5 Things I’m Thankful for on Broadway this Thanksgiving

Gobble, gobble, yo.  Time to get your Turkey and Thanks on.

So, here are five stuffing-a-licious things that I’m thankful for on Broadway this year.

1.  Smash – Season 2!

I was very thankful for Smash Season 1, as you may recall.  But Smash season 2?  I’m thankful-squared for.  Why?  Come on, let’s face it, like the Wicked/Avenue Q Best Musical Tony race, whether it got a second season or not could have gone either way.  Thankfully, it did, and so, every week for 13 weeks millions of people will be hearing the word Broadway, Broadway Broadway, which has to have an impact on future theatergoing.

2.  TKTS Sells Full Price Tickets

TKTS used to be synonymous with selling half-price tickets.  Now that it’s hawking full price wares, in a few years we could change that synonym to just “selling tickets.”  We’ll never wean our buyers off of discounts for good, but at least this initiative will show them that half-price isn’t the only price.

3.  The Election is Over

I don’t care who you were rooting for in this last record-breaking money-spending Presidential race, you gotta be thankful it’s over.  It drove up the cost of media and kept our consumers and the entire country in a perpetual “what’s gonna happen” mood.  Now, let’s get back to business.  And Broadway.

4.  Once Wins.

Remember that time a small, non spectacle musical with a small, unit set and a realistic and non-rainbows and puppy dogs plot line won Best Musical?  Yeah.  That was awesome.  Every time we think there’s a rule for success in our industry, there comes along a show that breaks that rule and achieves even greater success.  That’s what makes what we do fun.

5.  The JOBS Act

In this era of bi-partisanship, one bill made it through Congress with support from both sides of the cavernous aisle . . . The JOBS Act.  Everyone knows that small businesses are the backbone of America.  And by allowing small businesses to raise capital in “modern” ways, the JOBS act will provide actual jobs to our economy.  Oh, and in case you didn’t know, Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are small businesses, so as my Godspell lawyers wrote, the fundraising times in our industry really are a-changin’.

It’s been a fantastic year, with a bunch of things to be thankful for.  But I’ll end with something a little personal . . . I’m thankful for the fact that I get to wake up and go to work in an business that I love.  Oh Broadway, you may be a piece of work sometimes, but I really am thankful for ya.

(Oh, one bonus thing I’m thankful for that made its debut this year . . . PlaybillVault.  All those credits, plus photos, plus images . . . it’s a researcher’s dream.)

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