Gird Your Loins ONTD, Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli Open Their Play

[hyperpop]

Jeremy Strong & Michael Imperioli at tonight's opening! pic.twitter.com/6kLD76hJF2
- nitsi | succession broadway era ! ♡ (@hosseinisgeckos) March 19, 2024
The Broadway play "An Enemy of the People" opened last night, and stars Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli were not the only ONTD faves in attendance. The star-studded guest list included Rachel

Comments

[floatinglately]

most theatrical productions, including most broadway shows, lose money, and the cost of recording is not cheap. in addition to hiring labor to record a show (camera crew, sound, editing, etc.), you also have to pay extra to just about every person involved in the production, because the rate they’re receiving for acting in a broadway show (or playing orchestra in the pit, or having designed the lights) doesn’t cover screen/recording rights. (last time i investigated this i think i read that most theater unions also don’t have standard policies on payment for this kind of thing so you have to do a fair amount of negotiating which can probably also incur costs but idr for sure.) if you’re already in the red or just breaking even, you can’t afford this kind of thing unless people think you can make
up the difference in sales, which you probably can’t. i once talked to someone who worked at the met opera, which does simulcast & prerecorded screenings, and he said the cost for those was in the range of a million dollars. not sure how that would compare to a broadway play i’m sure is much cheaper, but it gives an idea of how much more expensive it is than “just film what’s already happening that night anyway!”

i would also love to see more filmed theater, and i think PBS did some broadway stuff in the past that i would love for them to bring back. but i think outside of your box office hamilton level smashes it probably depends on someone else footing the bill (eg: the MTV legally blonde shoot; the netflix diana shoot; the PBS shoots probably - like PBS and unlike broadway theaters, the met is not for profit and gets a lot funding from grants and donors; they would not be able to sustain themselves on ticket sales etc. the way broadway productions do).