Shuberts to stream with Stellar platform?

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 5/4/22 at 10:18am

 

BROADWAY NEWS EXCLUSIVE: "The Shubert Organization announces partnership with livestream service Stellar" by Broadway News' Caitlin Hornik - "The Shubert Organization and livestream service Stellar have announced a partnership to increase accessibility to live theater on Broadway.

The partnership will make The Shubert Organization's resources available to Stellar and its organizers. The Shubert Organization already started sharing Stellar's offerings via the Telecharge network to connect users with virtual entertainment, including Broadway and theater-related content. ...

Stellar was previously used to stream the "Jagged Little Pill" Broadway reunion concert in December 2020. The platform was also used for a number of industry events and performances during the pandemic.

“The Shuberts have been a leader in theatre for a century. They're taking digital live theatre seriously because they want to extend that leadership for another century,” says Stellar CEO Jim McCarthy. “We're very happy to get the chance to combine our expertise in this new medium with their ability to bring great theatre to the world.”" https://bway.ly/a06yr7

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 5/4/22 at 10:23am

YES ACCESSIBILITY!!!!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/4/22 at 10:26am

Interesting. I feel like we’ve seen a million announcements like this over the years from various companies saying they want to film shows but then nothing happens. But if this is directly tied to the Shubert Org, it would seem to cut out most of the red tape that usually prevents these from happening. 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 5/4/22 at 10:31am

I feel like you can't scream " Yay! Accessibility!" without knowing the cost of this, or what the release schedule would look like...but that seems far away, especially with Jordan's comments mentioning that this has been talked about before, but something that has never really come to fruition.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/4/22 at 10:34am

And it wouldn't be up to the Shuberts...unless they were lead producers, yes? This involves Equity, too, I would imagine.

Updated On: 5/4/22 at 10:34 AM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/4/22 at 11:00am

The nature of the partnership is very vague: "The partnership will make The Shubert Organization's resources available to Stellar and its organizers. The partnership allows Stellar and their organizers access to The Shubert Organization's suite of resources, including marketing, venue rentals, and more." I am taking this to primarily mean Telecharge data-sharing of viewer habits, and in return Shubert will help promote Stellar. Jim McCarthy, the founder of Stellar, was the founder of Goldstar, which was recently bought by TodayTix.

Any choice to film/stream a show is ultimately up to the producers, in cooperation with the authors/estates, creative teams, unions, and theatre owners. And funders. As anyone who has tried to get a Bway show filmed will tell you, it's an absolute beast and it can very easily fall apart for multitudes of reasons –– and many producers WOULD be open to filming for some type of release if it were cost-effective.

From my vantage point, until there's an announcement of a standardized agreement between the theatrical and screen unions and the Broadway League (which would minimize the issues for the individual show producers/creators), this isn't going to make streaming shows any easier.

Updated On: 5/4/22 at 11:00 AM