I always spell it theatre. Someone asked me why I spelled it that way in high school, and I said "I just like it better that way" and that's how I've been unconsciously spelling it since. It seemed more, "fancy"? to my pubescent self.
I always spell it theatre because the English invented English.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
In most contexts, there is no difference in meaning between theater and theatre. Neither has any special definitions in general usage. The main thing that most English speakers and learners need to know is that theater is the preferred spelling in American English, and theatre is preferred virtually everywhere else.
Some Americans do make distinctions—for instance, that a theater is a venue while theatre is an art form, or that a theater is a movie theater while a theatre is a drama venue. There is nothing wrong with making these distinctions, but they are not consistently borne out in general usage. Even in 21st-century writing on the art of theater, the more American spelling now appears for all senses of the word.
The American preference for theater is a late-20th-century development (though the spelling itself is a centuries-old variant), so it is understandable that some people still resist it, and its newness means that exceptions are very easily found, but in this century the preference is entrenched. Searching a selection of 40 American news and cultural publications that put their content online, theaters appears 8,500 times from 2000 to the present, against just under 200 instances of theatres. This just suggests that theater is the preferred spelling for actual venues (the art form is a mass noun so would only rarely be pluralized), which no one seems to dispute. What’s more interesting is that the phrase theater critic appears 260 times against three instances of theatre critic, theater actor appears 43 times against zero instances of theatre actor, theater scene appears 60 times against two instances of theatre scene, and the phrase contemporary theater appears 27 times against two instances of contemporary theatre (and both of these are in names of buildings).
The American effort to reform the English spellings, I've read, began in the early 19th century for both cultural and political reasons. Americans preferred simplicity (honor is simpler than honour, program has fewer letters than programme, theater is closer to the way the word is pronounced.) Americans also wanted to distinguish themselves from their former colonizers. I like these origins of "theater."
You Write "Theatre," I Write "Theater" by Anthony Chase
Here's one brief excerpt:
"The New York Times, America’s foremost arbiter of theatrical judgment, uses “theater,” and even goes so far as to change the spelling of a theater’s proper name from “Theatre” to “Theater” if it is listed among other theaters."
As a rule, I use "theater" to refer to the physical structure that houses a show (or movie or concert or performance) and "theatre" to refer to the art form of plays/musicals. As in: "Last night I went to the theater in Springfield to see some theatre."
theater, please. I really feel like we should try to spell the words the way we pronounce them (even though english doesn't really do that). Since the word is pronounced with -ter (like in monsTER) instead of -tre (like in TREk), I'm all for theater.
Every dictionary says they mean exactly the same thing, and both spellings cover all meanings (whether building or art form or or movie house or legitimate house.) That so many people make up their own distinctions is a clear indication, at the very least, of a language in flux -- but at worst it's a mess. It makes you wish that the English language was ruled as autocratically as the French language. And I agree completely with helvizz. We don't spell Twitter Twittre, or later latre. As I say in my post, if they're going to spell it the “Walter Kerr Theatre” why not make it consistent and spell it the “Waltre Krre Theatre”?
I have always thought Theater = physical place (like even movie theaters) and Theatre = an artform
So like the theater company would be the one owning and renting out theaters (in the states of course) And a theatre company is the one creating theatrical productions.
But I may be wrong because english is not my first language. I just thought it sounded right that way.
"We suspect that some Americans lean toward 'theatre' because of its British associations (just as the spelling “colour” appeals to Anglophile cosmetics manufacturers). In other words, it has snob appeal.
"The truth is that the spelling of this word has fluctuated over the centuries, and 'theatre' hasn’t always been the preference in the British Isles.
"The Oxford English Dictionary says the 'earliest recorded English forms, c1380, are theatre and teatre.' But, the OED adds, 'from c1550 to 1700, or later, the prevalent spelling was theater.'
"So Chaucer, writing in Middle English in the late 1300s, used 'theatre.' Two hundred years later, Shakespeare and Spenser used 'theater.'"