Playbill Ceases Operations for Touring Productions

[quizking101]

Posted: 9/19/24 at 9:24pm

I didn’t know this was a thing, but my friend just sent me a picture from the BTTF tour in Minneapolis and apparently Playbill no longer does national distribution and so local brands will be taking over.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 9/19/24 at 10:27pm

Here’s a link to the letter shared in the new programs. Sad indeed, but there are other companies that could use the business and fulfill those duties. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 9/19/24 at 10:56pm

Broadway in Chicago is still using Playbill programs, so certainly not every touring market is impacted by this. It sounds more like the touring presenter in Minneapolis just didn’t want to pay for Playbills anymore and opted for something cheaper.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 9/19/24 at 11:00pm

It’s definitely not just Minneapolis. Numerous cities since the pandemic have stopped having programs altogether, and some have just switched to a different company. A quick Reddit search pulled up the following about Broadway Across America:

"This year Playbill suddenly decided to instead charge the BAA groups a couple million dollars. Negotiations unsurprisingly fell through, and many groups that host Broadway Across America shows (including the ones in the Midwest like CAPA) instead went with Encore, a small company that’s traditionally done programs for Georgia and the Carolinas. Hence the change.”

Apparently Encore specifically requires fewer ads and encourages more relevant articles.

Updated On: 9/19/24 at 11:00 PM

[MatthewS1]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 10:52am

The Fox in StL had playbills for Hamilton last week. Back to the Future opens on Tuesday- curious to see what we’ll get. 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 11:49am

Thanks to the pioneering print service of PLAYBILLder, I'd be surprised if those with deep enough pockets who really wanted to continue Playbill as their publication wouldn't just throw something together and pay a (likely) smaller licensing fee for the name.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 11:56am

If these companies put a little elbow grease in, they can probably earn more money by doing all this in-house. Sell the ads, design the book, and print it themselves. The reliance on Playbill in some regional markets has always been a little funny to me.

[Det95]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 3:00pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "If these companies put a little elbow grease in, they can probably earn moremoney by doing all this in-house. Sell the ads, design the book, and print it themselves. The reliance on Playbill in some regional markets has always been a little funny to me."

That's what Broadway in Detroit does

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 3:39pm

Broadway SF is still using Playbills right now for Wicked. At first I thought maybe that's because it's the last show in the 23/24 season and the contract with Playbill included that whole season. But, I looked it up and it's the first show in the 24/25 season. It's not even an add-on this year, it's fully part of their subscriptions. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 4:00pm

Remember that until Playbill releases a statement, this is kind of hearsay. The program note shared on Reddit says Playbill ceased publishing for U.S. touring markets; it does not say they stopped handling ALL touring markets. Some of the big performing arts towns like LA and SF and Chicago and Boston might be continuing business as usual. Who knows!

[DiscoCrows]

Posted: 9/20/24 at 4:30pm

My personal opinion is that Playbuilder comes off visually as very amateurish (the graphic/layout formatting is completely different than what you’d see in an actual Playbill) and I don’t see a world in which professional companies move towards it unless they made it look more sleek.

[ChrisTyler1288]

Posted: 9/22/24 at 2:57am

I work for Ensemble Arts Philly and we had Playbills for Les Mis, which is part of our 24/25 Season 🤷🏼‍♂️

[OhHiii]

Posted: 9/22/24 at 3:14pm

It's definitely a venue by venue thing. For the smaller cities, it would make sense they'd need to cut more expenses than a Chicago or San Fransisco would.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/22/24 at 3:23pm

I agree: Playbillder is pretty weak in their formatting.  It's a decent amount of work to do on your end, and it's not cheap (especially to use their printing services).  We used to make our own, and then a parent wanted to "upgrade" and paid for it themselves for a year or two.  The the parents decided to always use it - and all the money we used to make from ads, ended up going simply to pay for the program.   

[MatthewS1]

Posted: 9/24/24 at 11:33pm

The Fox in St. Louis is indeed using Playbills for Back to the Future, which opened tonight. It must be up to the theater- very happy we still get them!!

[Fosse76]

Posted: 9/25/24 at 5:28am

MatthewS1 said: "The Fox in St. Louis is indeed using Playbills for Back to the Future, which opened tonight. It must be up to the theater- very happy we still get them!!"

Why? The program is simply there to give you info about the production you are seeing (and advertise crap you don't need). Why does it matter which publisher prints them?

[ChrisTyler1288]

Posted: 9/25/24 at 8:21am

This website is wild. In what real life conversation would someone express to you that they were excited about being able to still get a Playbill and your next statement to them is a hard and accusatory “why” and a swift statement about how they advertise **** you don’t need? And if you do interact with people in real life like that, I can certainly understand why you’re a frequent flyer here who feels comfortable spreading their wings 🙄

[MatthewS1]

Posted: 9/25/24 at 8:57am

Fosse76 said: "MatthewS1 said: "The Fox in St. Louis is indeed using Playbills for Back to the Future, which opened tonight. It must be up to the theater- very happy we still get them!!"

Why? The program is simply there to give you info about the production you are seeing (and advertise crap you don't need). Why does it matter whichpublisher prints them?"

I’ve been collecting my playbills since my first Broadway show at the age of 7. I’m now in college, and it’s neat that the programs still look the same even though I’m 1000 miles away from home. 
 

Fosse76- you probably like things that I’d question. Let people be happy.

[James885]

Posted: 9/25/24 at 11:32am

NYC is basically a once-a-year thing for me, so I generally see more touring shows. I enjoy having the Playbills for the tours - it feels all the more 'Broadway' to me. In LA, Center Theater Group uses their own programs but hopefully the Pantages and the Dolby will continue to use the Playbills.

[carlisle14]

Posted: 2/25/26 at 8:33pm

Hippodrome Baltimore's BAA shows are all Encore now.