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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. ...
Used to go to the Joe Papp Pubic Theater quite often years ago.
Pubic?
Meanwhile, you are the one being arrogant and presumptuous. Why accuse the previous poster of being racially or culturally insensitive? Enjoy whatever you like, let others enjoy whatever they like.
I work right next to the Broadway Theaters and attend quite a few Broadway Plays and Musicals. One thing that I always noticed is almost everyone at the Broadway Shows is White! Why is this true in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in America?
Yes, I know that 65% of the people atteding Broadway Shows are tourists but NYC is full of tourists of all ethnic groups and from all over the world.
I knew my friends on City Data would not believe me unless I got some type of official study, so I googled the subject and came up with an official survey developed by THE BROADWAY LEAGUE.
Eighty-three percent of all tickets were purchased by Caucasian theatergoers, of those 65% were women.
The average age of the Broadway theatergoer was 44 years, older than in the past few seasons.
Only 4% of the tickets are bought by African Americans
I found this to be very interesting and scary at the same time. It says as America becomes more Hispanic and the baby boomers die out, interest in Broadway Shows will fall drastically.
What can Broadway do to get more participation by ethnic minorities, younger people, and men?
did you just fall off of a space ship. Why is this shocking to you. When the Beacon theater runs a Tyler Perry play probably 99% of the audience is BLACK . Does this shock you.
I agree with this. Most people who attend broadway shows are either Tourist, Transplants who come from Suburbia to experience high culture of New York or BT Suburbanites, they can be of any race but yes they are mostly white. Broadway needs to reshape itself and try to draw or attract native New Yorkers of all races and lower income stratas to the theather. IF they can finance themselves along Tourist and Transplants then so be it. I rather watch and listen to an orchestra over a broadway show any day. And personally I feel that Broadway only caters to Tourist and Transplants and not to Native New Yorkers.
I dont know I hear different. I have been to Lincoln center twice to catch a performance at Avery Hall and Alice Tully Hall and even attended a performance piece at the Carnegie. From what I have been told prices would be reduced to attract lower income folks to allow to see what the rich and wealthy see and enjoy as well as sending a message that the rich and wealthy whether Jew or Black, Asian Hispianic Gentile or Blue Blooded WASP is not so arrogant towards the lesser of society. I attended these events by using a discount with a college ID, this was around five to six years ago. Watching these performances are still stuck in my head, also I'm still able to talk about orchestra and the opera with folks who are higly liberal in thouoght and in politics. Its kind of good knowing about certain subjects of art because at the end of the day do you really want someone who thinks they are superior over you to consider you culturally weak or close minded. Learning and taking part in some of these arts helped me close the gap.
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.
I have seen shows with African American leads and still the audience was 99% white.
I see Broadway Musicals and plays going away in 20 years unless they are able to get a more diverse audience.
I agree. People are simply overlooking that affordability plays a huge part, no matter what race.
It does not matter if a show has a black or non white lead. I think the audience will still be majority white.
As far as content I saw the Broadway play Wicked. I have to admit it was a bit boring. I liked it for the experience though.
Fela I loved. Yes there were blacks in the audience. But the majority were still white.
I'm not even gonna try and play it off like it's anything I am remotely interested in. I couldn't stand those old movie musicals either when I was a kid. Yes, they were beautifully done, but I like my movies and plays to have CONTINUOUS DIALOGUE. Not talk for 3 minutes, then bust out in some long drawn out song/dance number for 10 minutes.
Well we can't expect everybody to be cultured. You probably shop at Walmart too
It comes down to one thing, it's called interests and culture. We can all argue about prices, but then the argument will arise, making it be known if we even have black youths buying 400$ belts, 400$ of Jordans, 200$ Jeans, why not spend that money on a Broadway show ? It reveals that there is basically no interest in such plays from a segment of our population. It is... what it is...
I don't usually bother posting in threads that are this long, but I was interested that you didn't mention the statistic I found most disturbing: By far the most tickets are bought by tourists.
To me, that means basically that the inflated prices have killed off the core audience of regular theater-goers.
Reminds me of when I used to wonder why more African-Americans were not fans of Jimi Hendrix. I finally asked an African-American coworker one day. "Doesn't have a good beat" was her reply. It was that simple.
inflated prices have killed off the core audience of regular theater-goers.
What is the historical core audience? Currently, it's tourists. What was it 20 or 40 years ago? I attended my first Broadway play in the '60s, but never thought to ask others where they were from. Even today, locals can buy half-price tickets to many shows. $50 for a Broadway show isn't a high price, as long as you don't buy any concessions. People easily spend that much on dinner & drinks.
I will chime in and agree with the notion that Broadway is NOT high brow. It takes a bit more than catchy tunes and insipid plots to make it into the Western canon.
The Book of Mormon starts at $170/ticket, according to the Broadway website. On the other hand, I can get seats to see Die Fledermaus, Werther, and Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan for a grand total of $87.
I find it interesting that in the 21st century, the fine arts can be had for pennies vs pop culture/middle brow (the $200 concert, broadway tickets, $100 music festival, etc etc).
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