It will be Teachers' Day on Broadway Nov. 16 as thousands of New York and New Jersey-area teachers attend — for free — every show on The Great White Way.

"Spotlight on Teachers" is being sponsored by The Washington Mutual Bank, which has purchased "every available seat" for every Broadway show playing a Saturday matinee on Nov. 16. An estimated 28,000 tickets, totaling over two million dollars, were purchased by the bank to pay homage to the teachers in the metropolitan area.

The promotion will also help introduce The Washington Mutual Bank to the metropolitan area. Randy Grimm, a group manager for Washington Mutual, told Yahoo! News, "Teachers are one of the most important factors influencing the quality of a student's education, so we created a unique initiative to shine the spotlight on New York and New Jersey teachers."

Teachers will receive the tickets through a nomination process. Anyone who wishes to do so may nominate a K-12 teacher from a public, private or charter school for a pair of tickets. Nomination forms are available by visiting any local Washington Mutual bank or by downloading a form at www.wamucommunities.com.

The tickets were purchased through the Shubert Organization's group sales division. Patricia Hallock, a Washington Bank spokesperson said, "We do have some tickets for shows like 'The Producers' — what tickets we could buy that were available — but as much as would love to fulfill every single personal request, determining who gets to see what show will be the luck-of the-draw." —By Andrew Gans