nypost.com: Midtown’s swell, but lately New York’s hottest tickets are well below 42nd Street.
While theaters in the city and around the country have struggled in the face of skyrocketing expenses and sagging attendance, a group of commercial off-Broadway shows have bucked the trend and are packing in ticket-buyers.
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It is great news for theaters everywhere that theaters somewhere doing well. It is hard for artistic organizations to keep up with a changing world, and our world is definitely changing rapidly. The preferences of what kinds of shows people want to see and how people want to see shows are changing, and it is critical that theaters are aware and keep up with these changes in order to not be left behind. I know that in a lot of places theater is a thing for the elderly, and I hate to say it but those people are not going to be able to see shows for too much longer. Theaters need to find a way to cater to younger audiences, in order to maintain their long-term future. It seems like Off Broadway has done a good job of catching this audience and getting them to come into the theater. That being said, it would be nice if Off Broadway finally got around to letting their stagehands unionize.
This is such a good reminder that we can trust audiences to want to see new things. There has been such a push lately for shows that are remakes, or remakes of remakes, or musical versions of movies or movie versions of musicals. It feels like the market is saturated with things being redone, and it can be exhausting when you’re looking for something new and original to watch––or when you’re the artist with something new to say but you’re being drowned out by all the noise. But these shows that are incredibly successful off-Broadway right now prove the kinds of shows people want to invest in, and that brand new interesting ideas can succeed. I hope producers take note of this and continue to invest more in first-time creators or new material. The shows talked about in this article do look like a lot of fun. I wonder if part of the reason that they are so successful at the moment is that things are looking pretty bleak, and so audiences are turning to comedy for entertainment.
The last time I was in New York, it didn’t even cross my mind to go see off-Broadway shows. I was so focused on getting tickets to shows like Sweeney Todd and Purlie Victorious that I forgot about the off-Broadway shows. However, after reading this article I can see how the draw to the off-Broadway shows has increased over the years, and especially now. I was surprised at how expensive Broadway continues to be, and even though I understand the cost of theatre, it still surprises me how expensive they are. It’s interesting to see that there are headliner stars in a couple of off-Broadway shows and they draw more of a crowd and make more money than Broadway shows have been recently. I wonder if this is because of the scale of Broadway shows versus off-Broadway shows and if Broadway will start to change the ways they operate. I can see changes happening in the future for the industry, especially if more millennials and Gen Zs move into NYC and off-Broadway continues to be very popular among audiences. I hope for the sake of these shows and Broadway that audiences from all over still come to see these shows.
After so many scary years of theaters not being able to open because of covid followed by even more years of not being able to sell enough seats and forced to close, hearing that theaters and productions, especially ones that are not big names on Broadway, are able to stay afloat is incredibly reassuring. For such a long time, the only shows that could sustain themselves were Broadway shows that were attracting people from around the world. However, this news of small New York theaters doing well is a great sign for the health of the industry. If theaters in New York, one of the most expensive cities, can continue filling seats even if they aren’t marketing to the tourist crowd or able to offer seats to thousands of people each night, there may just be hope for the rest of the theater world. The idea that people are talking about shows they’ve seen and NYC locals are going to see small shows is reassuring as someone who’s just entering into this industry.
It truly does feel like a heyday for off-Broadway theatre, so many good shows are playing that I wish I could see. Titanique has been on my list of shows to see since before it even opened. I have a couple of friends who were part of the creative team that brough it to life, and even performed in it a couple of times. Plus, I’ve only ever heard great things about it from anyone who has seen it. With the other two shows that were mentioned, Oh Mary! and Job, I haven’t heard much about either of them until now. Though they sound like they would be great to see, it’s a pity that they won’t be running when I’m in NY in May. I wish I was going to be in NY longer in May so that I could see more of the Broadway and off-Broadway shows that are running. Hopefully, I’ll be able to see more shows when I move there later this year.
I think people are scared of Broadway because of what Hollywood has done to “classic Broadway musicals.” After all of the terrible live action remakes including Les Mis, Cats, and the bastardization of Disney live action musical remakes it's no wonder people are clawing at off-broadway and smaller theater productions of shows that will not involve James Corden with a CGI cat butt on the big screen. A lot of musicals with the titles we associate with Broadway that have finally become accessible to the average American not in NY have probably been scarred by the criminal cinema has been pumping out. Not to mention movies like Mean Girls and Willy Wonka werEN’T EVEN ADVERTISED AS MUSICALS. Anyways…I think it’s good off-Broadway is finding some success in this dire musical scene as people long for new content that hasn’t been thrown in their face over and over. It may even be cheaper!
Off-Broadway shows are kind of like the indie movies of the theater world. They don’t have the huge budgets or flashy ads you see for the big Broadway hits, but that doesn't mean they're not cool, or even profitable, in their own way. Think about it: because they're smaller, they don’t spend as much on rent for the theater or on paying a ton of actors. Most of the time, they have a smaller cast, which can save a lot of money. But here's the cool part, a lot of people really dig Off-Broadway shows because you can get way closer to the stage. It’s like being up close and personal with the actors, feeling every emotion and maybe even the sweat. It makes the whole thing feel more alive and exciting, like your part of the show somehow. And off-Broadway tickets are usually cheaper, so going to see a show feels like hitting up a movie theater instead of dropping a bunch of cash for one night out. It’s more chill and way less of a hit to your wallet. When tickets are super expensive, people must really think about whether they want to go or not. But with Off-Broadway, it’s easier to just say, "Why not?" and enjoy a night out.
It’s really great to hear that off Broadway theaters are doing alright. It’s easy to forget about everything theater related unless it concerns or is on Broadway, when it’s only a tiny portion of the industry. Hopefully, this article is a reminder that theaters off Broadway, the hardest hit by the pandemic, are slowly but surely making a comeback. Just because Broadway is what everyone knows doesn’t mean that it’s representative of the industry. Off Broadway theaters are just, if not more, important than Broadway because they source just about every element of every show that goes on Broadway. In my opinion, there’s a lot more love for theater off-Broadway as well, which makes it just that much more meaningful. The shows that this article mentions in particular sound like a lot of fun – I guess that’s why they’re doing so well. These kinds of shows are exactly what we need to keep a thriving industry alive.
I loved everything about this article. I think off broadway productions are in a really unique place. They still operate at a high level similar to broadway but they have a little more wiggle room when it comes to the topics they are allowed to produce. Broadway is so heavily commercialized and they have people and producers to please which has been limiting them as of late. It is the shows that please everyone that are successful but if you try to push boundaries or do something different you cannot stay open. It is all about selling tickets. These off broadway shows are new and unique and they pushed boundaries and are therefore selling tickets. But I like that selling tickets was not the original goal. The original goal was to tell good stories that make people laugh. I would love to do a lot of off broadway work. I just wish there was more attention and money put into it because there are so many shows that are so good.
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