A Business Like Show Business...

I was involved in a large debate yesterday regarding the coverage of the Tony Awards, or more specifically the Tony pre-show coverage. As it stands, only one local media covered the event: NY1. TheaterTalk (featuring my guru - Michael Reidel) also ran a pre-show, but not of the red carpet variety. It was more of a last minute predictions sort of thing.

The red carpet coverage on NY1 was ridiculous. Patrick Pacheco, the LA Times Theater critic, mistakenly acknowledged Marsha Gay Harden as a former Tony Winner for Angels in America, and she had to correct him with a soft "Actually I didn't win…" His response? "Oh! You should've!" Then Roma Torre turned around and did the same thing to John Mahoney, congratulating him on his nomination for "Prelude to a Kiss"! The whole thing was just embarrassing as a theater fan.

These are the people we have covering the biggest night in theater? You mean to tell me, in a city like New York, there is NO ONE better qualified?? Good Lord! I could (and willingly would) do that SO much better! I would not have made mistakes like those, and I'm not even a professional theater critic.

Critics of the theater often wonder whether or not Broadway has any commercial relevance. Over the last few years we have seen the successful return of the movie musical, which lends to thinking that theater does still carry a place in our culture. Yet, while Broadway itself grossed more than ever, the Tony Awards received their lowest ratings ever in their history. In a season with huge shows with lots of youth-appeal like Spring Awakening, Legally Blonde, and Mary Poppins, is this really the best we can do? Is there a way to better market Broadway so that people will actually sit up and listen?

I venture that it is possible. The fans are out there! But with no coverage, and the small amount that there is being hosted by idiots and run exclusively in NYC, we are going about it all wrong. Can we not get gossip juggernauts like Entertainment Tonight and E! to run stories? Are we not wearing the same designers, and borrowing the same unimaginably expensive Harry Winstons?
We are…so what's the problem?!

The Broadway community needs to get new, younger, more appealing and relevant people in their publicity departments. We need to make Premiers actual EVENTS again. We need to get our red carpets photographed to death, and on the really big events find a place in the national media market.

I don't have the answers or the "how to"'s for these suggestions. All I am saying is that if we keep Pacheco on the front lines, we don't have a shot in hell...