In the Digital Age: Broadway Reigns

I recently received a phone call from a friend in Chicago who began with,
“Congratulations on writing 100 blogs for Adea over the past two years.” As we chatted he mentioned that he had been talking with a buddy about the economy – always a hot topic – when his Midwestern pal said, “Well, I hear that the Broadway theaters are doing well.”

That has to be the understatement of the century!

ANOTHER RECORD-BREAKING SEASON An article dated 5/23/16 that appeared in The New York Times states, “The theater season that just ended attracted more people, and more money, than any before.” The writer, Michael Paulson, adds that “Broadway seems to be defying the cultural odds: an ancient art form in the digital age, it is strengthening thanks to an ever-increasing influx of tourists and a resurgent enthusiasm for musical theater.”

THE LION KING IS STILL MIGHTY more than 18 years after it opened. It grossed $102.7 million on Broadway last season, far outpacing any other show. The musical, which has multiple productions running simultaneously around the globe, has grossed more than $6.2 billion worldwide.

The Lion King

HAMILTON WON 11 TONY AWARDS at the recent 70th annual show and has given an enormous jolt of energy to the Broadway season. It is the only new musical that is consistently among the top five highest-grossing shows.

A FEMALE TONY-WINNING PRODUCER Writer Lea Goldman interviews Jill Furman (Marie Claire, June 2016), about her role in bringing the blockbuster musical Hamilton to Broadway audiences. “I discovered Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton very early and I trusted my gut. I believed in his talent,” Furman says.

Hamilton // Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY

“Often, you’ll see 10 or 20 names of producers above the title of a show. On Hamilton there are only four producers: three general partners (Jeffrey Seller, Sander Jacobs and me) and The Public Theater, where the show was originally produced and presented.”

“A big part of my life is also that I’m a single mother to a 16-month-old boy who was born in December 2014. We started Hamilton in January 2015. Those were the two greatest productions of my life.”

ASTOUNDING STATISTICS ABOUT HAMILTON

• 148,324,872 Total plays of the Hamilton soundtrack on Spotify (as of April 15, 2016)

• 5 million The number of views for the Hamilton Musical YouTube Channel

• $1.5 million This is the amount committed by the Rockefeller Foundation to subsidize tickets so that 20,000 New York City students can see Hamilton for $30 apiece

• 212 The number of years since Alexander Hamilton was laid to rest at the Trinity Churchyard in Manhattan’s Financial District (a beautiful church at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street)

• THREE The number of cities (Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco) that will soon stage Hamilton productions)

• 12 This is the position (on Billboard 200) for the launch of the Hamilton original cast-recording album on October 17^th -- the highest for a cast recording since 1963. Stats are from Fast Company, 6/16.

MAY WE SUGGEST…

We did a fast count and here’s what we came up with: our layering tops come in 17 different colors. Wow! Surely you can find a favorite here! Everything from Atlantic Blue to White and 15 others in-between.

Shaun Nelson-Henrick

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