Retro Playbill Covers to be distributed at every Broadway show in October, for company's 140th anniversary

This is very cool! Can't wait to see them.



Playbill is getting ready to celebrate our 140th anniversary in style—retro style. Playbill, the leading theatre resource and memento since our founding in 1884, has worked with every Broadway show to create a special set of Playbill Legacy Covers that will be handed out to theatregoers throughout the month of October. Attendees will get one of four special, commemorative Legacy covers, each paying tribute to the different historical eras of Playbill and Broadway. The custom artwork will be a separate wrap-around to the show's regular Playbill, giving theatregoers and collectors a two-for-one memento.

The covers themselves will be unveiled October 1 here at Playbill.com. Stay tuned.

The Playbill design eras used for inspiration on the retro covers include 1934's Merrily We Roll Along (the play that inspired the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical), 1955's Damn Yankees, 1966's Mame, and 1973's A Little Night Music. Playbill has worked closely with each show to develop four new custom covers, each that imagines what its Playbill might have looked like had the show played the Main Stem decades ago.

https://playbill.com/article/playbill-is-going-retro-to-celebrate-our-140th-anniversary-in-october

Updated On: 9/24/24 at 11:05 AM

This is awesome!

Can't wait to see what they all look like as I won't be back in the city till beginning of November.

Have to say it - the ones for OH, MARY and THE OUTSIDERS are beyond fantastic. 

DCDrama2 said: "It's glaringly obvious which shows put effort into this and those that did not."

Some of these are truly awful (and, in some cases, it's the shows with the worst key art to begin with, like Our Town and Left on Tenth). But I suppose Playbill cannot prescribe that shows conform to, for example, the second design era (B&W production photo, sans serif title).

Love MJ, Outsiders, Oh Mary, Chicago, Stereo, Mattress, Moulin, and the simplicity of the LCT one.

A few others have at least one good design (Hills of Cali, Hamilton, Job, Htown, Water for Elephants, Wicked).

Also interesting to see which ones work well with barely any adaptation (Cabaret, Lion King, Wonderful World).

I love the Tammy Faye one of her singing! 

ardiem said: "Anyone have any sense of how will these be distributed? I suppose we'll find out soon but I'm curious if it's one design per performance, all available each performance but given out randomly, or if there's some choice involved."

I was wondering that too.  At first I thought it would be one design per week but the original announcement on Playbill said "Playbill is encouraging audience members to take one special Playbill per visit, and to strike up conversations with seat neighbors to share their own Broadway history and trade covers. "  which sounds like there will be multiple designs at a performance.  Coincidentally I'm going to & Juliet tonight, so I guess I'll see first hand

My favorites are The Book of Mormon, Oh, Mary!, Once Upon a Mattress, Suffs (the BUTTONS! but I wish they had changed the font on the second one), and Wicked!

TheSassySam said: "I love the Tammy Faye one of her singing!"

I really respect Tammy Faye for putting the effort in even though they only have 12 days on broadway during October. 

At &Juliet tonight, it looked like my usher had multiple designs. I heard a couple people mention the new, anniversary covers but didn't notice if anyone tried asking for more.

 

The anniversary cover is just placed over the standard, modern one, with a blurb about how they're doing the different covers this month for the anniversary on the inside.

They're not selling playbills yet, but they do have posters with all the covers.