Saving Playbills
Saving Playbills
#0Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:43pm
Is anyone here as obsessed as I am with saving playbills? After every broadway show I see, I write the date (February 5, 2005) on the top right hand corner of the cover of the playbill and tape the ticket stub on the top right hand corner of the first page. All 57 of the playbills are on my shelf in the order I saw them...starting with Les Mis and ending with Spamalot. Most of them are autographed by at least some of the cast since I wait at the stage door every chance I get. I have plans to buy some playbill binders so I can keep them in good condition for the next 50 years.
I also have a bunch of playbills from off broadway and encores which I keep in a separate pile.
#1re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:48pmI have every playbill for every show that I've seen since 1998. Before that, I only have playbills that were important or of some value to me.
maybethistime
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/3/04
#2re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:49pm
**Raises hand.**
I have little boxes that are labeled "Playbills 1950-1960 Broadway" all through the decades and others for Regional playbills and other programs. I have another box for ticket stubs, all in chronological order. I don't tape stuff to them or write on them becuase it decreases the worth and I hate when people write on clean, new things. At the theatre I always steal a handful of playbills from where the ushers stand in the aisles. I use one for reading, one for signing and one for keeping perfect. WOW- I need help.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#3re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:50pmI dont have many but I put mine in an evelope and keep them all in order of seeing them starting with my first show- Beauty and The Beast to most recent- Brooklyn and if there signed they get framed.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#4re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:51pmThey are nothing but dust collectors.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Updated On: 2/28/05 at 03:51 PM
Feodor Sverdlov
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/21/04
#5re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:52pmNo. I don't think I have a single Playbill from any show I've seen, since the 1950's. Sad, I guess. I never saw the point in saving them. I lack whatever gene makes people a pack rat. I throw everything out.
scooter3843
stylinbohemian
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/24/05
#6re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:54pmI have them and the ticket framed then like two extra;s of each saved in a box in my closet
#7re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 3:57pmGrowing up, my bad was a huge pack rat. Maybe that's where the urge to save stuff comes from.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#8re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 4:10pmI have always tried to save my playbills. I used to grab three. One to keep in safe keeping. One to frame. And one JUST IN CASE.
#9re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 4:12pmi save all my playbills and ticket stubs in a box.
A dancer might dream to see her name in lights and mean it,
but all she really dreams is to make someone
else feel the way she did when she first saw a dancer.
And that is so beautiful-Anonymous
#10re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 4:22pmi save all of my playbills. I have one from every show i have seen since peter pan.
"At the opening night party, they had clowns on stilts, jugglers, a chocolate fountain, popcorn, hot dogs. [My son] looked at me like I had been holding back. Like, 'This is what you do?' I had to tell him, 'No, no, darling. Opening nights don't usually look like this.' It's usually a dark bar with a bottle of vodka." ?Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Jan Maxwell
plus i proudly share the title of the shortest member over the age of 10 with wickedrentq!
#11re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 4:28pmI sadly just started saving them last year when I saw Urinetown. I keep them all up on my book shelf and then i have a cork board that i put all my tickets on
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#12re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 4:31pmI have a huge collection of PLAYBILLS dating back to 1964. A word of warning, though: because of the acid content of the paper, my earliest PLAYBILLS have severely yellowed and the pages have started to crumble. I don't know if there's any way to salvage my collection, but those of you who are just beginning to save them might find some sort of way to preserve them.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#13re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 4:40pmI have draw dedicated to all things broadway..my tickets, my playbills..I go to NYC hotels and take the flyers for all the shows and save them!! I have some rare ones too lol..a bunch from shows that I never saw/left Bway really quickly..I love saving all those things!! I NEVER throw out a playbill!!!
And the other thing about the Phantom Lady was, Bert, she realized, in the city that never sleeps...
What did she realize, Kitten?
That all the songs she'd listened to, all the love songs, that they were only songs.
What's wrong with that?
Nothing, if you don't believe in them. But she did, you see. She believed in enchanted evenings, and she believed that a small cloud passed overhead and cried down on a flower bed, and she even believed there was breakfast to be had...
Where?
On Pluto. The mysterious, icy wastes of Pluto.
#14re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:09pmI save all of my playbills from Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Off Broadway and regional theaters in a big plastic box with the earliest playbills on the bottom and the most recent on top. I keep all my tickets in a separate envelope.
"I can't pay the bills yet, 'cause I have no skills yet. The world is a big scary place."
- Avenue Q
timote316
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/20/04
#15re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:16pm
I have all my Playbills (and programs from community/HS/etc shows) in a Wicked bag right now (I'm trying to come up with a way to store/display them), and a box on my desk with all sorts of tickets in it (theater, movies, baseball games, etc). As you can see, I save everything.
Also, gothem, if you really want to get rid of them, I know someone who who gladly take them off your hands 
#16re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:17pmI have all of mine from every show I've ever seen, all in Playbill binders- the ones with the plastic pages.
And hang on, when did you win the discus?
renthead2005z
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/2/05
#17re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:20pmi have 12 from when i saw rent
"Why do we play with fire?-Why do we run our fingers through the flame?"
LouW95
Leading Actor Joined: 9/27/03
#18re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:20pmI have a collection, many autographed too. If anyone has a certain request or wish list, please feel free to email me. I might be able to help you locate your desired Playbill. My collection includes Playbills from the 1930s-present.
bwaybaby891
Featured Actor Joined: 2/8/05
#19re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:23pmI save every playbill i touch. I got like 10 from Wicked to hand out and I kept 5 for myself. I have ones that I have form seeing road shows and from everything I go to. You are not nuts. My mom saves every one too.
"He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals"
-Benjamin Franklin
playbill_signer_05
Leading Actor Joined: 1/23/05
#20re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:26pm
WithoutATrace, That is a great idea! I might have to start doing that. I have a bunch of old playbills, but I never tried writing the dates and puttng the ticket stubs on and stuff 
Brilliant!
elphieisperky
Broadway Star Joined: 2/21/05
#21re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:28pmI loooove to save them. I'm actually making a little "shrine" on my desk at home.
playbill_signer_05
Leading Actor Joined: 1/23/05
#22re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:30pm
I try to get a flier from each show I see and I put them on my bedroom door 
mirramar
Broadway Star Joined: 2/3/05
#23re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:34pm
I keep all my playbills on my bookshelf and keep the ticket inside of each playbill.
I arrange them in alphabetical order, hopefully soon I'll frame some of the ones that are signed.
#24re: Saving Playbills
Posted: 2/28/05 at 5:34pmI have a playbill for every show I've seen except for Joseph (my first show). I do have my mom's playbill from Joseph (which was almost the same cast). It's on my to-do list to get those playbill binders with the protectors. But they're sooo expensive.
"Chicago is it's own incredible theater town right there smack down in the middle of the heartland. What a great city! I can see why Oprah likes to live there!" - Dee Hoty :-D
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