Reprints of souvenir programs

[Micki7]

I got fooled at last night’s performance of Waitress at the Golden Gate Theatre. I bought the souvenir program, which had Sara Bareilles on the cover, unlike the program I had bought on Broadway with Jesse Mueller on the cover. But when I got home, I discovered the interior contents of the two books were absolutely identical. Does this happen often, that the souvenir programs are reprinted or recycled with changes only to the cover?

[dramamama611]

Yup.  Haopens all the time.  LIkely the only reason the cover was even changed was for Bareillies' run.   Those books are pretty expensive to create and seldom changed.  (Kind of how tv commercials aren't usually re-shot for cast changes.)

[SomethingPeculiar]

Very normal -- always look through before buying.

Sometimes a long-long-running show will create an "evergreen" version with photos from multiple companies (Broadway replacements, tour, London, etc.), but even that doesn't always happen. Unless it's a very unique situation with producers looking to burn money (Bette/Bernadette in Hello Dolly!), the book will remain the same.

[Plexsis]

I definitely have two programs for the final Les Mis tour of the original production in 2005 and 2006 with different covers but the same insides.

[tourboi]

As mentioned, they're incredibly expensive to produce so rarely change, in particular on tours. Some shows (again as mentioned) will do one program with photos from several productions but then not change it for years.

There are exceptions. The Phantom and Les Mis tours presently update their programs every time they get a new set of leads it seems. I believe School of Rock also has a program for the tour that differs from the one sold on Broadway. But that is extremely rare.