Why don't they?

that's why they're called LIVE performances...

I think these should only be sold on certain occasions.

The OBC should be recorded and the DVD should be sold when the show closes.

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I definetly think DVDs should become available once a show closes. A friend told me that at the library at Lincoln Center there is a video library or every show that was ever on Broadway original cast, but when I wnet there and asked the librarian looked at me like I was an idiot...

The Billy Rose collection at Lincoln Center (a branch of the NY Public Library) is an archive of video tapes and audio recordings of stage presentations that began filming closing Broadway shows around 30 years ago. It was established to preserve as many shows as possible (they don't have every show and operate under a small budget) for the future use of historians, scholars, educators and theatre professionals and not for viewing by the general public.

Here's a list of what they have:
http://catnyp.nypl.org/search/dMusical+theater+--+New+York+(State)+--+New+York./dmusical+theater+new+york+state+new+york/-5,-1,0,B/exact&FF=dmusical+theater+new+york+state+new+york&1,377

Special arrangements have been made with Equity, the unions and the royalty holders (playwrights, composers etc...) in order for the library to have the right to film these shows and later provide access to them to a limited number of qualified researchers and other individuals and in return the library has agreed to strictly limit access only to those who have a valid reason for viewing the tape. Under the agreement, none of these tapes will EVER be available commercially for sale or rent or broadcast (and frankly most of them are not of broadcast quality).

In order to access one of the tapes (and they cannot be removed from the premises and must be watched there) one must have an access card, make an appointment in advance to watch the given tape at a specific time and state a specific reason for wanting to view it (ie, you're directing a production of it). You can only watch any individual tape once. Mind you, they don't always check and verify your reason, but that's the policy. And some tapes have total restricted access that require written permission from the rights holders to be viewed (Dreamgirls requires a letter from the Michael Bennett estate's attorney and executor -- and he won't grant access unless you can prove involvement with a major Equity production of the show).

I wouldn't hold my breath for a release of Light in the Piazza. Filming and broadcasting any show has become a prohibitively expense enterprise which few shows are willing to do. The filming itself is six figures, plus royalty payments to the creative team, and the high rate of compensation Equity requires for the actors makes such a project financially unfeasible in most cases (which is why it's so rare to see shows taped and sold commercially -- the market for Broadway shows is small and most video releases of them over the years lost money so producers are loathe to do them anymore).

There might be a chance that PBS might be interested in doing a Live from Lincoln Center of the show at the end of the run (it happened with Contact). If they do, make sure your vcr is set. Oftentimes they only get the rights to broadcast it once or twice, with no subsequent right to re-show it or to commercially distribute it on DVD.

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Updated On: 8/17/05 at 01:52 AM

i second the "when a show is closing"! It would be great to be able to buy it when you can't see it anymore... and Into the Woods did it.

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The real issue is that not only do cast recordings not make money, but DVDs of shows cost more to produce, and have lower returns than even cast albums.

That's why we see so few of them.

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IF they sell well. Most cast albums only sell a few thousand copies and lose money which is why most of the major companies have gotten out of the cast album business altogether, leaving it to small independent labels.

Broadway music is completely irrelevant to the larger music industry and cast album sales constitute the tiniest fraction of one precent of all album sales. The percentage of sales of Broadway-related DVDs to the overall DVD market is even smaller than that.

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Updated On: 8/17/05 at 11:56 AM

Also, keep in mind this would take of lot of licencing, extra contracting, and if anybody says "no" the whole deal could be off.

The people producing this disc might find this more of a leagle nightmare than it would be worth (to the disc producers-who would make very little money on it).

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