#240421 - MARKETING, REVIEWING, MAKING (BROADWAY) MUSIC VIDEOS.
Brian Eugenio Herrera's #TheatreClique Newsletter for April 14, 2024
WELCOME to #TheatreClique — my irregular newsletter dedicated to encouraging you to click out to some of the most interesting, intriguing & noteworthy writing about drama, theatre & performance (at least, so says me)…
This Week's #TheatreCliquery:
This installment of #TheatreClique begins with a round up of some of the most interesting and/or noteworthy bits of theatre writing that I encountered over the last few weeks, before offering an admittedly preliminary overview of what seems to me to be a currently emerging genre of theatre marketing: “The Official Music Video” for Broadway musicals. But I begin by lifting this bit of recent brilliance from SNL that has just kept me giggling…
EDITOR’S NOTE: whenever possible, whenever linking to paywalled pieces, I “gift” the article to #TheatreClique readers. In other words, clicking out to articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, and Wall Street Journal should neither present hassle nor burn through your monthly allotment of free views. Here’s hoping more outlets — hello LATimes! hi ChicaoTribune! yo NewYorker!— adopt similar technologies for subscribers soon...
#NowClickThis…
Wherein I highlight a dozen or so of the most click-worthy links I’ve encountered in the last few weeks…
at The Toronto Star, journalist Aisling Murphy reports on how several Toronto theatre companies were recently duped by AI-generated “reviews” and details how the collapse of theatre journalism presents particular challenges to theatre marketers;
in a consequential two-part series at Playbill (see Part 1 and Part 2), writer/editor Diep Tran reports on how widespread, persistent, and ongoing federal administrative delays in renewing the DACA status of eligible DREAMers jeopardized actor J. Antonio Rodríguez's ability to continue performing on the Hadestown national tour;
at American Theatre, writer/editor Alexandra Pierson goes deep into how the Broadway revival of The Who’s TOMMY unfortunately “misses opportunities to engage with, and subvert, harmful tropes around Deafness and disability”;
at The New York Times, journalist Michael Paulson reports on the recently proposed legislation — “Supporting Theater and the Arts to Galvanize the Economy (STAGE) Act of 2024” — which promises to allocate major resources to sustaining the nonprofit theatre sector;
at Culturebot, critic/curator/producer Andy Horwitz considers the impact of persistent disjuncture — how the “market drives us to think about scale [while] humanity keeps us focused on small groups” — on creative producing;
composer/theatremaker/theatre-marketing-executive Marc Jablonski explains the “Worth It Index” — a formula that the AKA Agency promises will predict which live events will inspire audiences to “get off their couches” to go to the theatre;
via his occasional e-letter, writer/choreographer/advocate Andrew Simonet shares his simple 3-step formula for resisting the “extractive American tradition of making artists work for free”;
Howlround publishes the transcript of “We Were Called to This Moment” — the keynote address presented by theatre leader/advocate Hana Sharif at the 2024 Under the Radar Symposium;
at The New York Times, writer/scholar Imani Perry profiles playwright Suzan Lori Parks as “the playwright who fearlessly reimagines America”;
at American Theatre, writer/critic/editor Rob Weinert-Kendt geeks out with writers Amy Herzog and Heidi Schreck about the process and practice of theatrical translation and adaptation;
at BroadwayBuzz, theatre journalist/personality Paul Wontorek talks to actor/advocate Sara Gettelfinger about how addiction derailed her career and how recovery sustained her return to Broadway;
at Brown Alumni Monthly, writer/activist Tim Murphy (of The Caftan Chronicles) remembers the life and far-reaching influence of actor/educator Lowry Marshall (1944-2024);
and at American Theatre, playwright/educator/advocate Elaine Romero remembers theatre advocate/leader Barclay Goldsmith (1937/8-2024) as embodying a “rare fusion of politics and art [who] sought that better world through theatre.”
Noted in Passing…
Wherein I offer some preliminary thoughts on theatre trends, patterns, possibilities…
I am a sucker for what I call “genre formation” — those moments when the defining conventions of emerging cultural forms begin to become legible. And over the last few weeks, I’ve become particularly intrigued by the proliferation of the “Official Music Video” as an emergent mode of marketing (and award-season campaign) for major Broadway musicals. Therefore, I humbly submit…
THE OFFICIAL (BROADWAY) MUSIC VIDEO: A Preliminary Genre Study.
Unlike “teaser trailers” of the sort that appear as television commercials or on TikTok feeds, and also in contrast to broadcast segments where artists might chat with a host about the show before performing or introducing a live performance from that show, the “Official Music Video” appears to becoming a new kind of digital theatre thing. Of the nine videos I highlight below, all were published in the first four months of 2024, with several dropping within the past week. What follows is threfore certainly not a comprehensive list of such “Official Music Videos,” and I would wage dollars to donuts that more will drop in the coming weeks as Tony season really gets going. Still, I wanted to note, at least in passing, some of the variants I see evolving within this emerging genre of theatrical digital culture.
…SHOW-AT-A-GLANCE
For “popsicals”1 (my preferred alternate term for musicals built from the catalogs of well-known musical artists) the official music video can exploit the general audience’s existing familiarity with one of the show’s signature songs by using it as a platform to introduce fans of the song to the cast of the show, sometimes in costume/character, in a way that captures the spirit and vibe of the musical. The “Show at a Glance” video balances the the task of introducing the show to those who haven’t yet seen it while also providing a happy reminder of the faces, relationships, moves, and vibes that define the show to those who have…
Sometimes the “Show-at-a-Glance” video features the original artist alongside the Broadway cast, as in this example from “the Alicia Keys musical” Hell’s Kitchen…
Other times a “Show-at-a-Glance” video prioritizes the original cast “in character” interacting as they might within the show, as in this video from The Heart of Rock and Roll…
…OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO
This variant takes its cue from the “Official Lyric Video” widely used by popular recording artists (like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Måneskin, among scores of others) and layers a dynamic visual mapping of a particular song’s lyrics atop the recorded version of that song. One example of the “Official Lyric Video” from this season comes from the revival of Merrily We Roll Along…
…A GLIMPSE BEHIND THE CURTAIN
This variant builds upon the now-familiar “behind the scenes” video content (featuring recording sessions, photo sessions, interviews, candid interactions with collaborator, etcetera) that has for some years been made available as “b-roll” marketing footage, widely accessible through — and readily shareable from — a given show’s official social media channels. However, “a Glimpse behind the Curtain” video stitches all these bits and pieces together as visual accompaniment for a single selected song from the show.
Some “a Glimpse behind the Curtain” videos — like this one from Water for Elephants — craft a visual scrapbook of sorts of the apparently joyful process of building the show to share with audiences…
Some bounce between the stage/studio and “real” environments that evoke the setting, world, and narrative of the show, like this example from The Outsiders…
Others — like this video for How to Dance in Ohio — offer a “Glimpse behind the Curtain” that underscores the historical or social significance of the show…
…THE GLAMOUR SHOT
I first took notice of the “Official [Broadway] Music Video” with the emergence of “The Glamour Shot” variant, which typically features gorgeous Broadway performers wearing gorgeous clothes as they sing their faces off…gorgeously.
Like when Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada take full vocal occupancy of some empty Long Island manse in this “Glamour Shot” video for The Great Gatsby…
Or when Joy Woods wanders around some lofty grey NYC building before bursting onto the roof (and into full color) in this “Glamor Shot” video from The Notebook…
And then there’s perhaps the OG of this recent spate of “Official Music Videos” — it was released in January 2024 — which has Lempicka’s Eden Espinosa, looking ready for her Vogue photoshoot as she vocally blasts through the surrounding Lempicka-adorned brick walls…
So, yeah, the “Official [Broadway] Music Video” does seem to be a new kind of theatre thing. I might note that I’ve not dug in to determine where this trend began. Nor do I have any sense of whether the genre will continue to be refined beyond this season. Even so, I did think the recent proliferation of the “Official [Broadway] Music Video” to be interesting enough to be noted, if only in passing.
And Lest I Forget — Adventures in Fornésiana…
Wherein I highlight noteworthy recent or upcoming engagements with the life, work and legacy of legendary playwright, director and teacher María Irene Fornés...
This casting notice at BroadwayWorld also confirmed a very exciting bit of news: María Irene Fornés’s “first” play — La Viuda (in a new translation by Olga Sanchez-Saltveit) — will receive its first ever full production this summer when The Dogteam Theatre Project performs it at the Atlantic Stage II in late July and early August 2024. Stay tuned for more details as they become available…
Until next time, dear #TheatreClique, please share this newsletter with those friends, colleagues and students who might appreciate the opportunity to encounter the many voices gathered in each week’s edition. Errors and oversights published in the newsletter will be corrected in the archival versions. And, in the meantime, keep clicking those links — good writing needs good readers and our theatre clicks count!
Hat tip to historian/author Robin Bernstein for coining this brilliant turn of phrase to so deftly describe musicals built from the catalogs of widely known popular music artists.