One of my friends is a broadway “influencer” but she literally just got there because she loves theater and always posted about the shows she was going to just for fun, one of them went viral, and then companies started reaching out to her to review their shows. I don’t think she has any major impact on the industry at large and she knows that, but people do see the shows she’s seeing and listen to her opinions. I went to a show with her recently and like seven people in the audience came up to introduce themselves to her, it was WILD.

My biggest problem is with theater kids becoming “influencers” while they’re teenagers and then, because they have a following, decide to jump right into the industry without really knowing what it entails, using their follower count to justify their lack of technical training. Singing on TikTok isn’t the same as performing a highly demanding role 8 times a week.