“if your favorite musical is wicked don’t call yourself a theatre fan”
you mean the most accessible, affordable musical available for the most people to experience? but okay, fine, let’s go your way. how about we make more musicals available by doing official live recordings and putting them on netflix & hulu? in movie rentals? redbox? literally any streaming site? the production would make more money, and bootlegging issues would decrease, AND more people would fall in love with theatre.
“no??? you can’t TRULY capture the life of a stage production on film. doing that would be pointless and degrade the production everyone worked so hard on. no recordings allowed.”
ah, okay, i see now. You hate poor people and desperately need a platform that allows you to feel some semblance of superiority while looking down upon everyone for not enjoying something you deliberately deny them access to. glad we got that cleared up everyone go ahead and take five
this isn’t an exaggeration. i’ve been fortunate enough to grow up in the theatre, both acting in and attending shows, and I was a theatre major in days of yore
and something I’ve often noticed is that so many people deliberately and openly try to make the theatre inaccessible, even if that just means being openly unwelcoming to people they think didn’t belong.
all the time I listened to adults complain about the way people “dress these days” to see a show. If you dared to show up in anything but an evening gown, your toddler son wearing anything but a little suit, you didn’t deserve to be in those nosebleed seats you could barely afford.
what really struck me about this, is that these people pretend to care so much about the arts. Oh, the arts! They love them! They adore them! They donate thousands of dollars a year to them!
But it’s all somewhat performative, isn’t it? They wouldn’t dare support the arts until they have their images perfected. They have to look a certain way before they can publicly and financially support this thing they claim to love.
Meanwhile, the people showing up in jeans or sweatpants probably used up all the money they had for leisure for the year, and I do mean that, for a chance to experience a live performance once.
And they don’t care how they look once they get there.
because all they care about, is the fucking arts.
I respect all this but I think it’s respectful to be dressed nicely when seeing someone perform
I did theatre on a professional level and I don’t care if you’re dressed in a potato sack. Performers usually can’t even see past the first few rows because of the lights. The most respectful thing you can do is pay for a seat and then show up and clap.
@overheardinwod, thoughts?
Hoo-boy, @darkersolstice, you opened a can of worms for me. This is going to be a rant!
The OP gets to the heart of a lot of the problems I have with how Broadway is run, and with certain segments of the musical theatre fandom. Sure, Wicked may not be the most “artistic” musical out there, but it’s an excellent entrée into the world of musical theatre, in my opinion. The music and book are pretty solid, and the show has offered a lot of women their first “major” role on Broadway; playing an Elphaba or Glinda can open a lot of doors. Take Stephanie J. Block, for instance–she had worked on Broadway before, but it was only after she played Elphaba that she started getting leading/featured roles as opposed to more side roles.
The issue with accessibility is another good one, though that’s not entirely the doing of Wicked itself. One of the biggest problems musical theatre has is that it takes place in large part in old, historic buildings constructed long before our culture really took people with disabilities into account at all. Off the top of my head, only Lincoln Center (rotating productions), the Gershwin (Wicked only), the Minskoff (Lion King only), and the Marquis (rotating productions) are fully handicap-accessible; there may be others, but these are the only ones where I’ve seen elevators and handicap restrooms. The Shubert, one of the grand old theatres in the heart of the Theatre District, has an easement with Sardi’s restaurant across the street, but has no handicapped bathrooms on site. I never really noticed these problems until I started going to the theatre with my mother, who has a number of physical disabilities, but once you see it you can’t unsee it.
I do understand that many of these buildings have been exempted from the ADA on account of age and historic nature (though I believe that if any renovations are conducted, they must include becoming ADA-compliant). But people should also recognize that this is why some people are limited in the shows which they are able to enjoy. Sure, every theatre has some wheelchair seating, but it’s often not a great view of the stage, or it’s awkward to get to, or it’s somehow embarrassing to ask for it.
And that only deals with mobility issues. Don’t get me started on all the ways theatre is inaccessible to those with vision or hearing problems. Again, some theatres (the Gershwin where Wicked plays among them) have made great strides in providing audio and visual aids, but it’s not universal. For those with autism-spectrum disorders, some productions have been offering versions with soft lighting, reduced sharp noises (ie, no gunshots or sudden drum bangs), and so on, but that is still rare–and again, I think that Wicked was the first to even try it.
Regarding streaming shows, anyone who’s followed my blog knows I am a huge proponent of a greater number of proshots being made and distributed. Yes, in the ideal, everyone should be able to experience musical and live theatre in the theatre, but for some people it’s just not an option. I live within driving distance of Broadway, so flying is not an issue for me, but the cost of tickets and a hotel (because very few people want to drive 4 hours, see a 2.5 hour show, and then drive 4 more hours) can be prohibitive–and that’s for someone who has that option! What about the people who live in small towns and rural areas where there is no hope of getting to NYC? What about those who live in NYC who just can’t afford tickets? (Yes, I know TDF is a thing, but again it’s not an option for everyone who might enjoy the theatre.)
More proshots would enable people to legally enjoy one of the truly great art forms that we still have, and it really wouldn’t ruin the experience. The Falsettos proshot that was released to movie theatres was a marvelous idea, and the Metropolitan Opera has for many years offered live simulcasts of the opera into movie theatres across the country; for the latter, there is usually a premium charge for a ticket, but it means being able to experience something wonderful. BroadwayHD has proven that proshots can sell, but their selection is super-limited. Producers need to seriously think about expanding the recordings available to the public–people would buy them.
As for the way people are dressed at the theatre? Come on. Unless it’s opening night and/or you’re a special invitee of one of the cast or creatives, I think we can probably assume that anything goes. Sure, don’t wear an obscene t-shirt or something designed to provoke those around you, but if you want to go in jeans and a hoodie? Go for it. The important thing is you enjoy the artistic medium. For me personally, I like dressing up a little bit if it’s an evening performance or if I’m planning to stage-door (ie, get autographs and meet the cast afterwards), but I have no problem with people who just want to be comfortable.
To wrap up, no, Wicked is not my favorite show. But I can respect people for whom it is, especially when it’s their first taste of musical theatre. The fact of the matter is that it goes out of its way to be accessible to everyone and for that reason, we really should cut it and its fans some slack. Not everyone is as privileged as many of us with regards to finances or good health, so don’t tear down what someone loves just because you disagree with their pick.
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