musical Live! was released in the U.K. in 2025, and Americans can see it in cinemas starting August 14, 2026.
• Hadestown: Hadestown is a modern retelling of a tragic love story from Greek mythology. In 2025, the original Broadway stars reprised their roles in London, where three performances were filmed. The Hadestown: The Musical proshot premieres at the Tribeca Festival on June 8 before a wider theatrical release on July 24.
• Giant: Mark Rosenblatt's play stars John Lithgow as British children’s author Roald Dahl, who faces accusations of antisemitism. Before its Broadway transfer, a proshot was captured at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End. It will be screened in select U.S. movie theatres starting November 19, 2026.
• Stranger Things: The First Shadow: This prequel to the Netflix series Stranger Things expands the backstory of Henry Creel, answering questions only hinted at in season 5. A proshot of the Broadway production will stream on Netflix at a date to be announced.
• Fallen Angels: Kelli O’Hara and Rose Byrne lead a revival of Noël Coward’s then-scandalous 1925 play about two upper-crust wives lusting after a French lover behind their husbands’ backs. BroadwayHD will livestream the June 5, 7 p.m. performance for its subscribers.
• Heathers: Before the musical adaptation of the 1988 Winona Ryder film returned off Broadway in 2025, the London revival was filmed at the Other Palace. This proshot is available on The Roku Channel.
• The Play That Goes Wrong: It’s exactly what it says on the tin: A murder mystery play is thwarted by a rickety set, actor injuries, and a corpse that can’t play dead. A proshot with the original U.K. cast was announced in 2023, but no release date has been set.
• Cats: A 1998 direct-to-video film recreates the original Broadway production of Cats with some cinematic flourishes. The proshot, however, is different from the musical's current Broadway revival: Cats: The Jellicle Ball, which reimagines the story in the LGBTQ+ ballroom scene. You can watch the proshot on Prime Video to see how the original informs this new version.

In short, it comes down to financing, as the artists must be paid for the continuous digital distribution of their work. As Playbill notes: “[In the U.S.] the producers need to negotiate with every member of the show (composers, actors, directors, designers, crew members, etc.) for how much their payout on the project would be.”

Producers weigh out several business factors before greenlighting a proshot, and many shows rely on a third party — like PBS or the NYPL — to fund it. U.K. theatres tend to have an easier time producing and licensing proshots thanks to greater subsidies for the arts.

Proshots make live theatre accessible for all, including people for whom ticket prices, geographical barriers, or scheduling conflicts make it difficult to see live shows. Theatre fans who previously subsisted on an album, marketing, fan art, or theatre message boards can finally see their favorite productions in full.

Those who have already seen a production live may enjoy reexperiencing it in a new way, with cameras offering the ability to zoom in on details they may have missed. The camera can capture ultra-close-ups (like Jonathan Groff’s infamous sweat as King George in Hamilton) and dynamic angles (like an overhead shot of the newsboys hopping on their papers in Newsies) you couldn't see in the theatre. In addition, you can potentially see different cast members than at your performance.

Yes! A proshot offers a window into a production and builds interest in the live experience, but your home TV or cinema can’t capture the acoustics and spontaneity of in-person theatre.

Even if you don't want to see the same show again after watching the proshot, you should still check out another live play or musical if the art form interests you. Until then, see you at the theatre, the cinema, or your sofa.