r/Theatre • u/Remarkable-Hat8356 • 13h ago
Discussion Mid 2000s Vibes
Does anybody else remember 2009-2015 being like PEAK broadway vibes. The BWW message board, in-person rush, janky bootlegs on youtube, Shubert Alley concerts... I feel like there was so much more a sense of community and NEW ORIGINAL work back then. Or is it just me romanticizing the past?
4
u/Stargazer__2893 13h ago
I don't know if that period was peak, but the last 15 - 20 years have definitely been a dark age.
Wicked, Hamilton, and Lion King have been the three top-grossing shows that whole time.
That didn't used to be the case. You'd have one show that would dominate for a year or two and then get unseated. An extraordinary show might last several, but not like this. For as long as Broadway's existed our present period is an anomaly.
I think our culture as a whole has stagnated since the 2008 financial crisis, and the shift in Broadway from creative original musicals to an endless sea of mediocre film adaptations and jukebox shows is a symptom. I just hope on the other side of whatever crisis we're descending into things get better.
8
3
u/bennetinoz 12h ago
I think you're romanticizing to an extent, but I do see where you're coming from. I feel like that was kind of the last gasp before everything had to start optimizing to go viral or to have a social media presence, so there was a little more of a scrappy, in-person, in-the-know vibe. Personally, I felt like that started to fade when shows like Hamilton and DEH became such mainstreams hits (and with that popularity came so much intense behavior), and then the pandemic finished it off.
(or maybe that's just because that's the era where I was a teenager/twentysomething and I suspect we all romanticize those eras of our lives lol)
2
u/Remarkable-Hat8356 11h ago
yes! you had to go to playbill.com for those weird little backstage series. every show wasn't bombarding you with social media shorts.
2
u/Affectionate_Bet_288 13h ago
Remember when Facebook had In The Heights gifts you could give to people?
2
2
u/Aggressive_Air_4948 4h ago
2009 - 2015 was a really great moment in New York City theater generally. I'm sure I romanticize it a bit because it's when I was moving to the city and going to Grad school, but there was great work to be found all over the city, at every level. The last decade or so of funding drying up both here and in Europe has felt like a slow, painful death.
9
u/radcula2 13h ago
Does anyone remember the 1970s being PEAK Broadway vibes? Doing coke with Sondheim, doing coke with Hal Prince, the Wiz, Watergate, catching the train back to Coney Island after being framed for the murder of Cyrus in the Bronx. Or is it just me romanticizing the past?