"I completely disagree with that assessment, qolbinau. The success of one show has nothing to do with the demise of another" Obviously there are many factors at work here that influence the box office success of shows, so I don’t want to say that this is necessarily true in all cases. However, this is my argument of why jukebox shows can sometimes hurt the box office of shows with original scores, and the development of new work.
The first issue is that there is a finite amount of incoming revenue from theatre goers that will be put into producers’ pockets, and shows are competing against each other for audience members. Now, I realise this is not always the case because some shows (e.g., American Idiot) might bring in new audiences that would not have been to the theatre otherwise. However, for many people (e.g., some tourists) they will decide they want to see a theatre show, and then look at a list of shows (e.g., online, or at the TKTS line) and choose the show that is appealing to them. There are many reasons why certain shows might be more appealing to them than other shows. For example, they might want to see a famous star they are familiar with (e.g., Idina Menzel) over an unknown cast. Alternatively, they might want to see a show where they are familiar with the music (e.g., Jersey Boys, Beautiful, Mamma Mia). Every time somebody chooses to see a Jukebox musical over a musical with an original score, the revenue is displaced from the musical with the original score to the jukebox musical. I realise that you describe the ‘type’ of people that go to Jukebox musicals are different than the type of people that go to JRB shows, and that if the Jukebox musical option were not available they might not have decided to go to Bridges. This might be true in many cases (not at all true if the tourist had definitely decided they were going to see a show and were forced to choose a non-Jukebox musical. If there were no Jukebox musicals available they would necessarily have to choose a non-Jukebox musical in this case). However, if there were a case where someone wouldn’t see a non-Jukebox musical I don’t think it’s as easy to dismiss them as the ‘type’ of person that wouldn’t see a JRB show without examining why this is the case. In my opinion, the reason why this would be the case is because of their experience consuming media (e.g., the type of theatre they go to such a jukebox musicals, or concerts) where they are used to being rewarded with familiarity, rather than having to sit down and listen carefully to new work. I am afraid that this will become the norm.
The second issue is that because Broadway is a commercial enterprise, investors would generally want to put money in shows where the risk of losing their money is low. From historical box office successes there are a few factors that seem to be consistently related to box office success. For example, a major Hollywood star seems to generally cause higher ticket sales than unknown Broadway performers. Every time a Jukebox musical is financially successful, I think it adds to a thought that one way to reduce the risk of losing money is to invest in a jukebox musical. Once this idea is prevalent enough it makes sense to me that when choosing to invest money in a show, investors will choose the jukebox musical over an original musical because it is perceived to be less risky. As you said, people will invest in shows that they believe in or that they think can make them money.
The argument that a show with an original score is better than a jukebox musical is a separate one, which I would be happy to have. However, I think first it should be established whether jukebox musicals can impact the revenue and development of a show with an original score. If jukebox musicals don’t impact the revenue and development of shows with original scores then it doesn’t matter which one is better, really.
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
Updated On: 5/21/14 at 11:34 PM
