Hamilton on DisneyPlus and My Thoughts on the American Theatre Industry
Happy Day 2 of Hamilton being available to stream!
I had a watch party as many did last night with some friends and ohhhh it was no nice to be able to revisit that story outside of the soundtrack. In past blog posts I've talked about how I LOVE that quarantine has pushed theater's to want to stream proshots of their productions, providing accessible theatre for all! I'm not super happy that a global pandemic is what had to happen to spark this, but the result is still nice.
At least in America, it is a widely agreed upon opinion that the culture surrounding live theatre, specifically broadway is, to put it bluntly, kind of elitist. It's frustrating that I, a huge lover of theatre haven't gotten to see as many Broadway shows as I want to due to insane ticket prices when I literally live less than an hour away from Chicago. If I love theatre and can't see Broadway shows, I can't imagine what's keeping people who haven't seen a Broadway production from giving it a try.
The thing is is that our art form is not highly appreciated in America. Hamilton actually was the first musical in a a long time to get the majority of America excited about Broadway. But even then people could stream the soundtrack which got everyone excited to see it, but it was so difficult to be able to go see it in person. I wish more productions were available to stream like Hamilton. But does that mean that live theatre will lose its magic?
I don't think so. I understand why someone would make that claim, but I think the benefits to theatre as an art form outweigh the costs. People that go see or have seen live theatre before know that seeing a production in person and being in a room full of people just as excited as you about seeing a show is a completely unique experience that cannot be replicated at home. As for people that maybe haven't seen a theatre production before, I would hope and assume that if they choose to stream a production and love it, then it could inspire them to then want to see a production in person. If they didn't like it and it doesn't have that effect on them, then they weren't going to be seeing theatre in person in the first place anyway.
The point is live theatre is seen as such an exclusive art form for such specific types of people that it creates a barrier for people that haven't experienced it that can be difficult to cross. Like what if I spend all this money on a ticket to something and I don't like it? What if I feel out of place as a first timer? I'm not a "theatre kind of person." With streaming it eliminates that risk and if more productions are available then hey, if you didn't like Hamilton, maybe you'll enjoy Mean Girls, or Hadestown, or Beetlejuice!
I made a really long facebook post talking about all of this, and in it I admit that I have no idea what doing this would mean financially because I have zero idea how any of that works. I hope that it becomes normalized to do this. I don't even think we have to do it with shows currently running. But every Broadway show (I think) gets filmed for achieve reasons and that archived footage of Hamilton is what is on DisneyPlus. So I don't see the damage in streaming the footage of shows that have closed. I'm not sure what it would mean but I would hope that everyone involved in the show would get a fraction of the money made from streaming which I think would be good? Again there's plenty of info I don't know on the subject and I won't sit here and pretend that I do. I'm just saying it would be nice for theatre as an art form, and for me for very selfish reasons.
Now the other issue I have with the culture surrounding the live theatre industry in America is how we really only appreciate the big Broadway musicals when we celebrate theatre. There are so many other forms and facets of theatre productions that people are missing out on it and that makes me sad. I have so much more to say on that aspect of the conversation, but that's a conversation for another blog post. See you soon! Stream Hamilton if you can and haven't already!
-RJM
