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Live TV Productions Overload?

Cfried

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Leading Actor
joined:9/15/16

Leading Actor
joined:
9/15/16

Live TV Productions Overload?#1
Posted: 5/12/17 at 5:55pm

With Jesus Christ Superstar, A Christmas Story, and now Rent all receiving live productions (as well as the previously announced Bye Bye Birdie and A Few Good Men), is the live TV musical landscape becoming oversaturated? What used to be a very exciting, once a year event no longer seems to be as special. Don't get me wrong -- I'm grateful that theatre is being shared in this way, but I don't know...

Thoughts?

Updated On: 5/12/17 at 05:55 PM

curel1

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Featured Actor
joined:6/15/16

Featured Actor
joined:
6/15/16

Live TV Musicals Overload?#2
Posted: 5/12/17 at 5:58pm

The more exposure people have to theater the better.

Jeffrey Karasarides

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Broadway Legend
joined:11/27/11

Broadway Legend
joined:
11/27/11

Live TV Musicals Overload?#3
Posted: 5/12/17 at 6:03pm

I think it's only a matter of when each of them air. Bye Bye Birdie and A Christmas Story are both set for December. Jesus Christ Superstar is set for next Easter. No airdate has been announced for Rent yet.

dcphillygirl

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Swing
joined:4/23/17

Swing
joined:
4/23/17

Live TV Musicals Overload?#4
Posted: 5/12/17 at 6:04pm

It's not spoiling it, Sandy, it's only making it better.

dramamama611

Broadway Legend
joined:12/4/07

Broadway Legend
joined:
12/4/07

Live TV Musicals Overload?#5
Posted: 5/12/17 at 6:05pm

And I'm fairly certain that A few Good Men isn't a musical.

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

Margo319

Broadway Legend
joined:5/28/15

Broadway Legend
joined:
5/28/15

Live TV Musicals Overload?#6
Posted: 5/12/17 at 6:10pm

It's about making money. That's about it.

A Canadian in NYC

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Leading Actor
joined:4/27/15

Leading Actor
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4/27/15

Live TV Musicals Overload?#7
Posted: 5/12/17 at 6:13pm

I am thrilled that all these productions are happening. Fingers crossed that they are done well and cast properly. And please, 'no behind the scenes' ever again!

Chicken_Flavor

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Stand-by
joined:3/3/17

Stand-by
joined:
3/3/17

Live TV Musicals Overload?#8
Posted: 5/12/17 at 8:22pm

Hmm. There are both pros and cons to more people exposed to broadway. I'd like to actually have a conversation with someone about the Tonys...

GavestonPS

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Broadway Legend
joined:6/10/12

Broadway Legend
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6/10/12

Live TV Musicals Overload?#9
Posted: 5/12/17 at 8:33pm

Chicken_Flavor said: "Hmm. There are both pros and cons to more people exposed to broadway....

"

Ain't that the truth! If Broadway musicals had been done the same way when I was a kid, I would have saved a lot of money on theater tickets over my lifetime. I think the current approach has been uniformly atrocious.

BrodyFosse123

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Broadway Legend
joined:2/27/06

Broadway Legend
joined:
2/27/06

Live TV Musicals Overload?#10
Posted: 5/12/17 at 8:42pm

Who considers these theater? It's like considering a film musical "theater." These are televised live musicals - they are not films or live theatre - they are simply live TV musicals. Geez.

Esther Blodgett

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Understudy
joined:7/15/15

Understudy
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7/15/15

Live TV Musicals Overload?#11
Posted: 5/12/17 at 8:50pm

Granted this is a lot of Broadway, but it could also be locking up the broadcast rights to various shows before somebody else does.

MichelleCraig

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Broadway Star
joined:5/28/14

Broadway Star
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5/28/14

Live TV Musicals Overload?#12
Posted: 5/12/17 at 8:52pm

No overload. With hundreds of things to watch on television in any given hour (not even considering time-shifting with DVRs), having a handful of these a year is nothing...

Broadway Legend
joined:5/15/03

Broadway Legend
joined:
5/15/03

Live TV Musicals Overload?#13
Posted: 5/12/17 at 9:56pm

It can also reach international markets ( shown on cable TV or even special cinema presentations), whose audiences do not have access to Broadway shows, unless they are filmed or are the subject of live musicals on TV!

Updated On: 5/12/17 at 09:56 PM

GavestonPS

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Broadway Legend
joined:6/10/12

Broadway Legend
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6/10/12

Live TV Musicals Overload?#14
Posted: 5/12/17 at 10:47pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "Who considers these theater? It's like considering a film musical "theater." These are televised live musicals - they are not films or live theatre - they are simply live TV musicals. Geez.

"

Exactly. And I hate to sound like you-know-who, but in many cases, the noun "musical" is generous. The first TV show I remember going "live" in the modern era (other than award and talk shows, of course) was ER. I thought they meant they were going to write an episode of ER that would look more like a daytime soap, with a limited number of sets and more static camera work. I expected the different demands would affect the narrative and impact of the episode. Instead, they merely ran from place to place on a large sound stage and delivered the usual, hectic episode, full of quick cuts. They TOLD me it was live, but it didn't SHOW.

Unless sloppiness counts, the recent slate of live musicals have felt no more and no less canned than any other show. The nadir was reached when the characters of GREASE rode the Universal tram to the Rydell Summer Carnival.

Mr. Nowack

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joined:2/2/14

Broadway Legend
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Live TV Musicals Overload?#15
Posted: 5/13/17 at 2:05am

This is (theoretically) the original intent of THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE!, to repopularize this type of programming.

Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated

jimmycurry01

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Broadway Legend
joined:5/28/05

Broadway Legend
joined:
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Live TV Musicals Overload?#16
Posted: 5/13/17 at 2:51am

BrodyFosse123 said: "Who considers these theater? It's like considering a film musical "theater." These are televised live musicals - they are not films or live theatre - they are simply live TV musicals. Geez.

"

True, but film musicals are often the only exposure some people have to "theatre." You are right ,it is not the same, but a lot folks will never make it to New York or even a National Tour. They have community theatre and movie musicals. The live aspect at least makes these a little more theatreish.

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