YouSaid · the spoken record

Bonnie Comley

lines on the record: 27
first: 2021-09-16
most recent: 2021-09-16
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I do think that they are seeing the value of brand familiarity. So people become familiar with the songs, they become familiar with the storyline. The risk is eliminated because if they watch a Broadway HD show, you can say, oh, I love that. I can't wait to go see it in person. Now I'm willing to spend $125 a ticket and bring my family. So now I'm willing to risk that $600 for us all to go to see a show. It opens up a whole new possibility of try before you buy. So it's a way to try it at a much lower cost before you lay down your $125 for that ticket.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Broadway shows, as I mentioned, are all entirely unionized. So with Broadway HD captures and the Broadway theaters, everyone that is supposed to get compensated gets compensated. And again, that's not necessarily a cost that we can negotiate. Those are fixed.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Saw with Scarlet Johanneson recently, where her movie came out, and it was supposed to just go into the movie theater first, but it was streaming at the same time.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The real challenge for us is the content because as theater around the world is looking a little bit different, we're saying where are we going to get the next shows? We did a couple of captures in Australia. We did some in the UK because they were opened up first and then the variant came along and things shut down again. So it's where are we getting the content. But as I mentioned, more people within the industry are seeing this as not just as another revenue source, but putting what I've always advocated for put the full length digital capture costs into the capitalization of the show and put it into your marketing budget where it belongs because I feel that the full length digital captures of a show are long-form commercials for the show. And I think that the tricky part is what we call windowing, which we”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, you have to be a little bit off center, I think, to be an entrepreneur because regardless of the industry, regardless of the business, there's so many other safe things to go into than the entrepreneurship side of it. And I think entrepreneurship is something that is learned. My parents had their own business. They had an elevator business. And the failures that happen on your kitchen table and watching somebody get through all of that and the excitement and the fulfillment that they get from that was really contagious, I guess. So I think that was why it allowed me to take risks. But you have to be willing to lose. You have to be willing to fail.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What I mean by that is each of these shows is its own product. So Lion King, wicked, all of these shows are a brand. Lion King was first an animated movie, and then they made it into a musical on Broadway. Wicked was a book that then they turned into a musical. And I think that that's what we're seeing on Broadway is that there are multiple touch points for a brand. The streaming piece is really evident with what's going on this season as things open up. You have Springsteen came back and it's streaming on Netflix. Wicked just did a concert version that wasn't the entire script, but again, another touchpoint for this brand. And is that going to take away from the live experience? I don't think so, because I think people do get the excitement with a real good digital capture. I think that people see and feel”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's what it's always been. It's always been something to create an interest in the live stage performance. So we have high quality Broadway and Broadway caliber productions that are on a stage. They're captured in high definition, high quality TV filmed captures. And then they're streamed on an easy to use, high quality user-friendly platform. We haven't seen what the results are.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If there is a version of this show streaming online at a Broadway HD or Disney Plus or Netflix, that's the fear of cannibalization is that somebody's going to see the digital version and say, oh, I'm going to replace that with the live experience. And there's no definitive evidence. Every show is different. There's not a one size fits all that you can say, oh, look at this one. This is perfectly representative of the industry because if there was a one size fits all, we would of all create a Hamilton or a rent. So I think that looking at that now and sitting and watching social media, watching what people's reaction is to it so that people that were ticket buyers are thrilled with Broadway HD and saying Broadway HD is a 24-7 reminder of what we miss about Broadway and live theater.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the fear of cannibalization is the term that we use within the industry, which is the fear that a producer who's just invested $20 million to produce a Broadway live stage performance and trying to sell tickets for $125 for each ticket.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On a social impact, what you see for Times Square and these other urban areas that house these big Broadway theaters across the country when they're operating, we've seen and we've tracked that the population is more likely to be educated. They're more likely to graduate from high school. They're more likely to go on to a trade school or a college. They're more likely to vote. They're more likely to donate and volunteer for community service. So it just makes for it much more cohesive community which translates to a safer community. So without these arts organizations, you're missing that. You know, theater affects everybody on so many different levels. And without it, we're feeling the loss from it.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The government in the shuttered venues operator grant that was just made two months ago for these theater and live concerts and live performance venues. There was a $15 billion grants worth of money available for these because they do understand the importance of what these organizations, these big, huge arts and culture organizations provide for their communities.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“New York City is a trillion dollar economy. So here is an industry that brings in $16 billion as an impact that is now unplugged because hotels could open up and restaurants could open up and other businesses were opening up, but Broadway has still been shut down. You know, it's like a petri dish, like a perfect experiment of like if we unplug this one industry, what happens? What we found was it's not just $16 billion that was missing. The Broadway League has created Broadway and New York City to be a destination for tourists and people around the globe. They come here for Broadway. So if you take that out of the equation, it's not quite the same thing anymore. And I think that was recognized by”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In 2013, actually, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bureau of Economic Analysis got together and released a study that in fact said that live theater arts and culture creates more and impacts the gross domestic product larger in a bigger way than transportation, construction, or agriculture. Once you say this is a huge industry, people rally around because why is it a huge industry? Why are people attracted to this? How do I get in on it? How do I make money with it? And I think that has been tracked ever since. And if you look at just the Broadway in New York City, those 41 Broadway theaters in the last full season sold almost 15 million tickets, the economic impact of what that did for the city. Was close to $16 billion”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Streaming theater is not a replacement for theater. It is an additive. I mean, would there be as many football fans in the United States if you said, well, if you don't get to that stadium, you can't watch it. People told me, oh, nobody's going to want to watch a Broadway show on their phone. In fact, they do watch it on their phone. So when Broadway HD launched six years ago, we were spending our marketing dollars in US and English, and that was it. We weren't looking for anybody else. And within days, we had people reaching out through our customer service and social media platforms to say, I'm trying to watch your show, but you don't take my currency. So it was kind of like, it was eye-opening of how many people were out there that were hungry, that were underserved for Broadway shows. And then six months later with the roundabout theater company, we were able to live stream.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was absolutely a boon. Our subscriber numbers just shot up. Streaming was the only option for the people that missed theater that used to go, the ticket buyers. It was an opportunity for them. We saw the power of what the internet can do with a nationally, internationally recognized brand. But it's the power of that brand that the Broadway League has created for the last 50 years that makes people know exactly what that genre of entertainment is and they want it.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Increasing the fan base and letting people know that these shows are available, these shows have stories that they can relate to because it's not about who gets to see the theater. It's also the diversity that we're creating with these things is whose theater gets to be seen”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of the things that we've done is say we're making theater accessible on the internet with Broadway HD. So you're giving an opportunity to somebody who either it's geography that they just can't get to the 41 Broadway Theaters or the 200 touring theaters or they can't afford that ticket or there's some other sort of physical limitations for them. But if you can bring the theater to them and have them become fans, you increase the fan base. And I think there's been a lot of that of that looking and saying how do we increase the fan base to your point earlier. In a pre-pandemic year, 60% of the tickets to Broadway shows were bought by people that were from out of town. So with all the uncertainty of who can travel to New York City, who can travel to the US, we still have 60% of the theater is empty. So how do we get those other people there?”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you look at the last full season, which was 2018 to 2019, there was only three women directing out of the 41 shows. There was only two women composers out of those 41 shows. I think there was only one playwright, you know, like, and the numbers for people that are the BIPOC community, those numbers don't even register. So I think, you know, when you start to look at that and say, well, why is that? And I think that, you know, there was a lot that came out of this pandemic. There is a new deal for Broadway that is an agreement that the producers came to with the theater owners to say, you know what, we need to change who makes theater.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You ought to come here, you know. So, is it that we're not putting the right shows on stage? Is it not the right people telling those shows? Or is it, you know, that we're not marketing to the audience in the right way?”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Musicals and the Broadway ticket buyer has for as long as the Broadway League has been keeping the demographics is basically the same person. It is an over 40 white woman that usually buys the tickets. So a lot of those stories that are on stage are to attract that demographic. But then, as I said, when you have the time to sit and say, hey, you know, in a typical year pre-pandemic, there's 350 million people in the United States, 75% would go and see a movie in the movie theater, but only 15% will buy tickets to a live show. So there's a whole universe of people just in the United States that for whatever reason they don't know about them. They're not comfortable. They don't feel like they belong there. It's not my thing to go to Broadway. There's a whole universe of people that we can address and say,”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, when you have the time to sit and reflect on any business because there's really nothing going on. Those 41 Broadway theaters just really sat in mothballs for almost 18 months. And I think, you know, that reflection time on what was on stage, what was going on backstage, how do we communicate, how do we engage audiences, all were looked at very differently. Broadway is a very progressive industry and with a progressive industry you're looking at what are the types of stories that are being told who are the people that are telling those stories how do we market those stories to people that are in the audience and you know with my company Broadway HD what we've always done is try to expand the fan base Broadway HD is a streaming service we have over 350 full length stage plays and”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Broadway is a very low margin business anyway because so many of the costs are fixed. There's only forty one theaters, there's only a certain number of seats in those theaters. All the unions have set minimums for what it is that they require for their union members to receive. So when you go in and producing a show, you are handed a lot of costs that just fixed. And then it's competitive, but it's an amazing business. And then when it works, it works in not always Hamilton numbers, but it's really very successful. And as a business, it probably should have died out years ago because of the high risk, only about, you know, four out of ten shows actually recoup their investment. So it's really supported by people that just believe in this art form and want to see it go forward, which I think, again. Is just very hopeful.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What does that mean? But it was getting theater owners and 13 different unions that were representing 100,000 people. What are they going to feel safe with? And it's kind of a marvel that they all agreed so quickly. In fact, the Broadway producers in a leap of faith, they started selling tickets before those agreements were reached because they were so confident that everyone wanted to pull together and come up with these rules.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, when these shows shut down and sending everybody home and thinking, okay, so we'll see you next week or in two weeks when we're all done with the quarantine. But what happened with the shows that we were working on, as well as other shows that were actually in previews or rehearsals or going on Broadway, was the cast getting together in the Zoom conferences to rehearse. They did that for months because we all thought, oh, well, you know, everybody's just got to keep their vocal chops up to speed because those doors are going to fly open and everybody's going to come back in. And then after, you know, about a year, well, that's not how anybody thought it was going to go. Then it was looking at an industry had to get up and get back together together. And that happened probably just about two months ago. Basically, when I think the vaccines were coming out, okay, it's time to get together and we've got to reopen.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was vice president of the board. I've been on the board for about 12 years. And basically what the drama league is, is it's a mentoring organization for early career stage directors. So every year we look for these fellows that we bring on and we give them an opportunity to direct in front of a professional audience in New York City. And we were at that point with these directors in different places looking at the safety of their crews. So we were doing micro grants at that time, like $500 for you groceries. Because in that moment directors fall between the cracks, you know, they're not in the acting unions. So we were just trying to help people get by at that time. It's just looking at basic needs, not artistic expression.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure. I was at work in my Manhattan Times Square office. We were aware of this virus that was coming. And then on March 11th, we actually had one of our employees test positive. We had the opening of a show for the new musical six on the next night where co-producers on the minutes that was supposed to open on March 15th. And we had Broadway HD employees in several different offices around the US. Everybody, we were all out of work overnight.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Broadway theaters just really sat in mothballs for almost 18 months. So here is an industry that brings in 16 billion that is now unplugged. The industry started looking at okay, we've got to reopen. What does that mean? Lion King, wicked, all of these shows are a brand. That's what we're seeing on Broadway is that there are multiple touch points for a brand. Have to be a little bit off center, I think, to be an entrepreneur. There's so many other safe things to go into, to calculate at risk, but you have to be willing to lose. You have to be willing to fail.”
2021-09-16 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: In hard times, the show must go on, w/BroadwayHD’s Bonnie Comley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT