Happy New Year from the desk of The Broadway Edit!
It’s been a minute since I’ve done a candid piece. I’ve been trying to keep up with logging the theatre opportunities that have been popping up since local venues have reopened! I just wanted to take a brief moment to set some intentions for selecting performances in the new year, before attending my first performance this year.
As many of you know (or can figure out from my posts) I’m still located in the Los Angeles area. In reflecting over the course of the last few years, I have been kind of bummed that I wasn’t located closer to NYC to be able to access the shows I wanted to see and to make the kind of content that I wanted to make. In further reflection, I was trying to access NYC from LA, and it often felt like trying to listen to a conversation when you’re in another room.
So often in the theatre community at large, Broadway is hailed as the pinnacle of theatre, and the community hypes up performers and productions in NYC. In my own mind, I know there are cool productions happening all over, but it’s still a challenge to find community and a voice without that central sound of Broadway. Even if NYC is inaccessible to members of the community, it’s the Broadway productions we see photos of, hear cast recordings from, and so on, that creates a common ground for fans and audience members. The same isn’t always true for regional productions, even though the performers are just as talented.
I wanted to be in the room where it happens, without realizing I was sitting in the room where it happens—just a completely different room if we’re keeping a metaphor. I had limited my perception of theatre in LA to tours or big productions, without realizing how many smaller regional productions were taking place.
Now you might be thinking ‘obviously,’ and while you are correct, there is so much emphasis put on east coast theatre, as a fan, we focus on wishing we were there instead of taking the opportunity to look for productions around us.
So with an intro that was long enough, I’m shifting focus and setting some goals for the new year!
This year, I still will catch national tours and Broadway shows (fingers crossed for a trip to NYC very soon!) when I can, but also take more opportunities to see regional shows. The amount of theatre I have not seen greatly outweighs the amount I have seen. There are many shows that either are not going to be revived any time soon or are just very common regional productions. Los Angeles is also a great spot for out-of-town and early runs of Broadway-bound shows, as well as a restaging of shows that have already been on Broadway.
Another goal for this year is to take more leap of faith opportunities. I only have had the financial ability to even see shows in about the last five years or so, so I have always been very selective with what I wanted to see. I put a lot of energy into seeing shows I had my heart set on. There’s nothing wrong with this, especially when resources are limited, but now I have a little bit more flexibility and am able to release myself a little bit to seeing shows that I don’t know the plot or the music in and out. It’s always worked out very well for me, so far. I have seen two shows with no previous knowledge of them and enjoyed them, and I’m looking forward to doing that more often. I also want to look for opportunities to support smaller, underrepresented artists. Many of these productions start at a regional level or don’t get the attention big commercial productions get, so I want to find those opportunities, especially if they’re local.
I write a blog post for every live show I see since I started this blog in 2020, and I’m happy to share thoughts on productions or even do pieces with companies to help them spread the word about their productions.
If there is a production happening in the Greater Los Angeles or San Diego area (or somewhere in between!), whether you are working on the production or are just interested, and want to hear about it, email me at broadwayedit@gmail.com!
And if you’ve made it this far, thank you for your support! I think I’ve finally found some ground in this space, and I am excited for all that’s to come in 2022!
The Broadway Edit 