PLAYBILL Covers of the 2017-2018 Season — Page 4

Also interesting to note, that they Playbill for Harry Potter has been changed (at least on Playbill Vault) to show that it will be a "Showbill".

Evans2 said: "Would someone mind explaining why Harry Potter and Aladdin use Showbilland not Playbill?"

When Disney opened Beauty and the Beast they recieved complaints from parents that the Playbills contained non-Disney/adult themed advertisements. This is because Playbills are provided to theaters for free as an arrangement between theater owners and Playbill. Instead  Playbill relies on revenue from the advertisements inside the magazine. Thus as a response to this when then Disney opened The Lion King at their own New Amsterdam theater, they reached out to Stagebill to provide their programs. Stagebill's business model allowed theater owners to customize the advertisements and contents within their program for a fee to the theater owner. Therefore when Lion King opened its programs were not produced by Playbill and instead were Stagebills filled with Disney advertisements. When Ragtime opened at the Lyric (Ford Center for the Performing Arts) the same arrangement was made with Stagebill, but instead of Disney adds the program was filled with Ford ads.  Playbill not wanting to loose revenue from Stagebill, so Playbill eventually created Showbill, as an alternative to Playbill where the a theater owner can pay Playbill for customized contents within the program. Due to this and Disney trying to actually become part of the Broadway community instead of the Robber Barron many saw it as, it switched back to the newly created Showbill near the end of The Lion King's run at the New Amsterdam and has kept a showbill for every show at the New Amsterdam since. (It should be noted that Disney did use a "Playbill" for Aladdin while it was in previews as I have an Aladdin Playbill.) This is done at a theater owner level though, so its not a decision made by producers. If I had to guess producers can request a Showbill from theater owners but they will have to absorb any of the costs, which would not make mucg business sense for many shows that are hoping to be the Phantom/Les Miz/Rent/Lion King/Wicked/Book of Mormon/Hamilton but are budgeted as a sleeper hit. So an additional $10k a week in printing costs can be a big chunk of change when it comes to budgeting especially if you can better use that money in marketing.

If I had to bet considering the extensive renovations done to the Lyric to make it more "immersive" and the fact that in 12 hours Cursed Child was able to sell 99% of its tickets for the next year ...I think the producers and or the Ambassador Theatre Group will happily pay the costs to keep J.K Rowling happy. 

Call_me_jorge said: "BroadwayConcierge said: "Carouselstarts previews tonight, and there's still no playbill cover for it on its page. Hmm..."

Here’s Carousels...https://instagram.com/p/Bfv8Qm3nxKw/

Not what I was expecting, but I still dig it

"

Oh geez. Looks like a rehersal picture. I wished they used the really pretty logo they have on the marquee

orlikethecolorpurple said: "Other than Hello, Dolly! and A Doll's House Part 2, have any other recent Rudin shows used show art in lieu of rehearsal/production photos?"

Mormon, if that counts as "recent." Though they're one of the last (if not the last?) to still use a border.

Call_me_jorge said: "The shuffle along playbill"

Remember Shuffle started with the show's artwork, then the production photo of the girls' legs in the vintage style, then BACK to the show artwork? lol.

I like the rehearsal photo for CAROUSEL, but that logo is just so beautiful. I want it on a playbill.