We are excited to announce the release of the app you’ve all been waiting for. iBroadway is finally here! It’s the easiest, most savvy way to access all things Broadway, all via you iPhone and iPod touch. Watch exclusive videos, read from Theater’s top bloggers (more on that to come), get show listings, and be able to buy tickets all from your phone. To download the app, visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibroadway/id349362702?mt=8. It’s fast and free!
A Look at Broadway’s Ups and Downs during the week
A Little Night Music will be closing its doors after June 20th and therefore, won’t be recasting its lead women. It’s too bad. We were having so much fun at surmising the possibilities. We know we were rooting for Betty White as Madame Armfeldt.
The Drama League and Drama Desk honored very different performances this year. We all know what this is leading up to, a massive battle of who will win the coveted MTV Movie Award (Best Kiss) this year?
Rumors were confirmed that Sutton Foster would appear as the new Reno Sweeney in an upcoming revival of Anything Goes, following in the footsteps of Ethel Merman and Patti Lupone. To which we wonder if soon Foster will soon be venting, half of America loves me, and half hates me.
Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith attended an after party thrown by 11-time Tony Nominee FELA! at the Palm last week. To which, Memphis replied, we got the guy from…Bon Jovi.
The guest appearances on Glee grew even more Broadway-ier with Neil Patrick Harris singing Aerosmith’s Dream On with Matthew Morrison. We really can’t wait to hear Boyd Gaines and Jonathan Groff’s duet of Love in an Elevator.
Finally, Pee Wee Herman comes to Broadway. Nah, too easy.
Hey iPhone, iPod Touch, and new iPad users, get ready cause there’s a new app on the horizon that’s exclusively for you theater lovers out there. You’ll be able to buy tickets, watch videos, read reviews and blogs, all from your mobile device. If you want to find out more, sign up for the mailing list by going to iBroadway.net.
Check out the feature about Rock of Ages and FELA! and their Facebook pages with quotes from yours truly and Mr. Mark Seeley.
On Sunday AMC had four shows participate in the Tweet up for The Broadway League’s Tweet up. They invited the Broadway shows (that are on Twitter) and some Broadway stars to ‘tweet-up’ for two hours to answer fans questions as a part of ‘Back to Broadway’ Month. Of course, we were excited to do it…and Sheryl and I tweeted for Finain’s Rainbow, FELA!, Rock of Ages and Burn the Floor. Afterwards, my fingers were sore and my eyes hurt, but it was worth it. All of our Twitter follower numbers increased by a dozen or two and it added additional exposure for the shows.
One girl seriously wanted to be Sherry and wanted to know her chances of getting the part. I think we should let Kerry Butler do the job first.
We are doing a tweetup tonight for the fans of Rock of Ages at 5:30 at B. Smiths.
I wonder if the girl who wants to be Sherry will be there. I wonder if her dream will come true of being Sherry? Hey, Don’t Stop Believin’, right?
The Stars shine bright on Broadway at the Opening Night for Burn the Floor. I was fortunate enough to get some pretty incredible interviews like Nigel from So You Think You Can Dance, Carolyn from The Real Housewives of New Jersey , Susan Lucci and the fabulous Kelly Divine, Choreographer of Rock of Ages. Just another day at Art Meets Commerce!
The team at Spotco created a beautiful image for Finian’s Rainbow, looking radiant on the marquee of the St. James Theatre on 44th St. If you haven’t been able to walk by it, check out the video we made of the installation of the piece:
Telecharge.com, the popular Broadway and Off Broadway theatre ticketing site owned by the Shubert organization, has launched their optimized mobile site.
This is from an email from Telecharge.com: With the incredibly rapid adoption of the iPhone, as well as the growth of other “smartphones” such as the Blackberry and the Palm Pre, Shubert Ticketing wanted to ensure that customers had a quick and easy ticket buying experience, no matter how they were arriving at Telecharge.com.
Here is a screengrab of what the optimized site looks like on my iPhone: (Screengrab of Telecharge.com):
This will definitely spur Broadway shows to become more mobile, and I predict we’ll soon see shows using optimized sites to accommodate the ‘ticket-buyer-on-the-go.’ This is something we’ve been doing for ROCK OF AGES for a while–here’s the screengrab of the ROA mobile site on my iPhone (Screengrab of ROCK OF AGES mobile site):
Since ROCK OF AGES is a Ticketmaster show, we’re not able to offer users a buy tickets option from their mobile device. Instead we encourage users to call for tickets. Call. For. Tickets. C’mon Ticketmaster! Get on it!Tick Tock Tick Tock.
On the other hand, Telecharge.com, this is great! It gives users the same purchasing convenience on their mobile devices that they are accustomed to on their computers—and it allows us an increased ability to CAPTURE THE SALE! It also lets advertisers and marketers include this feature in their collateral, especially outdoor and flyer campaigns: “Buy Tickets on your phone! Go to Telecharge.com!”
We knew that Burn the Floor, a hot ballroom dance show opening at the Longacre this week, has a lot of opportunity to use the dancers for video content that can be distributed on YouTube and other platforms.
A video diary is a great way to show the personalities of the dancers and give users that golden ‘backstage pass’ to see the lives of dancers. We sent them 6 flip cams while they were working on the pre-Broadway engagement in Perth. The footage they came up with was amazing! Over 5 hours of footage of dancing, talking, laughing, playing their ritual hacky sack, making fun of each other. After much editing we launched with a pretty nice starter to the series.
Nielsen released some news that video usage is up by 53% since last year. Another impressive fact is that the number of people watching video via cell phones is up by 52 percent!
Be sure to subscribe to all the Burn the Floor videos:
It’s no secret that more products and services are embracing social media as a way to creatively interact with their consumer base. What might come as a surprise to marketers who are used to the one-way “conversation” of traditional forms of outreach is that–if they choose to use these new forums effectively–they are also opening themselves up to hearing points of view they might prefer to ignore.
Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are an extremely effective way to not only capture a fan base, but also to start a dialogue between your fans and the product associated with your fan page. For example, Rock of Ages (full disclosure: Art Meets Commerce runs the fan page) posts new status updates like YouTube videos of old 80s commercials, and other similar articles to keep fans entertained and informed. Posting song lyrics, fun facts, etc. creates an instant conversation. That interaction not only occurs between fans and the show, but between fans themselves: some ask questions, others answer. The goal is to create a sense of community with the show and let people voice their thoughts and views. In addition to a lot of fun–and positive–comments about the show, people also talk about things they didn’t like (an understudy played in the performance they saw, for instance). Although we have the opportunity to delete posts at will, we don’t. The point is to facilitate conversation, not control it.
I bring this up because I am a fan of a lot of pages, many of them theater related. One, The Tony Awards, posts videos, links, articles, anything and everything relating to the awards and theatre. It really is a great resource. I noticed something recently, though, that gave me pause.
The Tony Awards page posted an update announcing that the touring companies of Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde and Mamma Mia would be performing on this year’s show (along with the currently nominated musicals). Several people commented negatively, asking why Jersey Boys would be performing once again at the Tony Awards or saying that Mamma Mia is “stupid.” All negative comments were deleted. In my opinion, unless a commenter makes a threat, engages in hate speech or posts spam, the post should be allowed to stand. To use social media well, you must be authentic, open and transparent. Deleting negative (but not harmful) posts sends a message to users that they are partipating in a “canned” discussion, i.e. an extended advertisement, which not everyone wants to do. This kind of Pollyana editing will, in my view, ultimately diminish the brand and will cause users to turn away.