Has 'teen theatre' really worked?

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 7:32pm

As a teenager myself, I've go to say... it hasn't. Spring Awakening and other 'teen appeal'(INCLUDING WICKED AND RENT
)shows have only appealed to the same exact kids that have loved theatre their entire life. um... has there been a show that brought non-theatre loving kids to the theatre?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 7:39pm

Wicked has appealed to plenty of people that were not into theater before they saw Wicked.

Posted: 3/13/09 at 7:49pm

Yes. Wicked and Beauty and the Beast introduced me to Broadway. I wasn't remotely interested in theatre before I saw these shows. Now I'm obsessed with the Great White Way and listen to shows like The Light in the Piazza, Passion, Brigadoon, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, etc.

[bertandrew2]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 7:51pm

I dont consider WICKED as teen theatre. Although teens flock to this show, and although it is about teens/growing up, the appeal is much broader than simply calling this teen theatre. FYI, Im not a big wicked fan...just my opinon

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 8:08pm

Rent did, you are obviously too young to remember

[DiVAgrl]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 8:14pm

I would imagine that HAIR did, in it's time - and I would agree that RENT did also.

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 8:15pm

Not that many teens flew over to 'Spring Awakening', there were some but most of the fans were in there 20s.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 8:17pm

^ are you joking??

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 8:29pm

No, well, as far as Wicked, Legally Blonde, Hairspray etc. They had 13-18 year olds going to multiple performances is a week. 'Spring Awakening' did draw in a higher age crowd. Maybe I went a little overboard... but 16/17-20s was 'Spring Awakening'.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 8:49pm

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 9:26pm

I think teen theatre DID work at some level, because almost all of the theatre fans that I know are ONLY into shows like Wicked, Rent, and Spring Awakening. So you can't say those teen shows only attract people who already liked theatre, because if the only musicals you know are Rent and Legally Blonde, then you obviously weren't into other shows beforehand.

I got seriously into theatre when I was eight and saw Fiddler on the Roof, but most of the drama kids I know got into theatre when Wicked came to D.C. a few years ago. However, some of those kids are now into some really obscure, highbrow theatre, while I'm still into junk shows like Little Mermaid, Scarlet Pimpernel, and even Woman in White!

[dg22894]

Posted: 3/13/09 at 9:41pm

I think it has worked, Fiddler on the Roof got me in to shows then I heard RENT and I was hooked on musical theater.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/14/09 at 5:40am

I'm not sure if that is the GOAL of any show: to appeal to a narrow focus of an audience. A truly good show will appeal to a wide variety of ages. Not too many teenagers (beyond the Tri-State area) can get to NY on their own, to simply discover b'way.


As stated from the titles posted on this thread...the show that spoke to us is different for so many. My first b'way show was Grease (near the end of the ORIGINAL run) and I hated it. (Still do.) However, I was already hooked as an actor on stage shows. It has so much more to do with exposure and appreciation.

I have to admit I am always suprised by people that don't like shows...how is it THAT different from going to the movies? Not liking MUSICALS I can understand. When I first started teaching I remember having to deal with a "tough" kid giving one of my actors (8th grade) a hard time. Once I asked him what he did over the past few weekends and he told me about listening to music and going to the movies...I asked what he thought about the singers and actors he'd just payed money to see/hear. I asked how what they were doing was REALLY any different then the student he was harrassing. He agreed that it wasn't and pretty much knocked it off. AND he came to see the musical the next weekend and in front of the whole class told the same actor how funny he had been in the show.

Ummm....sorry for the tangent.

[binau]

Posted: 3/14/09 at 5:56am

Please someone, I'm editing months later, make a comment about this show :P.

Updated On: 8/20/09 at 05:56 AM

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 1:59am

Hey Brody- In the (awesome) pictures that you posted, I am not immediately recognizing what the third, third from last, and last one are. Can you enlighten?

[saveusmike]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 2:04am

How no one has said this already im flabbergasted, Next to Normal.

I have seen the show once (Stage doored twice) and was SO suprised at how many teenage girls were there. I am 99.9% positive though it is more for Alice Ripley and her crazy facebook fans, more than it is the show.


both times I went there was ALOT of teenage girls.

[binau]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 3:39am

Maybe 'cause if you look at the date of the posts, it's before N2N became 'big'

Updated On: 8/19/09 at 03:39 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 8:47am

The audience of N2N is NOT mostly teens. Perhaps the stage door it....but you need to remember: Stage Dooring has become part of the event for young people. They mix in their feeling for the show with their feelings for their stage door experience. And talk more about the stage door experience THAN the show. Totally twisted.


And saw the show ONCE but stage doored TWICE??? THAT is why you see so many teens at SD. MOST adults that do stage door would never do so if they didn't see THAT performance. It's considered TACKY. (and stalkerish)


And yes....look at the dates of most of the posts.....way back from MARCH.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 9:25am

Let's not forget the social significance of Jesus Christ Superstar. 'Teen theater' or no, it was an absolute phenomenon at the time. As my lovable late (if bat**** insane) friend Tom O'Horgan once said of seeing the concert tour before work began on the Broadway version, "I could not believe my eyes when we arrived at the outdoor stadium and glimpsed twenty thousand people clamoring for seats. Not just hippies or freaks but scrubbed up Middle American families. We knew then we were into something of rather large sociological importance--a theater piece that might possibly bring people into the theater that would never, under any circumstances, consider entering one."

[kristinchenofan570]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 11:17am

From what I've seen since I too am a teenager, not really. The teens at my school have gone to see something like Wicked or Legally Blonde (thats the extent of it by the way most parents where I live would sadly NEVER even think of takeing their kids to see something like Rent) and thats all they ever see. It doesn't really get them into any other Broadway shows, or they'll pretend that they are a huge broadway fan but if you even mention WSS, Hair or anything that isn't Wicked or based off a popular teen movie, their minds go blank.

[Gobstopper]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 11:28am

I can safely say, "Yes, 'teen theatre' worked on me."

I did lots of musicals when I was a little kid. By the time I was 12 though, I'd become completely disenchanted with the entire genre. I thought every single musical was a cheery obnoxious about one-dimensional nuns wailing on top of Austrian mountains. In other words, I didn't see REAL people or REAL stories in musicals. In hindsight, I was completely wrong, but we'll get to that in a minute.

When I was 14 (I'm 18 now), I saw the (admittedly subpar) film version of RENT, and it completely changed my perception about what a musical could be. I remember seeing/hearing "Out Tonight" and thinking, "A junkie stripper belting out rock songs about loneliness and sex? THIS is a musical?"

Now, calling a Pulitzer winner "teen theatre" seems a little questionable. However, because of that movie, I've completely re-fallen in love with theatre. Without RENT (and seeing the stage version a fairly insane amount of times), I would have never found Sweeney Todd or Company or Hair or any number of the shows I absolutely love now. I go see shows on a fairly regular basis, I can't help but find myself on websites like this one, and I'm planning on being a Drama teacher one day.

So... "Yes, 'teen theatre' worked on me."

[ZiggyCringe]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 11:32am

"Let's not forget the social significance of Jesus Christ Superstar. 'Teen theater' or no, it was an absolute phenomenon at the time. As my lovable late (if bat**** insane) friend Tom O'Horgan once said of seeing the concert tour before work began on the Broadway version, "I could not believe my eyes when we arrived at the outdoor stadium and glimpsed twenty thousand people clamoring for seats. Not just hippies or freaks but scrubbed up Middle American families. We knew then we were into something of rather large sociological importance--a theater piece that might possibly bring people into the theater that would never, under any circumstances, consider entering one."

That was an incredible post. Thanks.

[saveusmike]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 1:17pm

Dramamama yes I saw the show once but stage doored twice.

After a performance of Blithe Spirit, Alice Ripley was still at N2N and I went over and I told her how I seen the show before and stagedoored but didn have my camera last time so if I could get a picture, and she graciously obliged. I dont see how that would be considered tacky.

Updated On: 8/19/09 at 01:17 PM

[philly03]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 1:53pm

Was someone trying to call 'Beauty and the Beast' "teen theatre"? If anything, I'd call it a family-piece. Although it certainly got me interested into theatre, saw Phantom of the Opera next and was hooked. Thus why I like Lloyd Webber.


Also, I agree with saveusmike. Next to normal is, while still a huge mix, a large chunk of the audience seems to be teenagers, especially girls, who are there with their parents?? But there's also a huge chunk of people who are middle-aged or older. Very diverse crowd when I went...

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 8/19/09 at 6:23pm

I have to say that about two and a half years ago, my sister bought the Wedding Singer cast album on iTunes. I had previously, like Gobstopper said above, assumed all musicals were the cheesy Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals that they have kids perform. I listened to The Wedding Singer and said, "hey, this is really funny, and not what I thought musicals were". I'm probably the only person who was brought into theater by that show, but too bad. Six months later, I saw Wicked in Chicago, and I fell in love with theater. Just about two weeks later, the Hairspray movie was released and I got really hooked. I started listening to cast albums and watching movie musicals. I saw the Rent movie a year and a half ago, and once I saw it, pretty much any musical without nudity had become appropriate for me to see. I am now a really big theater dork and it's because of that one musical. The funny thing is, I found out I have a relative who was a dresser for the Broadway production of the show (he's now working on Billy Elliot).