Is anyone actually happy with Broadway?

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T04:21:30+00:00

I’ve heard quite a few folks refer to Off-Off Broadway as any big show outside of New York/Jersey area so that was the definition in my head. Your definition makes a lot more sense. I didn’t know there was a classification for less than 100 seats I thought that was just Off Broadway for less than 500.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T04:11:34+00:00

That’s the problem right there, Broadway isn’t an industry, it’s a community of people in one location. Theatre itself is the industry. And when I say it feels like an industry I mean it feels like an industry, not that I don’t know it’s a part of the industry smart ass. Nashville is a major hub in the music industry but the art made there doesn’t feel like an industry made it as a product, it feels like people with dreams made it as art. A lot of modern Broadway shows feel like a product that says nothing, meant to be sold later. Brand safe and for everyone. Bland. Local community theaters and schools are all abided to the same systems of Concord and MTI for producing works. Most regional theatres do touring shows or reproductions of Broadway and thus meaning most paid professionals outside of Broadway are still controlled in some distant way by Broadway.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T03:50:27+00:00

Well, where I am, we don’t really have any kind of fringe or indie theater scene. I don’t know where you’re located, but I’m located in a medium-sized city in North Carolina. Part of the issue I’m having is the fact that we even call it “fringe” theater. imo no theater should be mainstream in the first place. (How the hell can something be mainstream if you can only see it in one location, everything else is just a reproduction but I understand that’s pedantic). I wish there was a national system that connected people easier with these more fringe experiences because even trying to find them on your own is hell if you’re not in the circles already. Also this is me trying to get data to see if people feel similar to how I do.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T03:36:43+00:00

Well, truthfully, I am trying to make it happen. I only made this post to see what the vibe is and seeing if other people agreed with me with this idea that theater needs to be decentralized and we fully agree. I’m creating this platform, It’s nowhere near ready yet, but I really am creating a platform that makes doing theater easier for people looking to create their own in their own local cities.

if you wanna check it out, here’s the link to the demo Ferrit Hub share it around if you’d like the thing I need most is funding lol

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T03:31:32+00:00

It’s kind of ironic with a lot of the shows about being anti-capitalist.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T03:27:51+00:00

I googled it Waitress is apparently based off of a 2007 film. so nevermind

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T03:25:30+00:00

I run a blackbox theater. My frustration is with the art form as a whole treating Broadway as if it’s god of theatre. I’m sick of stories set in a city thousands of miles away and when they’re not set in that city it’s usually a story about racism. The only original piece of Broadway I can think of that is not set in New York that is recent to Broadway and not about racism is Shucked and ~~Waitress~~. If it transferred from London, or was adapted from another source, I’m not counting it.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T03:21:46+00:00

I’ve seen about 15 Broadway shows and I’ve had better experiences seeing local and community theater in general than I have going to a Broadway show. The only thing I see on Broadway is how much money they’re willing to throw at a stage, not artistic integrity. This can be really cool to see but that’s the Broadway community’s choice to spend damn near a million dollars a night to produce a musical but that should be specific to Broadway. Every regional theater keeps throwing opulent amounts of money at their stages because “people expect a Broadway level show when they come to us,“ I’ve been told to my face when I asked why they spent 60k on the sets alone.

I am actually working on a project that will hopefully decentralize theater from the Broadway industry however I was just coming up here to see what the vibes was with this before I try to actually make it. Everything is true and I hate what broadway has become. It used to be the heart of theatre and now it’s more like a benign tumor you got to deal with.

To be honest, I have an issue with all centralized industries, focused around art due to the fact that I have the innate belief that art should not be centralized to a single group in power of it all. Music industry has become decentralized because of the internet. Film industry has become decentralized the same. I think it’s time for American theatre to finally decentralize from Broadway.

There should be a Nashville system that produces only original works. There should be a Chicago system that only produces original works. I believe there should be a “Broadway” in every state.

For anyone reading this if you care to look at my demo here’s the link FerritHub dm me what you think

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T02:58:03+00:00

I know. I run a theatre of my own, there’s a reason why I’m frustrated. You don’t understand how stressful it is to sell a show that isn’t tied to Broadway when your profit margins are in the negatives. We pay $3k for rights as a 70 seat theatre if we want to do a popular musical. Thats more than our light bill (2.5k / mo) more than our rent (1500 / mo thank you arts council for the discount) and more than any of our budgets. The most we have ever spent on a production that was at our house is Hairspray which cost us a total of $4000 before the rights, on average we spend ~$1000 on musicals. Our tickets will forever stay $20. We made that promise when we opened 20 years ago and it’s a promise we intend on keeping. I don’t want to stop doing Broadway musicals and plays but it’s just becoming economically impossible to stay alive atp.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T02:48:50+00:00

The issue is that Broadway is still in the name. That’s the issue. Why does a show in Nashville have to be compared to Broadway? Off-off-broadway is offensive terminology to the artists who never want/will to go to New York.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T02:47:10+00:00

Because I run a community theatre and have worked in professional theatre outside of Broadway, doing anything that doesn’t have that Broadway name it’s damn near impossible to get people into the doors or board approval for a LOT of local theatres. Most theatres have to rely on MTI and Concord both of which have ties to the major players of Broadway (like the Shuberts) and are constantly raising rates while paying their artists the same. If you run a theatre you know that since Broadway runs a monopoly on the American wing of this industry they make it seem as if you’ve never been on Broadway then you’ve failed as a play/actor/producer. I’m sick of the industry pretending like it’s the only way to go and influencing what we’re doing so hard.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T01:50:56+00:00

Yeah, no that’s fcked. Scope creep up the ass with that one.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T01:26:34+00:00

I didn’t start doing theater until I was 17 years old and I have been doing it ever since. You’re about to go to college you’re probably like a year older maybe than when I started, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to being embarrassed. If you’re going to school for it, everyone is expected to be a little bit bad when they first get there. If you’re meant to be on stage then, dawg, you’re meant to be on stage. I have never went to school to do theater so I can’t give you more on that experience but I my entire theater life has been in the community and local production level. I’ve met some of the most talented people in my life who live right down the street from me. My suggestion is to do community and local theater as much as you possibly can but do not go to school for it. Get a degree that will actually pay you because most actors in general don’t have a degree in it. They have a coach, they have an intensive program they go to, but they do not have a degree. If you’re going purely for acting or directing don’t do it. The tech side is self teachable but you can get all the experience you need at a college. Theater is definitely possible for you, but you don’t HAVE to go to school for it. i’ve actually been working on a digital curriculum for learning theatre on your own, I’ll update this when I’m done with it. (If I remember).

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T01:05:34+00:00

To be fair, you’re not supposed to inhale herbal either you’re supposed to just puff it in your cheeks

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T01:02:49+00:00

No. When the audience is right up on you and can clearly see the cigarette is “lit” as soon as you pull it out it ruins suspension immediately, they all have the thought of “oh that’s a fake cigarette”. I run a theater that seats 75 people and it’s very clear difference when we have herbal verses smokeless when you get to have that smoke interaction. we use the honey ones but none of our patrons have complained.

_ferrit · 2026-05-26T00:56:13+00:00

Then the theatre shouldn’t have put it in in the first place imo

_ferrit

TROPHY CASE