chawalang
Well-Known Member
MSN
www.msn.com
The above article is about a production that will start on the West End pretty soon. This stage play is a prequel story to the Netflix series Stranger Things. A thought I would like to put out, is this what live theatre will be moving forward? Will it be based on pre existing media properties that have a very contemporary audience and builds out an existing narrative established in film or streaming (notice i didn't say television). I remember after the recession there was an attempt at what I called recession theatre. These were stage productions on Broadway that were based on films that shaped the boomers. Films like Ghost, Catch Me if You Can, Rocky, The Bridges of Madison County, and recently Back to The Future. I even toured a few of these doomed productions when I was younger. From what I observed, these productions were not successful and all closed within a year. It seems like this did not translate over into that audience wanting to spend money to see those productions. Will this be any more successful? If you are a baby gen xer/ elder millennial like I am you have been conditioned into the modern day attention economy and the idea that for better or worse a media franchise has to have a universe tied into it, thanks Marvel. I have talked at nauseam about how if you are gen x or younger you don't care about opera or Shakespeare, but you still want to experience live entertainment. Is this that kind of live entertainment? In my opinion this sounds like a really good idea. it could solve the funding issue for regional theatre if they choose to do productions like this. Get financial backing from Netflix, Hulu, or Paramount+ to create stage productions that expand on a media franchise, and stream them. They wouldn't need to go begging corporations for financial donations that they are now directing towards medical science instead of the humanities.
I think this is very very interesting!