Broadway Musicals to DVD - ITW, PP, OK, BFO, JCS, J&TTD, etc

Don't forget JEKYLL & HYDE and SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE

Yes, there was also PUTTING IT TOGETHER, several plays and concerts, KISS ME KATE, PIPPIN, and I think that's it...

(I'm not including made for TV movies, or movie musicals, or performance clips - ala Broadway's Greatest Treasures).

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Wait, we're talking OFFICIAL releases here, right?

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LES MISERABLES was never released onto DVD. There is a concert version and a non-musical movie.

We're talking about releases of shows videotaped as a stage performance - the show in its entirety.

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Updated On: 9/14/04 at 10:00 PM

Sunday in the Park with George...

Passion

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Very few Broadway musical DVDs have ever been able to repay the cost of their filming and distribution to the home DVD/video market. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to do a professional multi-camera pro-shoot of a stage show. In addition, the union costs of filming it in the US are generally prohibitive -- which is why Victor/Victoria and 42nd Street were filmed in Japan and even a one person show like "Elaine Stritch at Liberty" was filmed in London (as were Kiss Me, Kate and Oklahoma). There are significant royalty considerations as well, with releases and contracts that must be negotiated for every performer with Actor's Equity and royalty fees which must be paid to the composers, book writers, directors, designers, musicians, conductors, orchestrators and stage managers, who either get a percentage of sales or a very large flat fee. Add in the cost of actually pressing, manufacturing and distributing the DVD to a very limited market of potential buyers interested in plunking down $20 or $30 for a DVD of a Broadway show and it's a losing business proposition for any company that might potentially be interested in selling such a product. Only the very largest of hits (that have already grossed hundreds of millions wordwide and run for many years) have a large enough potential audience to make such an enterprise have even the remotest possibility of being profitable.

There's also the fact that once a DVD of a show is out there on for the general public to rent from their local video store for $3, how much does that damage the potential market for the stage show in the years to come? If someone has seen a show for free on HBO, Showtime or PBS or rented it for next to nothing, what would be their motivation one or two or five years later to plunk down $90 or $100 to see the road company of that show when it comes through town? Yes, the real fanatical Broadway fans will want to see it live, but what about all those thousands of others who might have paid for a ticket, but now don't feel they have to since they feel like they've already seen it for free on tv? This is something producers of every Broadway show think very seriously about before allowing their show to be taped and shown on tv and/or distributed on DVD -- if you say yes to a few thousand dollars you can get by selling the rights for a DVD release, are you perhaps forgoing many more thousands, even millions, by touring the show on the road for the next decade or more (not to mention local regional companies and community groups may be more hesitant to book your show to do themselves if they think that a large chunk of their potential audience has already seen it on tv or video).

The shows that have been filmed and distributed, for one reason or another, felt that it was a good deal for them to do so -- for various motivations. For the Sondheim shows that are on DVD -- Sweeney Todd, Sunday In The Park, Into The Woods, Passion -- Sondheim himself wanted a definitive record made of each show with a cast and production he felt proud of and represented the show well for posterity's sake. He's a very wealthy man, so, for him, the financial considerations were entirely secondary (not to mention, few of those shows were likely to make millions on the road). I'm not sure, but I imagine he and his collaborators worked out a very modest royalty deal with the distribution company that made the video/DVD release financially tenable.

For "Cats," by the time it made it to DVD, it had already run for nearly two decades in NY and London and played nonstop everywhere in the world for a generation. Lloyd Webber and his partners had seen the show and its various companies gross over a billion pounds wordwide and frankly, at that point, the show was finally showing signs that it was beginning to have run its course (though DVD or no DVD, it was still going to take in millions for years to come). I think Webber, like Sondheim, wanted to have a definitive record of the show and as the 20th anniversary in London was approaching, decided to OK the DVD release.

Boy From Oz also makes sense as a DVD release. Hugh Jackman is done with it, which means there's no real money to be made from any tour -- the show was savaged by the critics and without Jackman, it never would have run let alone paid back its investment. I can't imagine a lot of regional groups or community theatres wanting to do it. The show has no financial future (in North America, at least), so why not make a few more dollars off of Hugh Jackman in the show with a DVD release?

It wouldn't surprise me if Disney decided to release and market its shows on DVD at some point, considering the company is the master of all media -- some big, super-hyped concert of AIDA with Headley and Pascal with Elton John on piano et al filmed live in Egypt and televised worldwide etc etc...... that's the sort of stuff they do.....

Other shows are much more modest affairs and as such have to be a lot more careful about signing away all the rights for nothing more than a few showings on Showtime and a DVD release. For most shows, a DVD release is an awful business deal for them -- in exchange for six figures or so, they could be potentially costing themselves millions in royalties and bookings over the course of the next decade or two.

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Updated On: 9/13/04 at 10:44 PM

Thanks, Margo.

It all makes sense, but I was puzzled as to why some DID get released, and others not. The BFO DVD came by surprise.

Are there any recent/current shows you think that DO have a remote chance of getting a DVD release?

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I could see AVE Q, but if their plans for a TV show or movie take form, it won't happen.

What about WICKED? They have Universal for marketing and DVD production, and it does have appeal for WIZARD OF OZ fans.

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LOVE Avenue Q.

I'd like to see Beauty and the Beast preserved... but in the "Palace" version, not the "Lunt" version.... such astunning design....

there were many older shows taped for the Broadway on Showtime series back in the late 70s and 80s, among them The Me Nobody Knows, Purlie, Eubie!, as well as some straight plays such as The Gin Game (with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy)... i wish they would release those...

In regards to Wicked:
I've heard talks of a movie version, so I don't think they'd release it on DVD if they're making a movie of it. Plus, I think it will be on Broadway for a while, and they probably wouldn't want to release a DVD while it's still being performed. They usually wait 'til it's closed or it's at least been on for a really long time.