"Theatre" vs. "Theater"

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 2/8/15 at 2:07am

I'm interested to know why so many Americans spell "theatre" thusly. Do you also spell centre, colour, honour and so on in the British way? Is it because the American theater tradition was largely jump-started by Anglophiles?

[Fantod]

Posted: 2/8/15 at 2:24am

There was another thread on this subject a few weeks ago

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1079513

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 2/8/15 at 2:35am

Thanks, Fantod. Evidently I missed that thread. The comment I noted was "What continues to irritate is that everybody has these silly distinctions about when to use “theatre” and when to use “theater” that are NOT supported by ANY dictionary." It's really still a matter of how the Brits spell some thing differently than Americans, but for some unknown reason some Americans insist on the Brit spelling of "theatre" but don't use any other Brit spellings.

[Susanswerphone]

Posted: 2/8/15 at 2:43am

Here's a bit about its origins