Posted: 9/22/26 at 8:10am
I entered for tickets out of curiosity, and I remember reading https://www.industrialmusicals.com/about/
when it came out. I wonder what this is costing them?
Posted: 9/22/26 at 8:23am
There was the Skittles musical in 2019.
Posted: 9/22/26 at 8:52am
There was the Robert Moses musical off-Broadway back in 2017.
https://bulldozer.nyc
There was also the aborted NERDS musical about the rise of the computer age, and then the (in)famous ENRON musical play with Norbert Leo Butz and Marin Mazzie in 2010
Posted: 9/22/26 at 8:55am
quizking101 said: "There was the Robert Moses musical off-Broadway back in 2017.
https://bulldozer.nyc
There was also the aborted NERDS musical about the rise of the computer age, and then the (in)famous ENRON musical play with Norbert Leo Butz and Marin Mazzie in 2010"
I don’t think that is the question being asked.
Industrial musicals are shows being written as an advertisement/propaganda for a company. They were big in the 60s-80s but fell out of fashion (and were quite expensive to put on - but they gave work to a lot of Bway talent)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_musical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtubs_Over_Broadway
Updated On: 9/22/26 at 08:55 AM
Posted: 9/22/26 at 9:41am
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "quizking101 said: "There was the Robert Moses musical off-Broadway back in 2017.
https://bulldozer.nyc
There was also the aborted NERDS musical about the rise of the computer age, and then the (in)famous ENRON musical play with Norbert Leo Butz and Marin Mazzie in 2010"
I don’t think that is the question being asked.
Industrial musicals are shows being written as an advertisement/propaganda for a company. They were big in the 60s-80s but fell out of fashion (and were quite expensive to put on - but they gave work to a lot of Bway talent)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_musical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtubs_Over_Broadway"
Hmmmm. Learned something new today
Posted: 9/22/26 at 10:10am
Industrials were also not generally made available to the public, so it's kind of hard to keep track of how many there were and when they were done.
Posted: 9/22/26 at 11:15am
Another fun one is the Dave Malloy short musical Love Around the Block for Hermés's new flagship store in 2022.
Edited to add video clips:
Updated On: 9/22/26 at 11:15 AM
Posted: 9/22/26 at 2:16pm
We almost had an industrial musical aka a musical with an industrial/electronic score… Trent Reznor was working with Julie Taymor on a Fight Club rock opera. The project fell apart so a good bit of the score was repurposed onto NIN’s albums circa 2000s-2010s.
Posted: 9/24/26 at 3:29pm
So I’ve kind of become passionate about this subgenre of musical theatre. I kinda wish Wait in The Wings did a mini documentary video about this
Posted: 9/24/26 at 5:26pm
For people with an interest sometimes (and very much sometimes!!) albums that were given to attendees as gifts appear on sites focusing on sales of vintage music. So Discogs but also places like ebay, mercari, marketplace. I’ve seen them in passing while looking for other things.
Posted: 9/24/26 at 11:39pm
If anyone has a plus one for this that they don’t need, or can no longer attend, please DM me! I’m on the waitlist but I have no idea what, if anything will even come of it.
Posted: 9/27/26 at 1:40pm
Did anyone here see this? I’m curious how it was. Also wondering about Billy Zane - besides doing a stint in CHICAGO many moons ago, I don’t picture him as a musical theatre guy.
Posted: 9/27/26 at 2:09pm
''Bathtubs Over Broadway '' (2018 ) is Dava Whisenant's award-winning and delightful documentary about industrial musicals. It follows Steve Young, a former comedy writer for ''Late Night With David Letterman,'' and his obsession with finding their creators and performers, including Chita Rivera and Sheldon Harnick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTgS1SXr0nc
Updated On: 9/27/26 at 02:09 PM
Posted: 9/27/26 at 3:58pm
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I don’t think that is the question being asked.
Industrial musicals are shows being written as an advertisement/propaganda for a company. They were big in the 60s-80s but fell out of fashion (and were quite expensive to put on - but they gave work to a lot of Bway talent)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_musical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtubs_Over_Broadway"
Yes, I'm glad you clarified.
The talent wasn't limited to Bway talent, though (...and I may be making an incorrect assumption, but I think you might be speaking of pre-Bway talent). I can't think of a working Bway actor that did an Industrial, but that just means I can't think of one...
Industrials were lucrative opportunities for college and recent grads like me. The other 80's coveted jobs in entertainment were theme parks (DisneyWorld and Opryland were the most coveted) and cruise ships (at the time, wages were not taxed if earned on international waters).
Industrials could be the musicals discussed here, but also spokesperson gigs (e.g., auto shows), where the talent delivered long speeches highlighting the virtues of the product. You could tell who booked Industrials often because they owned their own ear prompter.
Updated On: 9/27/26 at 03:58 PM
