How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
#1How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/13/13 at 11:57pm
We've been name-checked on Smash, and other than possibly ATC and a few sites too underground to mention here, we appear to be the premier theatre site out there. But are we important?
Are we a major cultural force in the art form, that people in New York genuinely pay attention to? Here within the board we have our famous figures and our celebrities- respected characters like Pal Joey or Whizzer, wits and wordslingers like like Jordan Catalano and Phyllis, arch and gleeful grouches like Newintown and After Eight, and self-styled experts, some legitimate like the beloved BK, and others of dubious authenticity.
Do we matter to anyone but ourselves? This weekend we have seen 4chan shut down over possible criminal confessions. News stories have broken on twitter, and Reddit has caused minor movies to be successes. Are there cultural reverberations emanating from our site?
Updated On: 4/14/13 at 11:57 PM
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#3How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:05amWhat mean "we," white man?
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#6How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:16am
I'm serious, not being snarky. I'm genuinely wondering where the line between "internet word of mouth" and "real world word of mouth" is drawn.
As a long-time poster on this board, over the years figures like Jordan, After Eight, the various trolls, and so on have become as real and as significant as Ben Brantley, Michael Riedel (who seems LESS real now, because of his caricatured appearances on Smash), etc. The appearance of songs like "Good Morning Broadwayworld" and "Tweet" make it appear that people outside the site's usual suspects are aware of us.
But to what extent does our influence extend? We are a niche site in a niche art, which means that it is more likely that anyone who reads the site is probably either a devotee or a participant in the arts. Every day, different Reddit users rise to prominence and disappear. Jordan will be funny and a fixture next year, like he was last year. So will the other "main characters." The memes are largely fixed- Real Housewives gifs, Jordan's musclemen, jokes about After Eight being crabby. Our net community is shockingly stable compared to... just about anywhere else.
You'll have to forgive me- I'm an academic as well as a theatre person, and one of my current classes is on digital cultures. Sitting down and trying to dissect this one is fascinating, because it's one of the few that I know of that genuinely sits still long enough to take a photo of it.
#7How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:17am
Darq... thanks for starting this thread. Well, I agree that BWW IS the #1 site for all things Broadway. BWW is like vegetable soup. You get a little bit of everything. There are certainly a variety of colorful characters. Although it has been said that Broadway folk are discouraged from participating in the message board, I think that they do take part while preserving their anonymity. I do wish that more message board members would post their real pictures... am curious as to what some people look like. I wonder though if our site is appreciated by the Broadway community, to a certain extent. I LOVE Broadway! from RC in Austin, Texas
P.S. The only thing I question about your original post is calling Jordan a queen. I don't think that was really necessary.
#8How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:22am
"I'm serious, not being snarky. I'm genuinely wondering where the line between "internet word of mouth" and "real world word of mouth" is drawn."
Any reason then that you chose to single me out in your little "I wonder who he really is but he certainly isn't..." speech? You don't know me. Should I start a thread talking about what you certainly are or aren't that had absolutely nothin to do with anything being discussed? Because seriously if you can't see how offensive what you wrote is, then it's time to turn off the computer for the night and let the grown ups talk.
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#10How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:24amYou are a very rich bitch.
#11How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:25am
Sadly, Sondheim doesn't like us.
Or maybe he does, maybe he is hidden among us...
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#12How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:26am
"I'm an academic"
This is what's turning BWW into the SS Poseidon.
#13How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:26amI am sorry, Jordan. I didn't mean to be offensive towards you or insinuate that I knew anything about you other than your online persona. This was rude of me.
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#14How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:27amSondheim's definitely on here somewhere posting GIFs of Teresa Giudice. Updated On: 4/14/13 at 12:27 AM
#15How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:28amAnd spreading rumors about his dungeon.
#16How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:30amWithout BroadwayWorld.com's message board, Broadway would crumble. We're not just important, we are VITAL.
--Aristotle
#17How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:32amCapN... it's always great when you grace us with your presence. RC
#18How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:34am
You're welcome.
The truth is -- industry professionals read these message boards. They're curious about the reactions to shows, and what's popular amongst us. After all, if you are a BWW member, you are a person who loves theatre. This is a collective of probable ticket-buyers. Our voice is much more accessible than out-of-town tourists.
Now, do we IMPACT shows? Are creative changes made based on our reactions, either in the show's writing or its marketing? Likely not.
--Aristotle
#19How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:38am
I think the most impact this online community makes is not actually to Broadway shows, but rather off-Broadway.
There are only 40 Broadway theatres. There are HUNDREDS of off- and off-off-Broadway productions. It's impossible for one person to see them all.
When I read on BWW that there is a lot of positive reaction to an off-Broadway production, I'm much more likely to go buy a ticket to that show. In fact, sometimes that show may not have even been on my radar!
The best example of this, for me, is SLEEP NO MORE. I would have never, NEVER thought once about actually going to see it...until all of the positive response here on BWW.
--Aristotle
larrystyles
Understudy Joined: 8/24/12
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#21How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:41am
Are creative changes made based on our reactions, either in the show's writing or its marketing? Likely not.
Pfffft, of course we do!
#22How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 12:44am
Perhaps what I wondered about the most was, how do we impact the preview period, if at all? We discuss the development and revisions of shows in great detail here, and gauge our reactions to the same. Do the creative teams take these sorts of discussions into consideration the same way they do talkbacks?
In my original post I had made a comment (intense as glib but, in my addled state, merely catty at best) contrasting an alpha poster here to press figures. The poorly conceived point remains- given that we have seen shills and theatre figures on here to promote or defend their works, are we able to command what Reddit users call karma (in Internet terminology, the respect a poster gains from continued useful or entertaining postings), and be genuine artistic barometers?
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#23How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 1:16am
Well, it's not hard to figure out. Just check how many views a preview thread gets.
It's all the power of word of mouth, and we have a good chunk of it when a production is at a very sensitive stage.
mc1227
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/07
#24How important is BroadwayWorld to Broadway?
Posted: 4/14/13 at 1:17amI think this board is used by the creative teams to gauge preview reactions from theatergoers (Cinderella, a case in point) but I'm also happy that most people do not use this board as a basis as to whether or not to see the show. Anyone I know that goes to theater does not read this board or any critic's review of a show. They just go if it interests them, and I feel that's how it should be.
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