Broadway musical, The King and I, by a small opera company (6)
I believe the answer is:
kismet
'broadway musical' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'king and i by a small opera company' is the wordplay.
'king' becomes 'K' (chess abbreviation).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'opera company' becomes 'met' (I've seen this before).
'k'+'i'+'s'+'met'='KISMET'
'the' is the link.
(Other definitions for kismet that I've seen before include "Destiny; 50s musical" , "Will of Allah" , "Broadway musical" , "Turkish fate, destiny" , "lot in life" .)