The Verge: Puffs — the popular Off-Broadway play that reimagines the events of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book and film series from the perspective of the often-unsung Hufflepuff house — is about to make history. Representatives for the comedy play have announced that Puffs will debut online on the theatrical streaming service BroadwayHD on October 18th.
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10 comments:
4. I don't know anything about this show, but I think this is a great idea. For the longest time, there has been significant gate keeping when it comes to theater of high quality. Tickets are expensive, and not every Broadway show tours, and if it does, fans of the show still may not be able to see it if the show doesn’t come to their city. Bootlegs are discouraged for so many reasons which I find ridiculous. 1. People aren’t seeing the show in its true glory. Personally, I think that is better than not seeing it at all. 2. Creators are being cheated out of their money. If only these shows were professionally recorded and then sold by the creators at a reasonable price, making the show widely available resulting in more money for the creators than they could get out of ticket sales. 3. People won’t see a show on stage if they can see it on their TV. I believe this to be an absolutely ridiculous reason to ban bootlegs. If I am willing to scour the internet to find a show I like, I’m willing to pay for the real thing. If it became easier to find it online, I would still prefer to see it in person if it ever became affordable. Also, what is wrong with making theater accessible? Theater has been inaccessible for far too long. My own theater knowledge is extremely limited because of the people who believe these kinds of things. I think that this is an awesome step to be taking and I can’t wait to see the trend grow.
I think this is a very interesting step for a show to take but a very innovative one that I believe will bring Broadway quality of theater to those who have never before gotten the chance to see it. As a person who grew up very far away from New york or many other cities that are considered theatrical hubs, I would have loved the opportunity to at least watch a performance online. I was lucky enough to take a trip to New York and see some shows, but I know many other people who have never gotten that chance. One would think that it might be crazy to stream it online while it is still running, but i don't think it is. Sure, there might be some people who decide to stay in their pjs and watch a show from the comfort of their home, but why would you do that if you had easy access to the actual show itself. I think the number of people who would stream the show that would otherwise not get the chance to see the show outweighs the former substantially.
As the last paragraph of the article states, I believe this is an interesting experiment in growing audiences and am interested to see if it increases revenue or decreases actual show attendance, because a month of Netflix, or an Amazon movie rental is significantly cheaper than a ticket to a live performance on or off Broadway. That being said, it would take dozens of views online to equal one live audience member so there is definitely a lot to be learned from this trial. In general, I love the idea of providing easier access to creative content to people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to see a performance, and I think that those that love live theater will still prefer the real thing and go see it live. A recording however, is by no means a replacement for a live performance and I hope that this initiative will encourage people to go to the theater more rather than just taking the substitution at face value.
I’m curious how this will compare to A Very Potter Musical which I found quite amusing but is meant to be silly. I can’t imagine Puffs is serious based on the title though. I’ll probably check out the streamed version of it when I have time. I’m curious how streaming it will affect their ticket sales. On one hand, people who might see it for real if it were the only option will consider the video version good enough. On the other hand if it is good people might watch it and then want to see it in person. I know that I usually only start wanting to see a musical after I’ve listened to the original cast recording and then want to see it staged. I think even if I watched a fully video of a musical I want to see, I’d still want to see it in person. The experience just isn’t the same. I’m curious to see if Puffs is any good. I like the idea of telling a known story with a twist, but I think that strategy of retelling a story can end up feeling forced.
I think that this is a very interesting idea that could be revolutionary for theatre industry in general. Oftentimes, what is a major barrier for those who want to see productions on broadway is cost. This makes seeing a broadway production much more accessible and much more affordable, especially if it done through a platform such as Amazon or iTunes. I think that this is especially true for a show in the Harry Potter universe, which has been traditionally very successful. I also think that the concept of this show is very interesting. In the Harry Potter franchise, the house of Hufflepuff was and still is very unrepresented. I think that this show helps to present another perspective in this universe, which is beginning to seem a little burnt out. I think that this whole situation could be a jumpstart which Broadway and the world of theatre desperately needs in order to keep the legs it has historically maintained.
Selfishly I hope this is a huge success, but I’m wary of what this will do to the industry over all. Part of seeing a show is the experience of putting on your sunday best and venturing out to the theatre, seeing it from the comfort of home in your pj’s just won't have the same effect. My worry is that this setting will cause viewers to hold the musical to unrealistic standards. When filming a movie each shot is highly analized and edited before it ever reaches the view with a live recording you can't have that same effect. The beauty of live theatre may eventually be forgotten. Another interesting perspective is that bringing the show online will actually widen the audience, I see where this is coming from and in short term I think it's totally true and can lower the financial barrier between people and theatre. In long term I think it will lower the appreciation for live performance.
I am very torn about the advent of streaming as it relates to live performances. On one hand, streaming makes art available to a much broader audience which may not have the financial or logistical means of seeing an off-Broadway (or any other) show. I think that theater has a tendency to be thought of as being reserved for the elite, or for those who are in the habit of attending theater. Breaking this wall is important and necessary to maximizing the audience that this artform can access. On the other hand, it is impossible to argue that a recorded version of a show being played on a screen can compare to the experience of seeing a live performance. It is unfair to the designers, who create worlds meant to be experienced in person, and which may consequently translate differently over camera and video. It is unfair to the performers, who only get once static impression of themselves to be watched hundreds of thousands of times, despite being trained to constantly improve and modify their performance every night. As of now, I support streaming as a means of broadening accessibility, but that support will drop the second that streaming becomes any kind of competitor to live theater.
While I know nothing about this show, I’m glad to see them taking the step of online streaming and am excited to see how it works out. As someone from a smaller town in the midwest, Broadway shows or shows on a similar scale are not very accessible to me. I’ve only been to New York once and was only able to see a single show while I was there, even though there were dozens more that I wished I could have gone to. Seeing Broadway and off-Broadway is restricted both geographically and monetarily, and this is why bootlegging is such a problem. Many people argue that if they had a way to legally purchase a professionally-filmed recording of a current broadway show, they would absolutely choose that over a bootleg. The question remains on if ticket sales would be hurt- I’m skeptical. Seeing live theatre is such a totally unique experience that I think most broadway fans, even if they’ve seen a recording, would prefer to go to the live show and would do so if and when they had the opportunity. Considering the global market, I don’t think it would be difficult to make up the money lost in ticket sales from selling recordings online and I’m interested to see how this goes for Puffs as a sort of test case.
It is about time that we get the commercial theatre to the masses in an affordable and compact medium. “Puffs” sounds like a funny show especially when you take in the full title, “Puffs, Or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic.” I know absolutely nothing about the show but I am glad this article opened my eyes to its existence, which I think is part of the reason they are releasing a digital version of it. The truth about Broadway and even Off-Broadway productions are that they are, first, way too expensive for most people to enjoy. Secondly, they are only in one location in Manhattan and if you do not live there chances are you are going to have to make a special trip which only adds to the cost of the experience. In the case of “Puffs”, I think releasing a digital version is a great way for the production to gain attention and get more popular with the hopes that people will want to come to see the show live in person.
In all honesty, the only reason I clicked on this article is because I used to be obsessed with Harry Potter. But that is not at all what this article is about and I realized that the moment I started reading it. I think that broadcasting a showing of this play is a really good idea because it allows for more people to see and experience the show without the giant cost of travel, stay and tickets. Shows that have done this in the past have not lost ticket sales and so there are no real consequences to broadcasting. I really wanted to see the Angels in America broadcast but I missed it and now the show is closed which is really sad and I would love if they could turn the recording into a dvd or something that I could watch. And I think it is not a bad idea to record shows and make dvds out of them to release once the run is over so people who missed the show can still see it.
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