Souvenir Programs Vs. Playbills

Once upon a time, I thought souvenir programs sold at shows were ridiculous. My logic was, "Why should I buy one when I get a Playbill for free?"

Lately, though, I've been taking a serious interest in them. I love their full-color photos, glossy material, and production fun facts. Of course, the three I have (A Christmas Carol, Nice Work, and Waitress) I purchased at a discount.

Do you think souvenir programs are worth their normal price? Any favorites? In your opinion, how do they compare to Playbills?

When I was younger, I loved them.....but I realized I never looked at them much after a week or so....so for me, it's a waste. My kids have no interest.

Yeah, the souvenir books are for pictures only, most of which you can find on the internet nowadays. I don't buy them.

The Playbill (or equivalent), I save.

I no longer save my Playbills, except for productions that have some sort of sentimental value. I was stockpiling them and ultimately they were taking up too much space. At some point, I just saw them all as so many useless magazines.

The London programs are useful- often with essays about the production, production photos, etc. In that same vein, I love Lincoln Center's programs. They have meticulously researched and cited essays about the production's topics or themes, plus essays from the director or writers, as well as a lovely cover.

Updated On: 5/5/17 at 05:25 PM

I used to buy the program at every show i went to. It started getting too expensive. Last one I got was the Miss Saigon revival. I only got it because it was sitting on my seat opening night. I do keep all my playbills though.

I have been collecting the souvenir problems for many many years. Before the Internet they were only way you'll get a collection of these wonderful photos to remember the show by. Now the photos are pretty easy to come by. I remember when LP albums came out and many musicals would have a open up LP cover with tons of photos. I used to cherish those.

I have realized however that my collection has become huge and I can't keep buying these all the time. So now I only buy them once in a while if the show is one of my very favorites.

One of the other issues is they don't have them early on in the run of the show. You can usually order these but then you don't get the cast picture bio insert. Or if you do it's with the current cast not the people you saw. I remember getting the Pippin insert and it was Tovah instead of Andrea Martin who I saw.

The other issue with these souvenir programs is for touring productions. Some of them only feature of the original Broadway cast. Occasionally there are some, usually that mega hits, that have photos from the original Broadway cast, tours and maybe other sit down locations.