I love my job!! I, for those of you that don't know, have been promoting live entertainment for many years and, next week, will mark my 2nd anniversary working for the awesome folks at Street Meet Promotions. Working for Street Meet, I get the opportunity to interact with tourists every day in Times Square where I distribute discount flyers to shows as well as assist patrons at the famous TKTS booth in Times Square. The company I work for has, and currently represents some incredible shows including Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Fun Home, Disaster the Musical, The King and I, Wicked, On Your Feet, Wicked, and, my personal favorite, The Phantom of the Opera. At the end of the day, I usually go home and catch up on what people are saying about the shows my company represents as well as what is being said about shows that may be in the future that I'd love my company to represent. Often times, I go on theater message boards to read the opinions of others. There are times I read some stories about people having great experiences in regards to the shows we currently represent. It's when I look at comments on other shows that have yet to see the curtain rise on Broadway that I am often bothered.
Let me preface this by saying that I believe in people having their own opinions. I have my thoughts, you have yours. However, there is a time and a place to share your opinions. I feel that one should express their opinion after having seen the final product. Unfortunately, their are others that don't share this viewpoint. I cannot tell you how many times someone will use some screen name to go on a theater message board, hide behind some fictitious screen name, and just trash a show that they, nor anybody, has even sen yet.
As those of us familiar with the world of theater know, creating theater is a process, the same as creating any other art form. This is a process that requires work on the material, whether it be music, lyrics, dialogue, or all three, then selecting those to interpret that work via casting, then directing the actors and finally putting everything together, with scenery, costumes, and lighting, on a stage in front of an audience. The end product to this process often undergoes changes in the firm of rewrites to the material, changes in direction, and such. in fact, Broadway shows still undergo changes even after the show has been put before an audience during the preview period.
I am fine during the preview process with people going on a message board and offering an opinion of the show they witnessed in regards to what they felt worked and didn't work. That is fine. Perhaps, the creative team are reading those insights and implementing changes. What isn't cool is when some anonymous user goes on a message board and just states that "Show A" will close before it opens. There are even times when such a comment is made based on footage we see from the rehearsal room, or even who is cast in the show. Just recently, I saw someone take pity on the actors for being employed by a show. Theater message boards are meant to be a place for theater fans to congregate and share their findings about shows that they see. It is not supposed to be a place to just rip everything we may not like the sound of before actually seeing that product. There are those that may read comments and become disheartened that already the hard work they are putting, or plan to put into a show, is being dismissed based solely on whimsy. Is that fair to anybody??? I think not.
What I love most about working on Broadway is that there is a sense of community. There is such a great camaraderie among others to make a truly wonderful product. Let's support this, not hinder it. We all are entitled to our opinions. Let us, however, reserve those opinions until we have seen the final product. That does it for my 1st blog post. I will do my best to regularly post here. Feel free to leave comments, but please, people, keep it constructive. Until the next time, this is Mike signing off, ghost light lighting on!
