Thursday, April 14, 2011
See Sondheim's 'Company'—at the Moviesackstage
Backstage: "The distributor Screenvision said Thursday that starting June 15 it will broadcast a taped production of the musical featuring Craig Bierko, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Katie Finneran, Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Hendricks Patti LuPone, Martha Plimpton and Anika Noni Rose, among others.
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3 comments:
I think this is an interesting idea and they have already been doing this with several other shows and it is a great way to expose people to professional theatre who don't have the means to go to New York, that being said, I wonder if there could be any negative impact on sales, if by seeing these screenings people wouldn't want to go see the actual show. In reality we are just blurring the line between movies and theatre. We are putting stars on stage and filming it.
^ Given the fact that it was only a staged concert, I don't think it had any effect on the total gross from the performances.
Most recent filmed shows (i.e. Legally Blonde, Memphis, etc) don't get televised/show on at the movie theaters until well into their run. And by selling those $20ish tickets at hundreds of movie screens, I don't think the producers are losing much. I can't imagine the nightmare dealing with the union paperwork, but I'm sure it's a win-win situation for both the producers and the audience who don't have the chance to fly to New York for the weekend and shell out $250 for a concert.
Hiro, I believe there was actually an article a few weeks ago (it may have been last year, sorry for the foggy memory) about how Filmed Live on Broadway actually increases live ticket sales. I've certainly experienced this, when the taped Legally Blonde performance broadcast on MTV did not stifle my choir's desire to see the live show, rather bolstered it. I'd disagree with you that the fact that it's "in concert" helps insulate the ticket sales though, since concerts eliminate the need for perspective in space when dealing with giant sets or actors moving all over a gigantic space (as is wont to do in full productions). Concerts can bring a close-up on the singer and let everything else fall away, and that's okay with us. So I definitely don't believe the show has a significant conceptual loss through the filming (because of the concert aspect), and thus I think it's actually a little more vulnerable to the dropoff from film audiences deciding not to see it live.
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