Playbill Ceases Operations for Touring Productions

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.

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

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

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!

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

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 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?

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.

Hippodrome Baltimore's BAA shows are all Encore now.