youre so right about the plays thing as someone who works at a company that does majority plays and graduated from a theater program that did exclusively plays, i have a lot of thoughts about what the industry considers "high brow" vs "low brow" and how those two things always just happen to correlate with plays and musicals respectively.

i personally believe that broadway is struggling because of the State Of The World (tm) and the financial crisis, like no one can afford to make theater do you KNOW the cost of lumber so obv things with a pre-existing audience will make more money than new previously undiscovered art... (sorry i'm yapping so much you've really tapped into something i have a lot to say about)

buuuuuut i also think there is a little bit of snobbery that has always existed in the industry that makes "high brow" ART!!! a really difficult world for curious but un-theater-educated newcomers to breach. musicals, especially spectacle musicals are very easy to access (the soundtrack) and get excited about

also i very much agree with your "myth of the divide" section. you could never get me to hate an ip musical or fandom based musical because ANYTHING that gets people, especially young people, interested in theater is worthwhile. our industry needs new blood to flourish and it will die faster if we deny "low brow" fans welcome and respect

please olliveen yap away!!! man i would totally read a whole bog response i want to hear more from people who have experience in both the fandom and industry. my favorite shows are all Dave Malloy and my partners' are Cats and Spongebob we have very interesting discussions

*blog