Celebs Seeing Shows as Ads

I feel like I noticed this first w/ Mincemeat using Josh Gad backstage in social media ads, and now I see Chess doing the same w/ Neil Patrick Harris.

Does this actually help sell tickets?

Bad Cinderella had some housewives endorse the show lol. This paid promotion has been happening over the last few years, but I’ve noticed it happening less recently, presumably because producers know it doesn’t sell tix.

What BrodyFosse said. If a celeb posts organically to their own page about the great experience they had at the show, it generates incredibly valuable engagement. But this type of "ad" that says "look who came to see us" does nothing and is just a way for the team to post something.

The Teeth one was very weird. That show should've had better marketing, the windowcard aside.



I feel like this really started with everyone wanting people to know when Lin came to their show and endorsed it in some way.

Anyone with a following can use their platform to convince people to see a show if they give their endorsement - hell, that’s the entire career of an “influencer”. Does it work? Mileage varies. Someone like me, who sees everything anyway, is not going to be swayed to see a show by a celebrity who saw that show.

To that end, I honestly love when shows use Lin-Manuel Miranda’s posts to advertise. He is a very heavy hitter in theatre and also film, but his posts are genuine and purely organic theatre kid joy - which is what he is in real life (having run into him at a few shows).

Broadway needs to get back to good old fashioned word of mouth and reviews to sell a show. Rebuild the New York and suburban audiences, can’t be too dependent on visitors. The only way this is going to happen is with new exciting shows of quality coming to Broadway. It has to be an event, that’s the only way you’re gonna get people to shell out $100+ to see a show. Enough with the gimmicks.