Broadway Cast Albums: an Answer to a Prayer

One of the absolute worst things about any theatre performance at all is leaving the show with all of the music in your head and knowing that you will never be able to hear it the same way again unless you spend another $100 on a ticket.  Singing the songs to yourself in the shower or humming them on the metro won’t really help the problem either.  Then how is anyone supposed to satiate the temptation to blow a lot of money on another ticket? This is now an issue of the past, thanks to Broadway Cast Albums that are released for basically every musical on Broadway.   These albums are becoming easier and easier to obtain with the help of the always-advancing digital age, and for $15 are much cheaper than pretty much any ticket.

How To Succeed In Business

On this show’s official website, there are 3 major headings that stick out from the rest of the interface. The first is “How to Get Tickets” another is “How to Tell Your Friends” and the third is “How to Get the Cast Album“.  The Cast Album seems to complete the Holy Trinity of advertisements.  Buying tickets is the most direct way of getting people in seats, and telling your friends is a close second.  But what about the people who cannot take a trip to New York, or the people who have already seen the show? This is where the soundtrack comes in.  The company can still make money off of people in these categories.  After I saw the show in New York, I gave in and bought the album.  I had all of the songs stuck in my head and wanted to be able to relive my experience through my iPod.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROjOLtAkYUc&feature=player_embedded%5D

You can preview the How to Succeed in Business cast album on their website!

The Twitter Takeover and it’s Privacy Problems

October 24th

1. Lea Michele woke up to news about another NYC carriage horse death.
2. Lea Michele made a PETA video urging these carriage rides to stop.
3. Then, she went to do some Glee press with Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer
4. After, she worked on her upcoming film New Years Eve with director Gary Marshall.
5. Then, she went to a meditation class.
6. When she got home, she made Amy’s tomato soup and a vegan grilled cheese sandwich while catching up on the TV show, Dexter.

Now how did I get a hold of  pictures of Lea Michele as a small child and of her cat you may ask? How do I know her cat’s name is Sheila? Well actually, this information is widely available to virtually anyone with an internet connection and extremely easy to find. I didn’t really have to do much digging at all! Now, let’s see if i can outdo myself:

Google Trends: The Book of Mormon or the Book of Mormon??

I do not think I could live without Google. I use it multiple times a day to look up an address, research an upcoming movie, find a particular website, etc.  Every query made on Google is tracked and logged, and can actually be used to distinguish trends in our society.

What trends about Broadway can be seen just from Google keyword searches?

The Book of Mormon or The Book of Mormon?

As you can see from the graph, there was a major search peak in the middle of 2011.  Was this due to something in the Church of Latter Day Saints, or perhaps because The Book of Mormon musical that satirizes the religion, among other things, had just won the “Best Musical” Tony Award.  My intuition leads me to believe it was because of the new musical on Broadway, but Google Trends shows that the Top Cities making this search include Provo, Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boise, Idaho.  These cities are known to have high Mormon populations.  New York City, the only place The Book of Mormon is being performed, comes in at #4.

MyTix: Because Who Doesn’t Like Discounts?

Attention all college students!!! Do you enjoy going to the theatre once in a while, but are reluctant to go because of high ticket prices? Did you know that traveling shows like Wicked, Next to Normal, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables are constantly coming to Washington D.C., so you don’t even have to spend the money on a trip up to New York City? The Kennedy Center right in D.C. offers a special program called MyTix that offers reduced ticket prices for people our age:

“If you are 18‒30 years old or an active duty member of the armed services, join this new program designed to make the performing arts more accessible. And by “accessible,” we mean affordable. With discount offers galore and super-special free ticket giveaways, you’ll have access to all kinds of Kennedy Center performances. So see a Broadway hit, hear a symphony concert, or try something new.”

Netflix Streams Broadway Classics

Source: http://www.netflix.com

The summer before I started college my family made an admirable decision: to get an account with Netflix after our local Blockbuster went out of business.

Netflix is an online service that allows customers to watch selected movies, TV shows, and documentaries instantly on their computers for a set fee. Netflix takes the movies and TV shows it has the rights to and converts them into a format that can be easily streamed to millions of computers or other electronic devices quickly.

So, I came to school and was able to watch popular shows like That’s 70’s Show, Mad Men, and others right on my laptop.  As I became familiar with the website, I discovered the “Genres” drop down tab, which included “Comedies”, “Horror”, and, to my delight, “Musicals“.

Netflix houses a variety of musicals, inlcuding many classics including Into the Woods, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Memphis, Funny Girl, Evita, and Little Shop of Horrors.

Witches, Mormons, and Facebook, OH MY!

How do Broadway shows embellish their Facebook pages to make them reflect the mood and aura of the show? How do they overcome Facebook’s rigid layout to create a page that will keep viewers interested and entertained?  After looking at many of the current shows’ Facebook pages, I’ve come up with some pretty important features that stood out to me.

Listen to the Cast Album: The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon Facebook page was the only one I looked at where potential audience members could listen to the entire cast album for free. This was a great move: anyone and everyone can listen to and become familiar with the music from the show. The Book of Mormon’s page also smartly puts a disclaimer before you can listen to the music, stating “Mature Content–By clicking here you agree you that you are at least 18 years old.”

How to ‘Vlog’ Without Really Trying

Hi Everyone,

Well here it is: my first post! If you’re reading this and are a little confused about what it is all about, check out the About Me page!

I recently discovered that many productions in New York City are advertizing their shows with a recent phenomenon that is sweeping the internet: video blogs.

How to Succeed Album Cover http://www.amazon.com

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, running at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, has commissioned actor Christopher J. Hanke for a video blog, or ‘vlog’. Hanke, who plays the company’s whiny nephew Bud Frump in the musical, has made nine episodes of this vlog and is currently in production for the tenth installment.

Christopher Hanke http://www.broadway.com

Hanke’s vlog, called “Frump Tower” (a playoff of Trump Towers), takes the viewer backstage where Hanke informally and casually creates a video diary incorporating different aspects of the show.  In one episode Hanke talks with the cast backstage at the Tony Awards, and in another he takes the viewer for an exclusive interview with Daniel Radcliffe……………’s dresser.

I discovered this gem in June and have watched all nine installments since then. Recently, I noticed plans for the new installment of this vlog on Twitter (ironic, especially for this class). This show has all of their media outlets connected for easy access. The vlog can be viewed at http://www.broadway.com, which also conveniently displays performance dates, box office information, Facebook and Twitter links, etc.

I find these video blog entries to be really entertaining.  It is fascinating to see what a normal day is like for these actors and to see them act as themselves instead of their characters. Hanke, too, is very charismatic and engaging.

These vlogs are a great advertizing ploy as well.  Viewers get to know the characters, the people who play them, get to see behind-the-scenes choreography sessions, and get tours of backstage which familiarize potential ticket buyers with the theatre ‘family’.  They feel personally involved with the entire process, so why wouldn’t they go see the final product?

Vlogs seem to create almost an interactive advertizement that is entertaining to watch and that keeps the audience wanting more.   The question is: are they effective enough to compensate for the time it takes to film and edit each one?

-PW