Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Tweens Love Broadway, but Can’t Save It Alone
New York Times: "For Broadway producers, 10-year-old Jamie Carroll looks like an ideal theatergoer: she downloads scores off of iTunes, is a fervent proselytizer when she likes something and has lots of friends, two of whom she brought along to a recent Saturday matinee of “Legally Blonde.” “A lot of my friends say it’s the best musical they’ve ever seen,” she said."
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5 comments:
Tweens do love Broadway, and this is a good thing, there are a lot of shows out there that are attractive to their demographic. unfortunately gems like Wicked are rare. I say Wicked is a gem because it is adored by audiences of all ages. It is difficult to get something to appeal to audiences of all ages. Things that excite a 12 year old will probably not impress a 21 year old. I think it would be more beneficial for producers to produce shows that would be wildly accepted by a certain demographic, without trying to make everyone happy, if there is a show that can drive all demographics wild then they should by all means go for it, but using kids to get to their parents will probably not prove to be an overly beneficial tactic
The article mentions the marketing tool of getting the parents to come as a result of the kids. However, the much more sucessful version of that theory is the having the parents and children want to go to see the show, but for different reasons. The art of Wicked is that for kids it offers a fairly tale story, for adults it offers a furthering of the Wizard of Oz, and for teens it offers a fantastic pop musical score.
As a producer, putting on a musical that doesnt appeal to a mass audience for different specific reasons is just a 'general audience.' A general audience doesnt lead to long running profit making success.
Marketing used to attract tweens makes complete sense if you want to make money. These are the kids who will go out and buy songs off of iTunes, a t-shirt, a hoodie, and maybe even a second ticket. If it is popular enough, there is a possibility that movie rights will be purchased, all because of the marketability of a show. The real question is if popular entertainment will bow to their marketability and seize to challenge ideas.
Shows that attract kids are definitely good beacuse it leads to more big groups (families, especially extended families) going to New York. I definitely took some bus trips when I was younger to New York with my entire family of like 20-30 people to see Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. Fortunately, most of the shows on Broadway that go after the child audience also attracts adults (High School Musical jumps to my mind as one exception, although that isn't a BWay show). Even something like Legally Blonde has gotten decent reviews from adults, so I think that shows attracting multiple age demographics can really help to save BWay.
This is such a niche market I can't see the sense in dropping 10 million on musicals over and over again that only appeal to tween girls... Like Rico said, its a pretty poor marketing strategy to hope to make more sales based on the kids "dragging" their parents with them. Why not work to create an enjoyable musical that the entire family can enjoy? This is one of Disney's hallmarks. And it seems to be working...
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