My 5 Friday Finds: Just Chillin’

Hello Producer’s Perspective Readers, and welcome to a brand new column here at TPP.

Starting today, and each and every Friday going forward, I’ll post a bullet-pointed blog with 5 Things I Found That Week that I think you’ll find fascinating or could help you in some way.

They could be anything . . . a show that caught my eye, a marketing trend, a book that I’m loving, a songwriter that I can’t stop listening to, a life hack . . . who knows!

But there will be five of them. They will be every Friday. And I think you’ll find they are worth a click or a ponder.

So without further ado, here are this week’s (and the first) Friday Finds:

  1.  Be More Chill Heads to Broadway: Everyone in this biz knew that Joe Iconis would have a Broadway show someday, but no one expected it to be this one. What makes this show a find is that it is the first Broadway show to get a Broadway run solely on the backs of social media.

The people wanted this show. And they got it.

Wait, wait. Did you hear that sound? It’s a revolution beginning.

Read about it here. Visit the Be More Chill website here. See some of the social that got it all started here.

  1. A Book About General Managers by a General Manager: I wrote a blog in 2014 answering the question “What Does A General Manager Do?”  Well, GM Peter Bogyo one-upped me and wrote a whole book about it.

He was nice enough to send me a copy, and I’m enjoying it. Check it out here.

  1. I Cut My Ties To Cable Last Week: I’m an early adopter. So when I make a move in my life, I know that others are doing the same. And last week, I got rid of my Verizon cable and went straight to Hulu. Anyone else?

Why is this a find? Because during the first hour of watching, I immediately noticed how the commercials were so much more hyper-targeted to me (and when signed in under her profile, the ads were hyper-targeted to my wife) than standard cable.

This is “programmatic” television advertising, and our business (which is always a bit behind other industries) has just started to get behind this trend.

Expect a lot more of it in the future, and if you’ve got a show, push for it yourself. (There’s a reason this stock has been killin’ it.)

  1. Al Roker Will Appear in Waitress: No one casts better than Barry and Fran Weissler. I worked on their 90s revival of Grease, which they kept running well beyond its expiration date with celebrities from all different worlds (from Olympic Gymnast Dominique Dawes to Xena, The Warrior Princess).

And obviously, the casting of Chicago speaks for itself.

This week, they landed everyone’s favorite weatherman Al Roker for their surprise hit, Waitress.

This find reminded me that stars can be found in all different forms of entertainment mediums, and the unlikely of stars can get you the most press.

Read the announcement here.

  1. The Easiest Thing I’ve Ever Done To Save Money: I promised you life hacks. Here’s one:

You shop on Amazon?

Duh. We all do.

Since the birth of my little one, it feels like at least one box with that Amazon swoosh arrives on my doorstep every day.

While I normally don’t do this sort of thing, I signed up for the Amazon Store Card and get 5% off every purchase. And since I purchase everything on Amazon, it adds up to a nice chunk of change every month.

If you shop there, it’s worth the 5 minutes to sign up. They just give you back money that you can use on your next show. 🙂

Hope you enjoyed our first Friday Finds! See you next week, and if you’ve got a find of your own, send it to me and you may just see it here.

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Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.

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