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Content is important. On page one a link was made with prominent mention of FELA. When I saw it the house was sold out and 3/4 of the audience were black.
Broadway is NOT theater, and Broadway caters to tourists, otherwise you could not run a show for 20 years...New Yorkers will see a show they want to see in the first couple years.
Tourists are very largely NOT African.
And Broadway prices have soared out of the bounds of reality for a NYC population with a median income of $50K. The average world traveler earns MUCH more than that or he would remain at home, not paying $300 to see the BOOK OF MORMON.
I don't think tourism in general has anything to do with the question. Only because tourist are mainly the ones that go to see Broadway plays, it has always been this way. This does not change the fact that Broadwy along with tourism is a huge part of the NYC economy.
You mention FELA, other posters state that when they have seen plays there were few Blacks in the audience, and this is probably due to cultural taste as posters mention. My point is that overall there has to be enough Black people going to see plays that investors continually put out plays with significant Black cast. Otherwise it is hard to believe that there are that many White people and others interested in Black plays.
If you are sitting in a theater watching a performance that has a story content whether musical, or drama, or comedy, you are watching live theater. Whether you like it or not, or whether it comes up to your personal standard of what theater should be, that is only your opinion. Whether or not Native NYer's of any ethnic group, or straight men, or green people go see the plays it doesn't matter. What does matter is that Broadway does generate money for the city, and that does affect us all.
The OP would like suggestions to open the interest of theater to others outside of theaters major audience of middle aged White people. I think every season there Black plays and obviously enough people to go see them. There are not enough plays with Asian and Latino Actors, however Latino actors represent all racial groups so they can play many roles based on their own appearance. But there are still not enough plays with story content around a Latino cultures, which there are many.
We shouldn't want Broadway to die out because it is a huge chunk of our economy.
Blacks ... were banned from attending or participating in Broadway shows up until not too long ago when they were *forced* to allow non-whites in. ...
Any documentation for your assertion?
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Originally Posted by PrestigiousReputability
I don't see this as an issue at all. Broadway used to ban Blacks from attending shows but were eventually forced to allow them in. Why would I give top dollar to people who don't even want me around? There are countless other places who do value&respect me where I can spend my time and hard-earned money at.
I rather go to the Apollo Theatre or some other place in Harlem that doesn't view me as scum and only lets me in because they were *forced* to at a certain time in history.
My sisters both want to go to a show when visiting from the burbs (Dallas and Tampa) - Whats up with that? I asked myself if there's something I'm not 'getting'. I didn't think Book of Mormon was that great and felt sleepy halfway through and that's supposed to be one of the best. I mean what's so different about me than the rest of the country? (I'm middle aged white female). I like opera, I like weird stuff like St. Ann's warehouse productions - but 'highbrow Broadway' doesn't entertain me like a good scifi movie does. Funny, I enjoy NY1 Sat morning show all about the productions - including the reviews. I think it's purely a matter of taste not race.
Why don't Hispanic, Asian and Black professionals who have the money and travel to NYC as tourists show up at Broadway Shows at the level of their population in America? That is the real question.
Cultural differences would be the most logical.
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I see Broadway Musicals and plays going away in 20 years unless they are able to get a more diverse audience.
You are making the fatal mistake of confusing a declining percentage of a population, with a declining population. White people, are not disappearing from the US. They're not even shrinking in total numbers. They are growing at a slower rate.
[quote=chit chatter;26211848]So ? No wonder we face so many racial problems in our country. How about attending an event racially blind because it is interesting? [quote]
What is a racially blind show? Do you mean one that holds more interest for people interested in Euro/white American culture?
Sorry to break it to you..........................
The comment suggested attending plays because they are interesting, not because they fit some demographic litmus test. But, thanks for stopping by.
And what might interest a person from one particular culture, or set of references mightn't interest another.
So one cannot arrogantly determine what is or isn't racially blind. If you like it you will think its racially blind, but that doesn't mean that I share your opinion.
I personally find most Broadway tunes nauseating. You mightn't. To each his own but don't make assumptions about me because I have a particular set of interests which mightn't be yours.
I am also not sure how much of Broadway is "high" culture. When there was a more vibrant off Broadway scene those were the plays that I went to see. Used to go to the Joe Papp Pubic Theater quite often years ago.
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