Every “this time of year,” The Broadway League sends all of its members a book. That book contains a complete breakdown of who came to Broadway shows in the last calendar year, where they heard about Broadway shows, why they came, how much money they earn, whether they bring their families, and so on, etc. etc.
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Wow, I never really knew that tis kind of data was collected, although I’m not surprised. I wonder how it is collected, through surveys in the house or on the ticket purchasing website. I haven’t been to a show on Broadway in a few years, but I don’t remember any surveys, so I imagine these surveys might have missed a majority of audience members? Anyways, it is good to here that we had a record breaking number of admissions, I guess Broadway is not going down yet. This article touches on the diversity of the shows up this season, something I’m very happy about. However the audience does not seem to have followed the same path, with it remaining in the stereotype of old educated white people. I too hope this changes because of Hamilton and The Color Purple. I also wonder how much this translates into off Broadway and regional theatre’s. If it does, we still have a lot of work to do to keep theatre alive.
This data provides an interesting inside look at how Broadway is doing. First of all, a record- breaking 13.1 million admissions this year? And people are still saying that theater is dying out? Also, it’s interesting that 68% of theatergoers were female, considering that women are so underrepresented in both the performance and design fields. It’s also a little strange to me that almost 80% of theatergoers were white, but, hopefully, (as this article predicts), that might change with a wider range of shows that include people of color such as Hamilton and The Color Purple. It’s crazy to me that only 5.6% of the Broadway audience (who saw 15 or more performances in one year) accounted for 32% of ticket sales. These people must be crazy theater buffs who are also very wealthy; I know that a lot of people would love to see this many Broadway shows in one year, but aren’t able to because of price and distance. I myself have only seen 2 shows on Broadway in NYC, and a few scattered travelling shows that came to the Boston Opera House. However, I also know that a lot of young people attend many theatrical performances even though they aren’t necessarily able to afford Broadway tickets (or wait in the student rush line for hours and hours); therefore, I don’t necessarily think that this data is indicative of what is happening in the theater world at large, especially for young people, but it definitely does provide cool insight into what is happening on “the great white way”.
These demographics really don’t surprise me at all, theatre, although it has made many advancements in society in the past 50 years, is still a leisure activity at its core. And an expensive one, at that. Beside lottery tickets and special promotions, theatre tickets are not typically cheap, unless you want to squint at the stage and look at it basically in a perspective close to ½” scale. The numbers of how many shows a patron has seen in the past year is probably the most correlational number to work with, as theatre goers often buy tickets to a season selection of shows, like how my mom does Broadway Across America and is allotted a certain amount of tickets per season and she picks which shows she wants to attend. What surprised me the most is that more people frequent straight plays as opposed to musicals, but I’m assuming that that has to do with pricing of tickets.
Like Jasmine said, it's sad that the majority of the audience is still made up of upper-class white people even though shows are becoming more diverse. This wasn't a huge shocker to me as ticket prices are still enormously high (especially for shows like Hamilton), but I was hoping that there would be some difference. The thing that I'm the most curious about is how this data is gathered. Something that stood out to me was that the average age of an audience member is 44, however in my experience Broadway audiences seem to be a lot younger than that. I may be biased as I've mostly seen shows that appeal to young people, but I wonder if they count who buys the ticket or who actually sees the show. Theses numbers probably vary in the average age of the subject. One thing that's a little disappointing is that star power still seems to be the thing that's drawing in play audiences. The lure of a big star in a play is a trend that I'm not a huge fan of. Hopefully this doesn't prevent unknowns from being overlooked just because someone famous wants to be on Broadway. Overall I think these stats show that although we me think we're progressing as a industry we still have a ways to go.
I really had never wondered about the demographics of Broadway audiences but I think that this information is really cool and can tell us a lot about our industry and who we are creating shows for. The articles author is a producer and I can most definitely see how this information can help when deciding what shows to produce. Its interesting what the author mentions about knowing who your audience is so you won't waste money but also says that they should leave room in the budget for new audiences. This information makes me wonder how they handle picking material for audiences. If they stick the ways that made a lot of money before, they could be limiting the industry and the audiences in content and overall experience, but if they go to far out of the box, they won't sell any tickets. I think this would be an interesting problem to try and figure out. One of the demographic statistics I was most fascinated by was the fact that more people see straight plays than musicals. Its just when I think of Broadway, I think of its show stopping musicals. I think its great that more people are appreciating the straight plays these days.
As a few people have already pointed out, it is a bit disheartening to hear that 80% of the Broadway theatre attendees last season were Caucasian. Though this comes as no surprise to me. When I saw the Broadway production of King Charles III back in January I would say that the Caucasian makeup of the audience was at least 80% if not more (in fact I would wager the performance I attended was more like 95%). I would say that this racial cross-section was similarly reflected onstage of this same production. This leads me to wonder if there is a direct correlation between the diversity of the cast and the diversity of the audience attending a certain show. Obvious signs would point to yes, especially with shows such as Hamilton, The Color Purple, Allegiance and On Your Feet. But these shows, I would beg, are not quite as inundated into the cannon of American Theatre just yet, and in reality fall in the realm of outliers on the American Stage (not to say they are not widely anticipated and deeply accepted.) More specifically, I’m interested in whether the correlation would still exist if the average theatre production included a more diverse cast.
This was a super interesting article. Compiling a book of data about their membership population is so important and interesting and I didn’t even think they did things like this. it obviously would be an invaluable tool for anyone working on a Broadway show to see what the current audience looks like and where they would need to advertise more to get a more diverse audience. The notes from Ken on each of the points was the most interesting part. His thinking ahead to the next year’s book while he is reading the previous years really shows how important it is to be up to date with statistics and how they have to constantly be knowledgeable of all the shows. I think the most interesting fact is that 78% had completed college and that meant that while college kids don’t currently go to theatre because they’re poor, it means they will most likely come when they have graduated. I think another part of it is that while we’re still in college, we have more of an opportunity to go with our parents to a Broadway show and in that case would show up under their name an information.
The demographics that Broadway is reaching, really were not surprising at all. What did surprise me was the fact that this information is collected yearly and published as well. I would be interesting in knowing how they collected it. If is was purely surveys then I would worry their is a bit of a bias because not many people would fill out a survey after seeing a show, and then you only get the data on those that cared to fill out the survey. If it was directly connected to whose name bought the tickets, then their differently is more reliability to the data. I think it is always interesting as a young person who is going into this industry that because of this data we therefore gear our work towards the average goer. Which is the best in most ways because it will pull the biggest audience, making the most money, and therefore we can keep on working, however their are so many important messages theater teaches that are not for the primary theater goer audience, which will never make it to a level like Broadway because it will not make as much.
I think looking at the demographics of theatregoers is very interesting. It is definitely very helpful to know the types of people who see shows and how they heard about the shows. Producers can use that information to pick the perfect shows and advertise them properly. Theatre is all about getting the word out and sharing with as many people as possible. I think it will be interesting to see if the percentage of Caucasian theatregoers goes down next year because of the amount of shows that appeal to people of color this year. Hamilton has definitely made an impact on the different types of people who have bought tickets. I hope that the trend of more people being interested in theatre continues. It is always good to expand your audience as well as keeping the same loyal fans. I like how Ken Davenport wants to focus on college kids because they are the future of theatre on and off stage.
Good old Broadway demographics. Normally, I’d say trash them. Throw out the booklet and give up on ‘finding your target audience’. I don’t think theatre should be made to target the people who already watch it. It should be made to draw people in, or to fill a void in the stories being told. But there was one really interesting point made in the article that had me questioning my ‘screw statistics’ viewpoint. The author mentioned that it would be interesting to see how the percent of non-white audience members changed with the addition of more non-white shows and roles. I realized that kind of information is really important in determining if a show has achieved its goal. For example, if a show was created with the hopes that it would attract a certain audience (by race, gender, age, etc.), then these statistics can help shows see if they are actually making an impact, which is really important. I still don’t think shows should be trying to pander to one audience or another in their creation, but I do think statistics like these are helpful.
I can’t wrap my head around the fact that 5.6% of the audience bought 32% of the tickets. I guess if you see more than 15 shows a year when everyone else only sees 4, that is how the statistics turn out. I also took a bit to process how much 15 shows is. That is seeing 1 or 2 shows on Broadway a month, though not necessarily distributed that way obviously. I’d imagine those people also see non-Broadway shows, so I guess they just see a lot of theater, which is cool. Separately, given that the average American is about 37, the average Broadway Theater goer isn’t really significantly older than the average person, which I wouldn’t have expected. Also, I wonder why people who go see plays see more plays, are the plays significantly cheaper than the musicals, or is it just something about the type of person who tends to see plays on Broadway. I do wonder where they got some of these stats from. Did they send out a poll? Did they collect information directly from the ticket sales? I’m assuming it is some combination of those two, but in terms of the polling, I wonder how they went about it. Finally, the lack of racial diversity is expected but disappointing, and I hope that will change in the coming years.
As many of my classmates have said, what is most interesting about this article is how they collected the data. It isn't required to provide any of this information when you purchase a ticket. At the very base level, how do they know it buyers are male or female? Is this data recorded daily, or is it more of a weekly procedure? Apart from all of the logistical question/s, this is a really great idea. I had no idea Broadway shows did this, but it makes perfect sense. These reports allow producers to see who they are really marketing to/how effective their marketing strategies have been on their target audience for the last year. I think it's interesting that 68% of buyers were female. If the data collection is going specifically by purchaser rather than attendee, it seems like the male percentage would be much higher. A lot of people go to shows on dates, and it's considered "polite" in today's society for men to pay for women.
This article provides some statistical proof to some of the stereotypes that we always tend to associate with theatre goers; they’re usually white, educated, fairly wealthy, and frequent theatre attendees. This means that the people who see theatre see theatre often enough that they help define what being a theatre goer means, it’s a particular thing. Apparently, a lot of people see many of the shows running in a single season as well. Now, that last part at least is nice to know if you’re trying to market the shows, the whole bit of information is a little less than thrilling if you’re looking for diversity in your audiences, which I think should be a goal considering how progressive the medium is considered to be. But I do think going out to see a live show has qualities that can be considered elite, it always has been. Until we change that to a certain degree, then the lack in diversity will continue.
I've always wanted to see the Broadway statistics, but I guess I never knew they calculated and released them actually. I think these are fasscinating and very telling. Especially the fact that the average Broadway goer is 44 years old and that 80% of them are white. I'm not sure how to feel about that. I suppose it is due to the fact that younger people probably simply can't afford the price of a Broadway ticket. And since they are always yearning for a younger audience and complaining about not having them- theater is expensive, and since most of the people who see many shows are from New York- young New Yorkers probably don’t have a lot of spare change to see a show. I’m not sure how lowering ticket prices would affect Broadway, or if more people would go, but its maybe something to consider. And they’re right, it will b einteresting to see how this year’s line up changes the diversity in audience.
One day I'll read that information and it'll say that half the people who attend Broadway shows are young people. Most of this information was pretty obvious. We all know that Broadway is mostly white, in its performers and audience, and we all know that Broadway had a generally older audience. But I hope that we can start drawing more young people to the theater. I think we start doing this by giving people under 25 an option that isn't Wicked. I was lucky enough to grow up in a place that was close enough to New York for me to go shows all the time. As I started to rush more Broadway shows I found that it was the same 400 people who were doing with me all the time. It's great to develop a committed audience, and the financial information shows that. 5.6% to 32% is an insane statistic, but we need to draw in more young people. This starts with creating and producing musicals that they can relate to. Hamilton has drawn in a very young audience and that's because it's taken into account pop culture. It accepts the new way we see music, and the arts, and that's why it's done so well with younger and older people. As a business we need to start pulling in people who aren't white middle age women, and I hope that one day we can.
I always love looking at demographic information, especially of the theatre. I wish that the author of this article posted some previous years information so more trends would be evident. Without knowing trends, this data means almost nothing to broadway. Most of the data seems stereotypical of broadway. Well-educated, middle aged white women going to see either one or two musicals or a bunch a plays every year. This would be the answer by most any theatre person asked to describe the average theatre goer. I think that the most interesting trend is that 5.6% of the audience accounted for 32% of tickets. This shows that broadway has a dedicated fan base, but I hope to see that number shrink as broadway’s audience gets larger. I am hoping that the trends are going younger and more diverse, especially, as the author states, broadway's offerings gets more diverse. I hope especially that Hamilton revitalizes broadway and its demographics this year. I look forward to seeing the trends for 2016!
These demographic statistics aren’t too surprising to me. They’re definitely useful, though, in gauging where Broadway is at right now. The majority of Broadway attendees are educated middle-aged, white females. I found it interesting that “personal recommendation was the most influential factor in show selection.” I don’t know how much Broadway shows spend on marketing, but it’s good to hear that audience reception is the number one factor of a show’s success. I’m interested, like the author, to see how the introduction of more diverse shows into Broadway will change these demographics. My initial guess is not much, but I am definitely hopeful for forward progress in the coming years. Theater has a long history of being an elitist form of art; thankfully, I think we are working to change that. As a result, I can only expect that the demographics of theatergoers will broaden in the future.
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