How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?- Page 7

[Eris0303]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 12:41pm

Now, do we IMPACT shows? Are creative changes made based on our reactions, either in the show's writing or its marketing? Likely not.

What? Really? Dammit.

I'm facebook friends with two well-known directors in particular who are constantly posting threads from this site onto each other's walls and quoting specific posts mockingly.

Funny, I'm Facebook friends with a few "well-known" actors and never see them mention BWW other than to post articles. Clearly, my Facebook friends are better than your Facebook friends

Updated On: 4/15/13 at 12:41 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 12:46pm

Again, it really, truly, seriously and totally doesn't matter if "well-known directors" mock us or "industry people" read the board "for laughs."

We post for ourselves and for each other. We don't post for them. We don't post to impress them, we don't post to curry favor with them, we don't post for career advancement. We post to chat among ourselves.

And, once again, I say that we post to share our passions, and to share them passionately.

But for all the negativity we are accused of (and sometimes, yes, of course, guilty of), there are probably far more outpourings of obsessive love and partisan postings on this board than there are negative posts or threads, starting with the original Rentheads and Wicked "fangurlz" who swarmed the board back in its pioneer days, through the Lloyd Webber phantoms, the Sondheim worshipers (myself included), the Brooklyn and Pirate Queen lovers (lumped together), the Order of the Defenders of the Integrity of A Chorus Line, the LuPoniacs, the Bernadettiennes, the First Preview Boys (who often go on to see shows 5 and 6 times--or more!), the memorabilia collectors, the Arthur Laurents Fan Club (all one of him) and the people who unabashedly love Glee and Smash and Carrie and Follies and Matilda and 54 Below...we are lovers not "haterz" and we come to this board and find other lovers of the things we love, and we go on to love things together, in (gasp!) real life.

And sometimes we even go on to love each other. And sometimes we celebrate together. And sometimes we mourn together.

And wait, I'm just beginning.

One more thing about this supposedly "venomous atmosphere" we are supposedly solely to blame for: I would venture to guess that these "well-known directors" and "industry people" who mock us are every drop as venomous as they like to say we are--and on their fourth or fifth post-show Pinot Grigio at Angus or Bar Centrale--well, I bet they are venomous not just about us, but also about each other.

Updated On: 4/15/13 at 12:46 PM

[all that jazz]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 12:55pm

^ THIS!!! PJ, you certainly have a way with words, truer or more touching ones have seldom been posted on this board.

[Kad]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 12:57pm

"Longer answer; message boards in general, but particularly this one, are either avoided or made fun of by industry professionals. I'm facebook friends with two well-known directors in particular who are constantly posting threads from this site onto each other's walls and quoting specific posts mockingly."

That sounds like the exact opposite of avoiding this forum.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 1:01pm

we are lovers not "haterz"

Well...most of us, anyway.

I would venture to guess that these "well-known directors" and "industry people" who mock us are every drop as venomous as they like to say we are

Well, if they are engaging in the exact same behavior on a different site, then it sounds like they already are. I would LOVE to see those posts.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 1:04pm

PJ summed up very eloquently (as always) the answer to the OP's question as well as most of the tangential issues raised.

This thread can now be closed.

Updated On: 4/15/13 at 01:04 PM

[DAME]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 1:09pm

"the Arthur Laurents Fan Club (all one of him)"


LOVE that you got that in there.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 1:18pm

PJ, What a beautifully written post. When I read a post like that from you, this dialogue from 1776 always pops in my head:

For a man of only 33 years you possess a happy talent for composition and a remarkable felicity of expression. Now will you be a patriot or a lover?

Well, maybe not the patriot or lover part, ha, but the rest certainly. What we really should bemoan is the fact that you're not writing plays (and scripting TV shows). If I heard your post performed as a monologue in a new play it would receive massive applause!

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 1:38pm

I agree with everything PJ said, with one caveat regarding his last paragraph.

To re-quote Kelly2 from Page 4 of this thread:

The fact that it's in print and in public is a big difference though. A catty comment you make to a friend when you're drunk at Vintage doesn't make as loud of a splash as a long, bitter screed on a popular website. The content is the same, I agree, but there are certain things that I think shouldn't be posted here because of the platform. Usually the board does fairly well at toeing the line but certainly sometimes things get a little fuzzy. If you're saying something negative here, you're saying it to be heard and noticed, which isn't the same as commenting negatively about a show to your friend or with your friends in midtown.

In other words, it's published on the WWW. That's a big difference, too.

Updated On: 4/15/13 at 01:38 PM

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 1:40pm

Preach, PJ!

[Someday]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 2:44pm

Whizzer, you beat me to it. I knew if I kept reading far enough into this thread I'd be rewarded. And when the reward came, it was in the form of that interesting, insidery, and somehow even rousing post from PJ that reads like a perfectly formed monologue for the stage. Makes me want to commit it to memory and hit the street, headshot in hand. PalJoey, time to write a play.... We'll be gentle. I promise.

My take on all this: If I were part of a Broadway production team, I'd feel downright obligated to read the board. For all of the sarcastic wit and the absurb and funny catfighting, there's also a treasure trove (not trail!) of collective theatrical knowledge here. And while there's no accounting for taste, when consensus emerges among the top posters about a given artistic element of a show, you can usually take it to the bank that the board is right.

To a production team, if that means a simple costume switch (the infamous dress) or something more radical like the removal of whole scenes or swaths of dialogue (Cinderella?), then so be it. The investments are just too costly and the careers too meaningful to those involved to ignore the wisdom of crowd-sourcing, when it could save their skin and their show. I'm sure not all players give credence to opinions on here. (We're easy to laugh at.) But some do — and improve their shows accordingly.

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 3:13pm

Oh my God. If I'm Abed Nadir for creating this thread in the first place, Pal Joey is Jeff Winger for giving that amazing speech.

This thread has become a microcosm of BWW in itself. We've had fights and drama, quips, gifs, names called, names dropped, technical figures estimated, made up and fact checked, and yet we have come together as a community in celebration of what we love, with all of our quirks, styles and idiosyncrasies intact.

Now all we need is some Ben/Kevin Chang and Annie's Boobs, and we're all set.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 8:54pm

I guess I have to catch up on Community.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 8:57pm

Can someone fill me in on what's going on here?

I have Changnesia, sorry.

[DAME]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 9:30pm

It must be the 420. For once Jordan I don't know what you are rambling about. But I love the avatar.

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 9:59pm

With Smash AND Community being cancelled, let's consolidate the two shows on NBC and create a hybrid: BroadwayWorld, the sitcom!

Starring Joel McHale as Pal Joey, featuring Chevy Chase as Dollypop (who keeps mentioning Loretta Swit whenever it comes up organically).

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:06pm

Pretty sure it would have to be a melodrama...or at least a musical.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 4/15/13 at 10:09pm

I think it should be a reality show!!