JudyDenmark said: "To be fair, though... whatever's being said online is being missed by an entire theatergoing demo. I like to use my 70-something parents as a gauge, since they regularly see shows and are consistent ticket-buyers, but don't spend any time reading about theatre online...and are definitely not on Twitter.And they had no clue whatsoeverthat the bathroom song they enjoyed at the Tonyslast night was a parody of Be More Chill until I told them. (And even then I'm not sure they got it.)
I realize this is anecdata, but I do think they represent a large segment of the ticket-buying audience who loves shows but doesn't know or care about internet buzz."
As another data point, I see shows regularly and do follow the theatre community online, but since I have absolutely no interest in Be More Chill, I honestly had no idea this performance was a parody of anything until all the discussion today. My parents were also watching and like your parents, don’t follow theatre online either, and I’m sure didn’t know this was a parody. Really, all they needed to do was show a flash of the BMC marquee at the beginning or end of that segment or something along those lines to suggest this was not just a song made up for the Tony’s and it would have been fine. Without any context, it just seemed like a very random musical number. Who would have guessed that the day after the Tony’s, the show everyone would be talking about would be BMC?
Updated On: 6/10/19 at 10:26 PM