However, Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin said the League thinks BroadwayHD will actually create more interest for Broadway. The streaming service “makes Broadway more accessible to more people,” she said.
Ken Davenport, a producer and author of “Broadway Investing 101,” has firsthand experience with streaming theater. In December 2015, Davenport live-streamed a performance of “Daddy Long Legs” as a method of getting “more eyeballs” on the show. Davenport and his team invested no money in marketing the event, but over 150,000 people in 135 countries watched the live stream of the show, which, according to Davenport, equaled 2.7 years of sold-out performances at the 130-seat theater at which the show played.
“Broadway producers live in a state of fear constantly,” Davenport noted, due to the high-risk nature of the industry, which could contribute to some reticence for streaming.
“Our usual reaction is to not push the envelope because we are afraid it will upset our very fragile economic model,” Davenport said. “However, we now have enough data, I believe, that proves the opposite of that fear.”
Dragica Dabo, the media business representative for Actors’ Equity Association, said there has been a steady increase of streaming contracts since 2014, adding that the union is happy to see BroadwayHD creating a platform to make theater content available to a wider audience.
But Marisa Sechrest, a co-producer of the Broadway musicals “Mean Girls” and “Waitress,” as well as the live stage representative for Paramount Pictures Corp., suggested that the theater industry may not benefit from a one-size-fits-all approach to streaming.
Speaking as an independent producer, “I would really look at the show I’m representing and analyze the pros and the cons of providing that show on BroadwayHD,” she said.
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