TOP BLOGS ON INDUSTRY TRENDS

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TREND ALERT: WHAT THESE 3, NOPE, FOUR, SHOWS MEAN FOR BROADWAY’S FUTURE

I often say that producing a Broadway show in today’s crowded real estate market is a lot like trying to land a plane at JFK Airport. There are a lot of planes and very few runways, so you end up circling, waiting for something to open up.

The theater owners are our air traffic controllers, deciding what comes in and when. And what gets diverted to Buffalo.

Since so much of the independent Producer’s fate rests on the decisions they make (and when they’ll allow our planes to land), I spend a lot of time listening to the chatter and looking to the sky to see what is looking to touch down in the not-so-distant-future.

50 YEARS OF BROADWAY MUSICAL SOURCE MATERIAL. A BY THE NUMBERS INFOGRAPHIC

One of my favorite questions to ask my writer podcast guests is where they get their ideas for their musicals. Because whether we like it or not, the Broadway Musical is not an original business. Absolutely original ideas are rare, as you’ll see below, partly because they are so risky. What makes them so? Is it because audiences need some pre-existing brand to help them plunk down their credit card? Or is it because original ideas are harder to execute and therefore just don’t turn out as good?

SURE, THESE BROADWAY SHOWS RECOUPED! BUT WHY? A BY THE NUMBERS INFOGRAPHIC

I got such terrific feedback from our Best Musical Infographic that broke down the similarities and differences of the Best Musical Tony Award Winners of the last twenty years, that I had to do another one.

(I’m not surprised that the infographic got the pickup it did, by the way. There is nothing like data. And there’s nothing like seeing that data in a simple, easy to digest way. Remember this when putting together your materials for potential investors in your shows.)

When coming up with the idea for this next infographic I thought . . . what does every Broadway Producer want? Even more than a Tony Award for Best Musical? Recoupment! We all want recoupment!

BROADWAY’S FIRST BEST PRICE GUARANTEE . . . AT ONCE ON THIS ISLAND

It broke my heart.

About two years ago, I was talking to someone on the subway with a Playbill in their hand (as I’m wont to do), and after my first few focus-group-like openers (“What did you see?” “Why did you choose this?”), I got to my big query . . .

“How did you get your tickets?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” my new-found friend said, “Whenever my wife tells me she wants to see a show, I just go to INSERT NAME OF DISCOUNT TICKET WEBSITE because I know they have the best deals. I have it bookmarked in my browser.”

Crack goes my heart in two.

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