Metaboston Media

Broadway Theatre and Online Social Networks and Video

Broadway productions have begun experimenting with the use of social networks and online video.

Broadway productions now offer pages on social networking sites. For example, the MySpace page for “In the Heights” features a blog with updates about the show, widgets that fans can embed in their own MySpace pages, a jukebox that plays songs from the show and several music videos from the cast. These include a parody of the song “Umbrella” called “Abuela,” and a spoof of “High School Musical” that features Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s lyricist and star, singing and dancing in Central Park.

Mr. Miranda has created several videos for the Web, including a series called “Legally Brown,” which lampooned the MTV reality show that chose a replacement for the lead in “Legally Blonde.” In the series, which is at legallybrownonbroadway.com and on YouTube, Broadway stars like Matthew Morrison of “South Pacific,” Allison Janney of the coming “9 to 5: The Musical” and Cheyenne Jackson of “Xanadu” competed to become the next piragua vendor on “In the Heights.”

Giving people a sense of what they will be getting such as through Miranda's videos is a good idea particularly for a high-priced item like theatre tickets.

Other approaches by theatre productions seem less successful:

To help the producers of “Sunday in the Park With George” build a relationship with theatergoers, Situation Interactive set up a Web site that allowed users to digitally recreate Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” with personalized dots.

and a Nine-to 5 promotion might be funny but seems like it will lead to people getting fired or a lack of participation due to fear of the same.

For “9 to 5: The Musical,” the firm is working on an online game in which players can upload pictures of their bosses for a shooting gallery.

Rather than becoming too creative with their online offerings, producers should consider providing more content related to the show to potential audience members. Videos of rehearsals or performers or interviews with backstage personnel. An online video is not goign to be a perfect substitute for attending a performance so cannibalization should be a minor concern. Instead online content should help to interest people in a show and also to help explain all the work that goes into it from people who work on sets, lighting, and all the other aspects of the theatre that audience members may be unaware of. This might also help to make ticket prices seem more understandable.

Blogger Night at American Repertory Theatre: Sept. 16

Cambridge's American Repertory Theatre is reaching out to bloggers with complimentary tickets to their new play Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deveare Smith.  If you're not a theatregoer, you've probably seen Smith in a movie but she might be most familiar from the West Wing.

"The American Repertory Theatre invites Boston bloggers to the A.R.T.'s latest production: "LET ME DOWN EASY a play in evolution"

To receive a complimentary ticket, bloggers are asked to write impressions and feedback about the performance on their blog within a few days after the show. You do not need to be an arts or entertainment blogger to attend! If you are curious about theater and/or the A.R.T. this is a great night to see what it's like and then write about it.

It seems like a great idea in trying to broaden theatre audiences and especially good that it isn't limited to "arts and entertainment" bloggers whose audiences are most likely already aware of the play.  It will be interesting to see if there are any issues if blog word isn't positive.  There will be a series of events so it sounds like they've built patience into the plan.

Great work by Sooz to help organize this.

"Sooz, a Boston blogger and event planner, has teamed up with the A.R.T. to host a series of blogger nights at the American Repertory Theatre in Harvard Square.