The Broadway paradox

tags

Capitalism

Notes

Most, I hated. The rest, I found boring and mediocre.

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he credibly presents himself as a disappointed optimist: someone who wants theater to be wonderful because he knows that it can be. And then reality intrudes.

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It was apparent that I was experiencing the work of the most accomplished theatrical artists and craftspeople in the world. The ingredients were wonderful. But the result was inert.

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there is intense national competition for these jobs, and Broadway at large can afford to employ only the best.

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the forces that make a show successful as an economic entity are completely different.

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shows can’t afford to alienate the parade of tourists and other casual theatergoers.

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the most talented people are pledging their skills to productions that are, by and large, designed to minimize artistic (and hence financial) risk.

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The paradox is why—say, if you’re a Broadway producer, or managing partner of a big law firm, or CEO of a tech company—would you bother hiring highly skilled people at all? If the greatest profit lies in pursuing middlebrow outputs, why not hire people who are less skilled (and assumedly cheaper), thereby making the venture even more profitable?

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deploy some of their economic power toward locking up highly skilled labor as a form of market competition.

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What does it mean—ethically, culturally, morally—to have reached a point where these are the prevailing economic incentives? That grinding up the best & brightest is what’s rewarded?

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The reason Hedwig was so good was that it had no other choice. As a minimum-budget far-off-Broadway show, dramatic excellence was the only way to survive.

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if I want to maximize my chances of seeing great theater, there’s a simple prescription: spend a lot less on tickets.

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