Skip to main content

"Live in Living Color" ...except on your Playbill



Hi everyone! I am BACK! I want to start off my revival of this blog with a short rant regarding one of my Broadway pet peeves. 

I am an avid Playbill collector. I have four Playbill binders plus a few shoeboxes of Playbills from Broadway, National Tour, and regional productions stashed under my bed. I know, I know... NERD ALERT!!! I love and am very proud of my Playbill collection. 

What I can't stand, however, is walking into a Broadway show and being handed a black & white Playbill. 

It REALLY shouldn't be a big deal. In the grand scheme of life, it's not a big deal. This is for sure classified as a first-world problem. I just think that when Broadway ticket prices are higher than they've ever been, can't the theatre spring the extra cash to print the cover design in color? The Playbill banner at the top is always yellow (or rainbow in June for Pride Month), so why can't the rest of the cover be? 

To drive my point home, let's take a look at some beautiful Playbill designs that I should have received, when instead I got their less-than-brilliant black & white counterparts:

Let's get it together, Broadway! Let the Playbill collectors have some more color in our lives! 

MEMPHIS




ANYTHING GOES


                               
BIG FISH


ANASTASIA


HOLIDAY INN




CINDERELLA



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Nicest Broadway Actors I’ve Met at the Stage Door

At face value, the stage door of a theatre is the official entrance and exit for actors, crew, musicians, etc. However, the stage door has become more than that for theatre fans everywhere. At the conclusion of a performance, fans gather outside the stage door to wait for cast members willing to sign autographs and take selfies. The act of "stage dooring" is a fun pastime for the modern theatre fan. I've been stage dooring shows for many years and have had the pleasure of meeting some really wonderful Broadway performers I admire. To kick off my new Top 10 series, I've decided to compile a list of who I think are the nicest Broadway actors I've met at the stage door (in no particular order): ALEX BRIGHTMAN   I first became an Alex Brightman fan after he blew me away in School of Rock . I wasn't able to meet him after the show, but many months later I found myself back to see the show for a second time. Between the two times I sa...

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Drains Your Savings?

I, like most of the theatre world, am completely captivated by the new Broadway superhit Hamilton . I have listened to the cast recording on repeat nonstop for the last several months. I know every word to every song. The cast members have all become celebrities in my house. I am also extremely lucky to have seen Hamilton, and it completely blew me away and exceeded every expectation. I also luckily only paid $57 for my ticket. That sentence usually is greeted with gasps, dropped jaws, and “HOOOOOWWWW?!” That kind of price for this show is completely unheard of these days. If you buy a Hamilton ticket face value, the cheapest you can get is $139. StubHub and Ticketmaster Resale is filled with people re-selling their tickets for as much as $1,500 or more PER TICKET. Why are people doing this? Because people are so desperate to see the show that they will pay 10x the original ticket cost to see it! This alone is where our problem lies and created the whole reason why I am ...

Proper Stage Door Etiquette

  All theatres have a stage door. It’s primarily where the actors, musicians, crew, etc. enter the theatre. At Broadway and large regional theatres, it’s also where the audience gathers after the show to get autographs and pictures with the actors. Stage doors can be very fun, but can also cause some people to reach an unacceptable level of crazy. I have waited at dozens of Broadway stage doors over the years and have many stories to tell. I will share some of these stories to help teach you all proper stage door etiquette, because let’s be honest – a lot of people in the theatre world need to be taught how to property act. 1)       Don’t be bitter because you’re not at the front of the crowd. For those of you who have never “stage door-ed” a show before, typically the theatre puts up police barricades that the fans wait behind, to provide crowd control and safety for the actors who come out to sign autographs. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a s...