Not everybody who wants to see a Broadway play can afford to do so (I’d like to see Spamalot, for example).
Why haven’t the production companies made taped copies of big hit plays available? They could film several performance and take the best ones to sell to the public.
Cats did come out a few years ago on DVD, but was it performed specifically for that purpose? Of course, by the the time it was released, the play had already raked in a zillion dollars and had been performed thousands of times on Broadway as well as numerous touring companies.
While I don’t expect the shows to have blockbuster sales like a Disney release, but I think they could sell enough to be profitable (depending on the show, of course).
Yes they would sell a bit, not astoundingly but there is an audience. But then when the touring company came to your town you might say ‘Eh, I have it on tape I don’t need to see it live.’
Although I like the sound of this idea, it is obvious that such videos would cut into the profits of the shows themselves. Why go to New York to see a show when you can just stay home and watch it there?
You got something against live theater? DVDs would kill touring companies, not to mention stock companies and local theater. Why go watch a local production when you can park your lazy butt in front of the TV.
I would love to see Spamalot, for example, but I cannot justify the cost of a New York vacation. I don’t know if there’s a touring company for it yet (or if there ever will be).
I have nothing against live performances, but I certainly can’t afford to go to New York every time I want to see a play and touring companies rarely come to Savannah (a cultural black hole).
In Savannah you have Trustees Theater, City Lights Theater Co., Lucas Theater For The Arts, Savannah Theater, and I believe the Arts Center of the Central Carolina Coast at Hilton Head. If you are going to live in the sticks, you are going to have to make some sacrifices.
Surprisingly, to me, there will be one. Considering that Avenue Q apparently has a contract provision that prevents them from touring while they’re open in Vegas, it looks like Spamalot signed a different contract.
I know the argument has been made that it will “kill” live theatre. I don’t buy it. I have quite a few concert DVDs of various bands. Some I’ve seen on tour, some I haven’t. Still, there is no way they are as good as an actual live performance.
It would be nice to see DVDs of major musicals, perhaps 5 years or so after they open. I think this would actually help ticket sales. People might develop a great interest in musicals.
I don’t think this would hurt local theatre either. First of all, they tend to put on only the true warhorses. Second, most people don’t stop going to hear their local bar band just because they have a library of CDs of great music.
All I can say is don’t sell those local companies short. I have gone to several shows at a local theater group (Downey Civic Light Opera for you So Calers). Anyway some of the shows I thought I would not care for I liked a lot, and some I thought I might like, I loved.
Give it a try, it’s only a few hours out of your life, you might just find you like it.
YMMV
Yes, it’s certainly been done to tape a theater show and sell the tape. My mother owned Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George on VHS. I have a DVD put out by PBS of their Great Performances presentation of Kiss Me Kate in the West End (featuring my sister).
I think this is done when a television production company decides to do it. Theater is enough of a hit-or-miss proposition that the expense of creating a television production of it, even a simple one, is something most producers don’t want to risk.
There’s also the question of rights and royalties and who would get the money, and how it would affect other venues. Sure, Sir Andrew can do it because his company keeps the show’s rights. And CATS had been around for over 20 years before the DVD came out.
Eventually, all live shows might get DVDS, but it won’t be right after they open! It will probably be at least 10 years for any show, and 20 or more for major hits.
As mentioned by another poster, Spamalot is launching its national tour in March. Watch This Space. Most successful Broadway shows launch a tour, as they have proven themselves with audiences by that point. Most tour productions are just fine, barring the occasional technical limitations mentioned above.
I’ve been to a couple of local shows and did indeed like the performances. Back in the late 80s, there was a locale that presented “dessert theater”. You’d watch a play and have ice cream at intermission. It was held in a small strip shopping center that may have held 40 people. The stage was no bigger than the average bathroom. The show was “They’re Playing Our Song” and they had to jam the drummer and piano player in a corner almost on top of each other.
It was great. In fact, I saw it twice. (Name dropping time) It starred a local actress, Isabel Keating, who has since go on to much better things (like a Tony nomination).
When Mtv came out people thought it would kill the concert. Why would anyone pay money to see a band live when they get something better beamed right into their homes?
“I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone” Jack Valenti before Congress in 1982.
Now, would these Broadway DVDs sell? I don’t know. Would it even be feasible to produce them in a high quality format during live performances? No idea.
But those who claim that an idea of this nature would kill Broadway productions are Chicken Littles.
…The music industry is literally a billion dollar industry.
… Live theater… not so much.
Comparing the two is just ridiculous.
Slightly OT-
A hotel in Portland Oregon at one point offered PPV theater. You could pay to watch a recording of a current mainstage show at several local theaters. It was designed for the vacationers/business folks that really WANTED to see local theater but were just too darn tired.
Well I will start this by saying that I work in professional theatre.
And I have seen quite a few recordings of excellent shows, the recordings themselves, not so excellent.
It has nothing to do with the quality of the recording, but live theatre is just that, live. It losses its magic and appeal when it is recorded. Everything is different between live and recorded arts from the acting style, to the lighting, to the way the set is built.
The point of a live performance it to see it, to be a part of it, no two performances are the same, the actors, and technicians too for that matter, feed off the audience, as the audience feeds off of them.
A DVD would never compare to seeing it first hand.
Live music and recorded music are similar in this regard. In my opinion a recording cannot compare to a live performance. Music I would never listen to otherwise is actually bearable when live. So while it might not be as good as seeing a live performance, a recorded performance would at least be something. I have wanted to see Gilbert and sullivan’s “Princess Ida”, it is pretty unlikely that local theatre will ever put this on. the same goes for many of Shakespeare’s less popular plays. Unfortunatly, it isn’t a matter of renting these I would have to purchase them.
