Broadway Opening Nights as Event Television

I don’t watch television shows at the time they are broadcast anymore. I record them and watch them later so I can skip the commercials. Or I watch them through some web-based platform.Growing up, it was a different story. There were TV shows EVERYBODY watched, and if you didn’t watch them you were not cool. Everyone I knew saw Marcia Brady get hit in the nose with a football at the same time (unless you missed it because something suddenly came up). Everyone I knew saw Rhoda call Mary in the middle of the night tell Mary that Rhoda had gotten engaged to Joe. We all wondered “Who Shot J.R.?” at the same time. And yes, we all saw the Fonz “jump the shark.”Event Television was a way to get everyone in the country in front of the television at the same time. Making the advertising during those shows very, very expensive. Everyone sat down to watch miniseries like Rich Man Poor Man, Roots and North And South. But now Event Television has gone the way of the Betamax. But this morning, I jumped out of bed with a vision of how to bring Event Television back.Broadway. What if every opening night Broadway performance was televised?Now, we already have live stage shows being simulcast in theaters, on a limited basis. The simulcasting itself is an event, because it only happens once and you have to go to a theater to see it. This is not Event Television, an in-home experience. And while we do have musicals being performed live on television, that is not the same thing as a simulcast of a real, live event with a theater-sized audience watching.Why don’t we simulcast live stage shows to home televisions? A few reasons. First, there are those three little letters. D.V.R. If you simulcast a show to the home, it can be recorded for later, repeated viewing; and It can be paused for pee breaks and other distractions.Second, people believe simulcasting will decrease theater attendance. I humbly disagree with this view. People show up for the Tony’s every year. People show up for the Oscars every year, even though throughout Chelsea there are Oscar viewing parties bigger than Superbowl parties (and with better food.) For that matter, a ticket to the Superbowl is more valuable that Charlie Bucket’s Golden Ticket.And then, of course there are the unions. Equity does not allow its actors to be recorded, although a little birdie has told me that there are full time Equity staff members dedicated to negotiating exceptions to that rule. The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society allows recordings for additional payments. And then there’s USA, AFM and IATSE to deal with. In other words, simulcasting is going to cost theater producers money.None of those factors are true impediments to simulcasting Broadway opening night performances. What if we simulcast Broadway shows into the home but did not allow people to record them? We have the technology for that. My DVR won’t let me record more than 2 shows at a time. I mean, I could record more than 2 shows at a time if I upgraded my FiOS to FiOS Quantum, or if I had Dish TV with The Hopper DVR. But the point is, the DVR can be programmed not to record certain events. And if that economic model is not feasible, then try pay-per-view.Will this kill attendance at Broadway shows? I doubt it. I think people around the world will see these broadcasts and want to come to New York for the real thing. Instead of saying “Next year in Jerusalem” (a little inside ball for my Jewish friends), now people will say “Next time in Manhattan.”So, what would the simulcasting of Broadway opening nights look like? There would be the red carpet interviews. There would be the performance itself. There would be peeks backstage during intermission. There would be interviews at the after party. There would be no commercials during the show, but during the red carpet, intermission and after-party parts, sure. And thus, Event Television will be born.I hear you, you’re saying “Someone will hack the broadcast and sell bootleg recordings.” And you’re probably right. But that will be a good thing.Growing up near Englishtown, NJ, I got to know a lot of Deadheads. And we all traded recordings of shows, because the Grateful Dead allowed their shows to be recorded. The fact that there was a secondary market for recorded shows in no way diminished the desire to see the Dead perform live. It just created a Deadicated fan base who showed up at live performances over and over again.Growing up I also knew a lot of Trekkies. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, firmly believed that people should be free to create, trade and profit from Star Trek merchandise. So there were fan books and comic books and videos and Spock ears available for sale at annual conventions. Instead of driving down the value of the Star Trek brand, it revived a TV series that had been canceled by a broadcast network after three seasons. Because of Roddenberry's decision not to enforce his copyright and his trademark rights, a fan base developed that was large enough to support 4 more television series in the Star Trek franchise, most of which were wildly successful. Not to mention the 12 (and counting) Star Trek films. And when Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock himself, recently passed away, it was international news.What does all of this mean? In the future, I predict that the opening night performances of Broadway shows will be simulcast live to the home, bringing back the concept of Event Television. Any bootleg copies or unauthorized merchandise will only strengthen the desire for the true Broadway experience and authorized merchandise. Where the industry goes from there I couldn’t say. But change is inevitable, and those who adapt survive.For you fellow Star Trek fans out there, I am feeling SO Edith Keeler right now. For the rest of you, google Edith Keeler and get a taste of how powerful new entertainment distribution models can be.