Sunday, November 25, 2007
Off Broadway gets physical
Variety: "If you want to sell tickets Off Broadway, shut up. That, at least, is the consensus reached by a new crop of dialogue-lite Off Broadway productions aiming for the all-important international tourist audience currently shanghaied by the Broadway strike."
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7 comments:
This is definitely too Vegas-y for my taste, but particularly interesting in light of the audience NY theatre has to cater to. I think we often forget how much NY theatre is not about Ny at all, but the tourist industry, and international tourists are a big part of this. As the article pointed out, tourism in the US will be more popular because it will be much cheaper for foreigners. It will be interesting to see how this effects Broadway, and the economy in general.
I think it will be interesting to see the effect of increased tourism on American theater in general. Is a weak dollar only going to lead to more and more spectacle based shows in more and more venues? And is that a necessarily a bad thing? I think its interesting the flux of international tourists planning on Broadway that now are going to see these 'physical shows' instead of big Off Broadway hits like Altar Boyz. The idea of universal entertainment is not a new one, but is it what we have to look forward to more and more in the future?
The one thing that non-verbal shows like "Stomp" and "Cirque Du Soleil" create is a more specific and centralized reaction from their audiences. Whereas other shows with rich dialog and complicated relationships can create mixed opinions, these shows all offer the same aesthetic in their performance. They all thrive upon spectacle, which last time I checked, everyone is quite fond of.
I like theatre alright but I would definitely rather see a broadway production of something over a physical comedy show. This sounds like some strange kind of carnival like show that's only getting attention becasue there is nothing better to go to. I guess this is a good thing and a bad but it will be interesting to see what happens to it when Broadway opens again.
It’s a good time to be an off-Broadway show. People who have booked trips to NYC are not going to cancel them just because the show they were planning on seeing got shut down. All international tourists may not have even heard about the strike until they got here. I bet this can give a nice leg up to producers who are looking to do bigger projects. They can tell their investors how well their current show is doing and get more money for the next one.
The strike is giving a chance for smaller theaters and non-broadway shows in the city to get some patronage. I expect this is a much welcomed financial boost for most of their records. While the article centered around a lot of the circus and physical performances, I know that a lot of the not-for-profit theaters in new york are doing quite well, too.
What I really hope doesn't come from this strike, and influx of visitors to the off-broadway houses, is the rise of more fluf and spectacle in off-Broadway houses. It kind of makes sense though that if an off-Broadway house knows that there are people waiting to see a show, and they really will see just about anything since their precious Broadway is dark, then why put on a brilliant show that is terribly thought provoking, when you could just throw some cheap sparkle at them and get their money either way. I know little about these physical shows, but it kind of seems like the idea, especially since they have suddenly risen out of nowhere with the start of the strike.
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