[NEohioPAL] From the New York Times; straight shows down, musical theatre up

Wed Dec 17 05:22:16 PST 2008

> -----Original Message-----
> From: neohiopal-bounces at listserve.com [mailto:neohiopal-
> bounces at listserve.com] On Behalf Of Al Diamond Phillips
> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 7:32 AM
> To: Christopher Fortunato; Robert Hawkes
> Cc: neohiopal at listserve.com
> Subject: Re: [NEohioPAL] From the New York Times; straight shows down,
> musical theatre up
> 
> I think a point is being missed here. Musicals were in their Hayday, on
> film and in the Theater back when the world was at war, and times were
> tough. I believe it is no coincidence that they are back in full force
> now, when we are at war and times are tough. People want to have a
> break from their daily troubles, and Musicals do that for people.
> 

Not to be argumentative here, but the article says they studied trends from
1991 till current time.  So certainly during the mid 1990s we were not at
war (or at least not any that the bulk of the population paid much attention
to anyway, once Gulf War 1.0 was over with), the economy was booming (as
long as you were part of the .com heyday), and the things our "leaders" were
concerned with was whether a president lied about a fling with his intern
and what he liked to do with his cigars.  In general "things" didn't start
taking on such a somber tone until 2001 and after.  So unless there has been
a drastic change in trends the past 7+ years with almost no change between
1992 and 2001 I would not say it's due to economic troubles or general mood
of the population.  Maybe a tiny bit of those numbers can be attributed to
that, but I would guess (but who am I?  I'm just guessing here and assuming
a formal study would take the time to think about this just like I am...)
these numbers have more to do with a change in taste of the theatre going
public.  The article even mentions that a change in ticket price would
change attendance numbers very little.  So maybe it's not even about money,
rather just a move towards a different form of entertainment.

Of course what I found most interesting about this article is that it was
even needed at all.  :-)  As anyone that works in theatre for a living could
tell you the same thing, just not have a nice bunch of big numbers to throw
around.  But I guess it's nice to know you're not alone or that it's not
just the Cleveland market that has these trends.  Although I would hazard a
guess that the theatre market in Cleveland is down for both musicals and
non-musicals alike, especially if you are looking at the more recent past.

Richard B. Ingraham
RBI Computers and Audio
http://www.rbicompaudio.20m.com

> Al Damond Phillips
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --- On Tue, 12/16/08, Robert Hawkes <rhhawkes at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > From: Robert Hawkes <rhhawkes at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [NEohioPAL] From the New York Times; straight shows
> down, musical theatre up
> > To: "Christopher Fortunato" <learnedhand at live.com>
> > Cc: neohiopal at listserve.com
> > Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 10:57 PM
> > Jeez, don't get me started. No disrespect to musical
> > plays of actual honesty
> > and substance, but this trend (a trend with a fraternal
> > twin in the
> > film-going population - ask John Ewing at the
> > Cinémathèque) would seem to me
> > merely a symptomatic eddy of the larger tidal shift, in the
> > last 50-60
> > years, as pop culture moves from the juvenile periphery to
> > the adult center
> > of our culture as a whole. We all know that it's harder
> > and harder to get
> > folk to sit still at a live theatre performance, accustomed
> > as they are to
> > the rapid jolts of TV and garbage-y movies, and what tends
> > to draw them in,
> > if they do come, is...well, let's just leave it at Easy
> > Access - which,
> > let's be frank, is what most musicals provide.
> >
> > I'll stop.
> >
> > Ho ho ho, everybody. Stay safe on New Year's Eve.
> >
> > RHH
> > _______________________________________
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