"We are so thankful for this collaboration with our union partners," said Susan V. Booth. "Everyone in our industry is working towards finding safe and creative solutions to producing theater during this unprecedented time. We feel confident this is a right step in that direction."
3 comments:
This is a very exciting modality of “virtual theatre” that I think has more room to be exploited. Truthfully, I doubt Broadway will reopen in the way we know it in January. I am optimistic that it will reopen, but I am not confident that will be the case. If it does reopen, there is no guarantee that the audiences will jump at the chance to suddenly put themselves in a more exposed position than their living rooms or their cars. While I do not endorse bootlegging, I can say that they have not caused significant damage to turnout. As someone who is far from an expert, my understanding of many people who use bootlegs are such that many of them would otherwise not be able to access Broadway theatre in its current form and pricing scale or they are people who would still see the show as well as the bootleg. It is my opinion that theaters might as well capitalize on this and release productions that can be watched from the comfort of the audiences’ own environment. I subscribed to BroadwayHD for a year and enjoyed the access this gave me to shows from my own home. I still attended Broadway when I could while I had this subscription. Pre-Covid, I also saw an off-broadway production from a movie theater thanks to Fathom Events.
Since the pandemic, another notable production to adapt around the closure of live in person theatre is Bandstand. They released a video you could buy for under $10 and you would only have access to it for about 48 hours. I think this was a brilliant idea, especially as the show had already closed on Broadway.
In the UK, since their lockdown, the musical called Six also used a drive in modality to share their musical through the pandemic. I have wanted to see this musical for a while and would love for the states to do the same. I believe that this had been pre recorded so the risks present for the Christmas Carol production were not an issue.
This is a wonderful idea for the upcoming holiday season. The show A Christmas Carol is such a classic piece and such a tradition for the holiday season that many people would feel their celebrations were not complete without it. This idea to turn the classic into something special and different for the unique circumstances this year is particularly encouraging for the rest of the theatre industry. The new and exciting take on the show will be sure to encourage other classics and non classics alike to adapt to the times in order to present their talent and entertainment to like or partly live audiences. The safety procedures being put in place not only for the audience but also for the cast and crew are also very important to the continued survival and thriving of the theater industry especially as they try to reintegrate into the world of live performance.
I love this idea! I am so hopeful that something like this pops up nearby to attend. I think that the biggest concern that I have is for those who are asked to go in to work. There are immense risks associated with any sort of in person contact. We are in really unusual and challenging circumstances, so being able to actually create something that is unique and special, despite the obstacles we are facing. I think it is also exciting that this opportunity is being done with a show that is a genuine tradition for many who subscribe to the idea that A Christmas Carol is a winter classic. I personally believe that we should be pursuing a lot more underrepresented shows as a practice, but, in order to get the theatre community to think of theatre and art in a different way, it might actually be really useful to start with a “comfortable” show.
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