Future of the Museum of Broadway- Page 2

[Jarethan]

Posted: 10/26/24 at 6:51pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "The Museum of Broadway is better and more informative than I expected it to be, buta for-profit museum is just a fool's errand. I particularly liked the backstage simulations by David Rockwell.

The Academy Museum in LA or the Museum of Moving Image in Queensis the gold standard for this kind of museum, and they're much bigger than the MoB. Both those institutions also have theaters and coffee shops within them: another revenue stream and another way to engage the public.

Someone donating a quarter of a billion to the NYPL Performing Arts Library to expand it and create large, permanent public exhibitions about Broadway and NYC theatre would really be the best way to do this type of museum."

Great suggestion.  Key point: tie it to a non-profit institution.

[Kad]

Posted: 10/27/24 at 12:48pm

The big advantage that the NYPL has is its large archive that it has been building for decades and its team of archivists, historians, researchers, and other staff. And if the NYPL is lacking in certain materials, it can easily work with peer institutions to obtain them to create an exhibit. It has legitimacy, experience, and collections that the MoB just lacks as a for-profit. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/27/24 at 1:00pm

Kad said: "The big advantage that the NYPL has is its large archive that it has been building for decadesand its team of archivists, historians, researchers, and other staff. And if the NYPL is lacking in certain materials, it can easily work with peer institutions to obtain them to create an exhibit.It has legitimacy, experience, and collections that the MoB just lacks as a for-profit."

Exactly. I believe the Film Academy had also been collecting artifacts & bequests for years, or buying things from estate auctions, prior to the museum. To the MoB's credit, they have done some partnerships with the NYPL, Library of Congress, TDF, Costume Collection, Goodspeed, and other nonprofits to borrow or rent items. But it just doesn't go far enough.

They also just don't have the space and financial bandwidth for major revolving exhibitions, which would encourage return attendance by New Yorkers.

For me, the big missed opportunity is that they haven't leaned into what we sometimes derogatorily call "museum pieces": Recreation. Like..."we recreated, designed, & filmed 4 dance numbers from old Broadway shows that flopped, using the original design plans & choreo notes. You can only see them here. And in the next room you can see piece by piece how we put that together." But that's not cheap and it's not going to appeal to the general population.

Updated On: 10/27/24 at 01:00 PM

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 10/27/24 at 1:22pm

Kad said: "The big advantage that the NYPL has is its large archive that it has been building for decadesand its team of archivists, historians, researchers, and other staff. And if the NYPL is lacking in certain materials, it can easily work with peer institutions to obtain them to create an exhibit.It has legitimacy, experience, and collections that the MoB just lacks as a for-profit."

NYPL is a great nyc institution. I am always impressed by the exhibits, its archives and its staff. I do know that they are always struggling with budgetary limitations.  

I don't know if a for-profit like Museum of Broadway can work trying to straddle the two worlds of museum and Instagram experience. If they had a bit more guts or were just a bit more shameless they could have just presented (as someone else posted here) a "Museum of Ice Cream" type experience. "The Broadway Experience" or some such thing. But that might not have worked either. I don't know if I see the emotional, near hysterical Pavlovian audiences that Broadway product seems to want to lure into buying tickets now walking around something as contemplative as a museum disguised as an experience.

Updated On: 10/27/24 at 01:22 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/27/24 at 1:35pm

I think the challenge of the current MoB is that they wanted to straddle both worlds: they have instagrammable stuff, and they have some inside-baseball stuff to appeal to people like us, but there's not quite enough to satiate either group.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 10/27/24 at 2:27pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: " But that's not cheap and it's not going to appeal to the general population."

This highlights any reasonable explanation. The museum is aimed at the lowest common denominator, from the mindset of folks who see the pivot point between the Broadway brand and "tourist attraction" as an opportunity to make money. But these things reek of inauthenticity and most often fail. See, e.g., the nearly endless stream of pathetic musicals that limp to a flop because folks thought people would come based on name (of a film, of a songwriter, etc.) alone. Tourists (only a small fraction of whom attend theatre while on their visit) would be much more likely to spend on going to the top of yet another tallish building.

[BroadwayBen]

Posted: 10/27/24 at 2:32pm

Paraphrasing Logan Roy and a current presidential candidate "these are not serious people."