The New York Times: None of the 18 commercial musicals that opened on Broadway last season have made a profit yet. Some still could, but several have been spectacular flameouts. The new musicals “Tammy Faye,” “Boop!” and “Smash” each cost at least $20 million to bring to the stage, and each was gone less than four months after opening. All three lost their entire investments.
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This article really saddens me, learning that the people creating broadway are worried and don’t see a future for broadway. As a young child who has always seen Broadway as a magical place for theater people and to hear that it might be gone in the future it heavily hurts my heart to hear that even the people in charge and the people creating Broadway don’t think that Broadway has a future. As I have matured in the professional theater world, I have come to a new point of view that Broadway shouldn’t be every theater worker's dream or end goal and if they don’t ever work on Broadway their career is somehow less than those who do and have worked on Broadway. Even tho I still believe this, I am worried about the repercussions that could ripple through all communities and children's theater, and what could happen to children's development who don’t grow up with the arts.
While the industry as a whole isn’t dying, we are certainly going through a very tough time. Since covid, it really seems broadway hasn’t been able to get back to the numbers it was before. This mostly can be credited to the state of the economy and rising ticket prices for broadway, however, just lack of tourism to the city also doesn’t help. It’s going to be very interesting seeing how investors proceed, while yes they knew before they had a very high chance of losing all the money they are investing, it doesn’t help that any shows, with the exception of the ones that received grants, are recouping money. It’s actually insane that major IP shows, like the outsiders, didn’t recoup yet even though they have standing room and the house filled every single night of the week and charging insane ticket prices. The industry is in a very tough spot, but I think eventually we will get through it.
It's deeply troubling to me that the time we're going through right now as an industry is so rough. I love new works, and I think they're so important. Revivals and long runners are great but seeing a new show is so much more exciting. The lack of ticket sales on shows, and the incredible cost of production is also I think how we keep ending up with stunt casting, or shows that are just full of actors who are already famous, so that more tickets will sell. Reviving popular hits so that tickets will sell better is also a huge trend we see right now. Getting original work produced for broadway has always been a huge challenge, but it is even more so now. For the sake of the longevity of the industry and for the art of creating theater this pattern absolutely needs to change. We need new voices and new stories on broadway.
once again I have forgotten to put my name on my comment. my bad.
I think it this a huge wake up call for Broadway and commercial theater as a whole in general, and it connects to a much larger issue with why less people see plays now. On one hand more people consume media through the screen, but that's partially because it is simply more accessible. I think Broadway could increase its audiences by being more accessible to the average person, and by putting on shows that tell new stories for their new audiences. I think American theater in general has always catered to a specific class. Stemming from how a lot of schools don't teach drama or theater because they don't have the budgets to. This then causes a lot of newer generations to not have a grasp or particular connection to theater, so why would they pay 80 dollars to see a show? On top of that, why would they see a show telling a story that older generations generally have a stronger connection to?
I wonder what will happen to Broadway. It definitely doesn’t seem that there are less audiences going to see shows. The lack of profit for the productions being able to make up their initial production costs is a scary prospect for their investors. If this is another punch in the gut from covid that is a low blow but hopefully it can be weathered. The more concerning part is if this is only part of a greater problem exacerbated by covid. Is a new generation of consumers not being tailored to? Performance has been around for as long as we have had records of our ancestors. It is even seen in mating rituals in creatures. Is theatre a strong enough draw to keep consumers entertained or will it need to change and/or evolve in order to capture a new generation of audience. Time will paint a more detailed picture than we can imagine.
It is amazing to see the creations that people can make. It is a true dedication and talent to think of a concept and turn it into reality that will dazzle the crowds. I find repeating geometric art like kaleidoscopes and this Tesseract to be captivating. Maybe it's because I spend most of my time designing and building stable structures, maybe it's all due to something else. The interaction and being able to put your hands on new things seems so hard to obtain. It is probably due to most of everyone’s attention going to attention seeking black boxes. It is nice to see a community gather around and celebrating art. It is also a great opportunity to get out of your own bubble and see what other people are doing and how you can change what you are doing for the better as you learn other artist’s process and art.
I read this article before it went up on the CMU PTM blog, and it was quite troubling. The fact that there have been only three profitable musicals since the post COVID reopening is insane. It seems quite surprising, as there have been a lot of openings (and to be fair, a lot of closings as well) since the city began to really open back up in 2022. Surely more of them would be successful? The article does also point out that the industry has changed in a few ways compared to before the pandemic. Budgets are soaring higher than ever, and demand still lags (albeit slightly) behind where it was before New York went dark. Given these factors, it’s not surprising that there have been less profitable musicals, but the fact that there are so few is what’s really shocking. The current economic factors are also not making things any easier. The thing with show business is that at the end of the day, it’s business. Hopefully more success can be found if demand increases or if economic conditions change. I’m quite confident that the industry will make it through this, but this is a little scary to read nevertheless.
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