Monday, August 17, 2009
It’s Broadway Gone Viral, With ‘Next to Normal’ Via Twitter
NYTimes.com: "At a recent performance of “Next to Normal,” the Broadway musical at the Booth Theater on West 45th Street, Alice Ripley, who won a Tony for her portrayal of Diana, a suburban mother with bipolar disorder, was reaching to answer a cordless telephone when she knocked it off the stage. Fourth wall broken, Ms. Ripley asked, with a smile, “Could you hand that to me?”"
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4 comments:
Oh the powers of twitter. Twitter has become ridiculous in ability to attract people to certain items or brands. If you follow some company they even direct you to coupons.
I find it exciting that Broadway has taken to using technology to get its message out about shows. Technology can be amazing sometimes!
The Twitter version of Next To Normal is a brilliant viral strategy, in my book. I'm a big fan of the use of real-life, mainstream internet channels to tell or expand the universes of stories, so the idea of characters actually twittering during the course of a show with their inner thoughts would be a really interesting dynamic for a truly modern play. I have current plans to produce something similar, an alternate-reality game that takes place on Facebook, blogs and Twitter, as well as in live action during the Playground festival, so I will have developments on that soon.
THANK GOD. While this is the first time I have heard of a Broadway show using facebook and twitter (and the like) to market their shows, I hope that this has been happening for awhile. The nature of theater is such that (as we all know) it tends to attract patrons in older generations. I think that this aggressive use of more modern communication techniques would help struggling regional theaters increase their audience pool by getting the word out to younger people.
@Brian: Good Luck. Sounds like fun!
I think that this is a fantastic method of advertising. However, I believe that there were two decisions that were made that made it as successful as it is. First, the decision to not to directly advertise was the best. As a "tweeter", whenever I see something that even looks like an ad, I do not even read it. Second, and more importantly, but making the content of twitter reveal different perspectives and give insight into the characters inner thoughts, the content is interesting to both people who have and have not seen the show. Hopefully, this kind of tread will continue in the theatre world. However, if not done carefully and tactfully, it could be extremely detrimental.
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