Bruce Springsteen - special Tony Award disgust — Page 4

A lot of concert performances have been called theatrical in nature. The way storytelling is woven into his songbook is a form of theatre. Just because he's done it in other venues and only has now done it in a Broadway house doesn't make it less true. Whatever he did, the Tony Committee felt it was worthy. I don't know what Bernadette Peters has to do with anything. Give her a mic and a one-woman show at a Broadway House. It may not last as long as Springsteen's show but I bet you she will be given some Tony consideration.

People have very narrow views of what theatre is. It's like people need to take a course in Theatre 101 again.

Updated On: 6/18/18 at 05:43 PM

qolbinau said: "I don't understand how some guy setting up shop for the first time to sing some of his old songs and tell his old stories is as 'special' as the example above. One is a true celebration of an amazing career that changed the face of Broadway. One is a concert."

Special is subjective. One could just as equally question why anyone would merit a Tony award for replacing Bette Midler's Tony-Award-winning take in a Tony-Award-winning musical and bringing down the box office down by $1M a week.

Qolbinau wrote: "Maybe it’s cynical but does anyone think it’s a coincidence that by winning a special Tony Award Bruce happened to get more TV time and a performance that some executives would be hoping could convince people that wouldn’t normally tune in to the Tonys to tune in? The special tony award could have purely been a marketing exercise for the Tonys."



Of course. It's getting two plums for the price of one. Not only do you get to suck up to the big rock star who oh-so-charitably graced a Broadway theatre with his divine presence at astronomical prices, you have a chance to boost the televised awards' ratings as well. Truly a win-win situation for the big wheels in our theatre. And the Boss gets to receive a nice award as well. For the theatre, though --- and for all those who made lifelong contributions to actual THEATRE without any awards whatsoever --- it's lose, lose, lose.

darquegk said: "I'm gonna use some grad school words now: it could be that what you find lacking in Springsteen's concert, theatrical though it may be, is a sense of "queer performativity."

I hadn't thought about it in these terms, but I think you offer some helpful insights. So, thanks.

As an aside, since a number of people have stated that Springsteen's show is "theatrical" in seeking to establish that the show is theatre, I would just note: That something is theatrical does not entail that it is theatre any more than something's being poetic or cinematic is a sufficient condition for its being poetry or cinema. There may in the end be a good case for deeming the show theatre, but its putative theatricality does not establish this.

Updated On: 6/18/18 at 08:12 PM

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "I'd argue that's exactly what it means. It may not be good poetry or cinema or anything that conforms to standards that you've been taught or you yourself want to see upheld. I guess without examples of something being cinematic but not being cinema, it's hard for me to imagine. Maybe you're thinking about music videos or tv shows with cinematic qualities but it not being cinema. To me, the only difference is the form and how it labels itself. If you took a bunch of music videos together and strung them along in a coherent manner, then you get Moulin Rogue which people call cinematic. Springsteen's show really is not much different from various autobiographical one-person shows with a backing band.


Well, it's not uncommon, for example, for people to refer to a particular photograph or novel as cinematic. And we refer to many things as poetic without considering them to be actual examples of the art of poetry -- even silent films, for example, can be poetic, even though poetry as an art form involves the use of language.

Updated On: 6/18/18 at 08:37 PM

ArtMan said: "
I doubt he like most artists hasany idea what the promoter is charging for tickets
Sorry, Impossible2, that's just incorrect. I've had this "discussion" on here before. To say, that artists have zero knowledge on how much their ticket prices are going to be is just wrong. Garth Brooks, who is outspoken on rising ticket costs and the huge resell market, on his last multi-year World Tour, famously set all ticket prices one price. (Which if I remember was around $60) and stipulated a tougher entry requirement. So the front row and the last row were all the same price. If the promoter was the only one setting the ticket prices, they could have easily gotten 10 times as much for tickets.(This was Brook's first tour in several years and seeing him perform live, was high in demand at the time.) Tickets prices were set so high for Bruce, because first, it was way less venue seats for where he usually performs, but most importantly, everybody, INCLUDING BRUCE, knew they could sell the tickets that high and the consumer would purchase them. It had nothing to do with how many shows front of house employees were working or any other reason. It's all about demand. Bruce, may be a entertainer first, but he is a businessman, closely second. He has made a s***load of money off of this run. I, have seen him three times in concert and the most I have paid for a ticket is $75. If people want to pay these prices, more power to them. However, receiving a Tony Award for this only made the tickets harder in demand. And that's show business."

Yes but that is one artist who decided to sell his tour off the back of making a big deal out of selling cheap tickets just so he could sell any tickets. Brooks is know for his 'marketing' techniques more than anything else. Isn't his whole career basically an exercise in marketing and he comes from a marketing background.

A few artists over the years have done the same thing for cred points with the fans. Pearl Jam also did it in their prime and then proceeded to do single nights everywhere so the only people who really saved any money were the scalpers because fans couldn't get tickets.

double post

Updated On: 6/19/18 at 11:33 PM