What I was trying to say, for those of you who don’t speak musicalese, is that I’ve got demographics on the brain.
First it was last week’s Broadway Investor Survey results and yesterday’s follow up. Today, it’s all about who the Broadway customers were in the last complete Broadway season (2012-2013).
8 comments:
Tourists making up the audiences?-- I suppose Broadway is now an undeniable tourist attraction, so no tears shed there. It's cool to see that Broadway is setting records for internationality! I suppose it's disheartening to know that a supermajority of the audience members is female, but that's just because I think men should enjoy catharsis via staged performance as well. I guess that's a cultural thing though– too many feelings on Broadway being flung around to be the true American man's sport.. making Broadway a feminine-leaning phenomenon. The (significantly?) younger demographic of theater goers is extremely encouraging, no matter the degree of progress. May Broadway become a speculation for all ages to enjoy (and not an antiquated amusement)! A staggering percentage is caucasian, and my heart breaks for America. It looks like the theater going crowd is a pretty devoted one and an educated one, as well as an affluent one. 'Twould be nice to see theater made accessible for all walks of life.
This is a very interesting report on who is going to see Broadway shows, and how exactly they are seeing them. I am not surprised at all that tourists dominate this list. I am also not surprised by the dominance of wealthy caucasians or women in Broadway audiences. It is definitely true that most people find out about Broadway shows from word of mouth. This report shows that many of the same types of people are going to the theater, and those people are, I'm sure, sharing their thoughts on performances they have seen. I still do not think this means that Producers and publicity companies should be cutting back on advertisements for Broadway productions. Like Mr. Davenport says, people are being impacted by advertisements even if they do not know it. I would be interested to see what sort of people different shows attracted individually. I wonder if some of the shows would be drastically different from the more well-known big hits, such as Wicked and The Lion King.
The beauty of theatre is that it allows room for diversity; the plethora of shows, concepts, and different venues that theatre is produced in can appeal to almost anyway. However, in terms of Broadway, its a bit disheartening observing these specifics. Especially in terms of race and gender, the lack of diversity is unfortunately very prevalent, but as Clayton commented, I am optimistic in the decreased average age of the theatre goer, as many claim that theatre is a 'dying' art form. This article also brings up a question as to what percentage of men versus women are involved in the production of theatre. Remembering an article form the previous week that showcased the staggering decline of female involvement in film production, I'd be interested to see whether this is paralleled in theatre, especially when we know that the audience is primarily female.
This doesn't surprise me, but it is very insightful in knowing which demographics of people go and see professional shows. With Broadway tickets being the price they are, it makes sense that a majority of these theatre goers are quite well off. Furthermore, I appreciate the author of the article saying that word is mouth is the biggest factor in show selection. I can say from experience that his is absolutely true. While I am surprised by the number of tourists that make up the shows, it doesn't really surprise me, as a Broadway show is a thing a NYC tourist can't miss. I addition, I would love to see a demographic breakdown of individual shows as well! That might prove interesting.
It's disappointing to see that 78% of ticket purchases were by white privileged people who make 185 thousand dollars annually. Broadway is supposed to be the land of the creative but I guess they are only teaching creativity to one kind of people. However it makes sense when you see how much a Broadway ticket is. It is great to see that Broadway is making a good amount of money off of tourists. Especially those from other countries.
This kind of information is fascinating to anywise and often surprises the reader. I would have never guessed that 68% of broadway audiences were female. I know that more females than males attend theatre, but an astonishing 68% is huge. I wish the article had stats from like 10 years ago, so there is some way to compare. Forty-one percent of the audience reported buying their ticket online, which would be significantly less a few years ago. With 66% of attendees being tourists and 23% being international tourists, a small 11% of people are locals who are attending shows on a more regular basis. I would love too see stats from years previous and see how they compare with today.
I'm interested in why people who saw plays attended significantly more productions than people who saw musicals. Are tickets for plays cheaper than musicals? Are people who see plays just more serious theatre-goers than people who see musicals? is the average for musicals being pulled down by tourists who just go see one show a year? It's pretty sad that it seems the majority of people seeing broadway shows are still wealthy white people. Obviously a lot of that probably is because of ticket prices, but perhaps shows could also do better marketing producing products that interest minorities.
I think its important for all of us going into the entertainment industry to understand this. Not that we need to play to the demographics specifically, but its important to keep in mind when deciding what shows to do and how to market them. There's the question of "will it sell?", which is much more important in commercial entertainment than regional, but its still there. If no one comes to see the shows, regardless of where you are working, its not going to last long. These type of statistics can also help to show where the industry is moving audience wise, which is also important to keep in mind.
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