Concord’s Post

While I may have an acting degree, I've never been a huge musical person. That being said, I knew exactly what I was in for when I watched Mean Girls yesterday. Unfortunately, based on the number of groans that accompanied each song, I could tell a lot of audience members felt swindled. As a marketer, I'm torn... On one hand, from a business perspective, the marketing team made a bold move that paid off. They knew movie musicals don't typically bring in the numbers so they honed in on "remake" energy and won over the box office. A clever marketing tactic, right? 🤷♀️ I'm not so sure. Is leaving your audience in the dark good marketing? Is it good for your brand image and customer loyalty to suggest people are purchasing one thing when they're actually purchasing another? Not to mention the vanity metrics! 🙄 A lot of people either don't like musicals or don't think they translate well to film, and yet these box office numbers now suggest the opposite. How will these metrics impact decision-making going forward? Personally, I cringed at the Mean Girls marketing because it felt disingenuous. If you won't cater to the average consumer, at least own it! Own that your product might not be for everyone – own that it might be more niche. Like Brian Chesky said, "Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like." In the end, I recognize that Paramount isn't going to lose patrons after this. So long as they keep churning out movies, they'll fill seats. But I think smaller companies should avoid following in their marketing footsteps – most of us can't afford to disappoint through deception. 💔 If you work in marketing or saw the movie, I'd love to hear your thoughts! #MeanGirls #Marketing

As you may know by now, I've been nominated for a "Best Performer in a Cabaret” Broadway World Award for my RetroSexual show! If you have voted , THANK YOU, THANK, YOU, THANK YOU! I’m currently in second place - only two percentage points behind the leader. So, if you have not yet voted, or have had trouble getting your vote to register (with a FINISH notification), take heart! The website is confusing and can be a bit glitchy. That’s because the voting is enthusiastic and there are plenty of ads to navigate. Please try one more time. I could really use your vote to put me in the lead!  And please consider forwarding to a few friends and asking them to support this campaign! I’ve included a few helpful hints in this set of instructions: HERE’S HOW TO VOTE 1. Click this link: THE SITE WORKS BEST FROM COMPUTER RATHER THAN PHONE! https://lnkd.in/gpNNff4D 2. Scroll past any GREEN PROCEED buttons. These are ads. Then, put in your email address and create a password in order to VOTE 3. Scroll to the bottom. You will click and get to the first category. Scroll to the bottom of that page. Click the BLACK (or RED)  CONTINUE BUTTON.    ***do not click on any GREEN Continue button, that's an ad on the website. You will never be asked for a credit card on the legitimate site) 4. Scroll to bottom of that next page to advance through the categories. Click BLACK (or RED) CONTINUE BUTTON 5. Do the above step about 8-10 times! Yes, the Cabaret category is buried at the back! If the page gets stuck, refresh/reload from your browser. It can happen often. 6. Finally, the Best Performance in a Cabaret Category. PLEASE VOTE FOR ME! 7. Continue scrolling through the next few pages until you get to the page where you will complete your contact info. 8. You can sign up for the newsletter if you like or not. 9. Click FINISH to register your vote. IMPORTANT: You must click FINISH in order to register your vote! But wait! You haven’t seen “RetroSexual” yet? Sizzle: https://lnkd.in/gp99TrwX David LaDuca, veteran of Broadway, film and television, breathes new life into The Great American Songbook in this multimedia musical and visual presentation, “RetroSexual.” He soulfully sings time-honored classics of a simpler time, when we thought about being waxed not vaxed! Supported by dazzling, danceable big band musical arrangements, retro-inspired projected backgrounds, and hilarious spoof commercial breaks peppered throughout. Feel free to get up and dance the night away! Waxed | Vaxxed | Relaxed ********** “David LaDuca is a one man Vegas show: he’s equal parts Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis. He can make you roar with laughter one minute and feel nostalgic the next. Don’t miss this special evening chock full of great songs, laughs, and feels! LaDuca is the ultimate charmer!”  - Car Takes With Deborah and Joel, YouTube ********** Thank you for your support of live arts. 

The awards season for New York theatre broke into full swing this morning with the Drama League nominations. More will soon follow including the #TonyAward nominations, which is theatre's highest honor. And each year this time I find myself perplexed, disgruntled, curious, annoyed, pleasantly surprised, delighted and any number of reactions to the plays, musicals and individual artists singled out by the industry for exceptional achievement. One area that is consistently inconsistent and persistently unfair it seems to me is in the revival categories. There are shows that were never before performed on Broadway ("Appropriate" for example) that have been deemed a revival by the Tony Awards. Ostensibly because that show was performed off-Broadway without sweeping changes to the play and so therefor revival status is justified. Do I have that right, Tony folks? So why then was a play like "Fat Ham" (nominated for five Tony Awards last year) which transferred from off-Broadway's The Public Theater to a Broadway house with little change and the same cast (I saw both productions) placed in the category of Best New Play? In all this is there jockeying for placement to up a production's chances of winning? Nah, that couldn't possibly happen in show business! But this does beg the question if it isn't time for more clarity, transparency and fairness in the categories in which shows and even certain performances (lead vs. featured) are determined. #Broadway #EntertainmentReporter #TheatreReporter #ArtsJournalist #OpenToWork #Writer #Producer #TVJournalist

This is a massive win for Broadway. This is the first new musical to recoup since the pandemic that wasn't around before the pandemic . . . which means I don't think it got "save our stages" $ to restart. So, how did & Juliet do it? From the outside, I see three reasons. 1) It's not just a great show, it's a great FUN show, which is what audiences want to see. 2) They get a family audience, so the average order is probably closer to 3 than 2. Sure, fun date night, but the teens love it, too. 3) The music. Duh. OH and a bonus . . . which may be the most important. 4) It had a $17mm capitalization. In the sea of capitalizations over $20mm, they kept theirs down. The degree of difficulty for recouping a Broadway show is higher than ever. Super props to the great producing by #MaxMartin, #TimHeadington, #TheresaSteelePage, #JennyPetersson, Martin Dodd, and Eva Price. Let's hope this starts a trend! https://lnkd.in/eSXvfd-2

The best advice ever.

This is a big song for me. I've loved musical theatre since I was a kid, but when I first heard this song during my degree I forever changed my view of what it could be. A great medium for telling outrageous, fantastical tales, thrilling audiences and bringing joy and laughter? Absolutely! But my first viewing of Company taught me that it could tell small stories as well. Stories about people, normal people with average lives who are going through something. It also highlights a key element of musical theatre writing that has forever been a part of prose but is often ignored in verse. That is to advance the journey of a character or the story in a song. For actors out there, the journey or arc of a character is fundamental and whether performing a monologue, dialogue or a song they should be connected to the text and what it means to them and their character. #acting #musicaltheatre #voiceacting #singing --------------------------------------------------------------- Every story needs a voice. For a warm, dynamic and malleable voice to tell your story, hire a Bard. www.eloquentbard.co.uk

How does social media influence the theatre industry? This question has been on my mind for years. Honestly. Since I downloaded TikTok in 2018, I've been fascinated by how musical theatre thrives on the platform. Being the nerd that I am, I studied the trends and culture, and wrote a book about it. Here's a snippet of what my book is about: https://lnkd.in/gVA23jdd

Excellent tool for centers or rotation stations in the classroom Countdown timers for centers: 4 Fifteen minute musical timers with 1 minute segments in between https://lnkd.in/gMg2SBCu

🎥🎶 Tōru Takemitsu: A musical pioneer whose genius transcends genres. From crafting over 100 film soundtracks to his "Requiem" for Strings performance, his legacy is felt in concert halls and on the silver screen. Learn more about this piece ahead of the concert on Jan. 19, 20 & 21 >> https://bit.ly/41EH2n1