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Saturday, July 06, 2013
Dialing Up a Hit? Influence Over Musical Is in the Crowd’s Hands
NYTimes.com: Seven minutes into his new musical, “Somewhere in Time,” the Broadway producer Ken Davenport leapt off his stool at the back of the theater the other night, and began pointing. Not at the stage, but at a nearby laptop that showed — in a fever-chart line — the reactions of 60 audience members as they turned hand-held dials among three choices: “Love this part,” “Neutral about this part” and “Hate this part.”
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It’s very cool that during these preview shows the audience has the moment to moment ability to give positive or negative advice about the show. It gives the audience power in the theater, instead of relying on the producer or director’s instinct, it allows the people who to parts of the show good or bad and give their opinion in advance. It also involves introducing the theater world to new electronics early on in the game, which tends to be unusual. Despite the discomfort of many directors and producers, I think it is a great thing to get more people involved in the production of the show and get insight from many differing viewpoints. There is nothing saying that a part of a show has to be changed if the audience doesn't like it, at least you know what to possibly expect in your reviews.
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