 And welcome to the Creative Life, an innovative collaborative production between Think Tech Hawaii and the American Creativity Association. I'm your host, Darlene Boyd, and our guest is joining me from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and our guest is Lynn Kraus. What we have been attempting to do in the Creative Life is to bring you conversations that talk about the creative process, both in theory and practice. And today is one of those conversations that we'll be dealing with how creativity is applied in a very interesting schematic and also a very fun conversation. So our guest is Lynn Kraus and Lynn is the Chief Innovation Officer for Brain-Based Training and Development. She has her expertise in the area of the brain and some of you have seen her with us before. She had a show on change, but today she's here to talk about a hobby she's had, or more in-depth, a passion she has had since an early time in her life, and that's the Broadway Theater. For those of us that I grew up on the east coast in Philadelphia area, not far from where Lynn is living. So we had access to Broadway, wasn't that close, but we could train it or drive it. And for the rest of us, and especially for me now being relocated, I miss the Broadway experience. It's not the easy little pop jump that it was for me. So Lynn and I were talking before the show and I was recollecting my first Broadway experience was still while I was in school, but it was Anthony Nuley and a production called The Roar of the Grease Paint, The Smell of the Crowd. I think I have that right. And I will never forget when that curtain goes up and the orchestra starts that there's literally goosebumps on your arm as you just get your first experience. So with that, Lynn, let me turn it to you and tell us how you got into this strong passion and look at you, look at everything behind you there. That is a passion. Yes. Oh, hi, Darlene. Great to be back with you again. One of the things for me with Broadway, I've been going for more than 50 years to see Broadway. And this is something you probably don't know. I was also involved with two friends of mine. We wrote a musical and we tried to get the rights to get it produced. We spent a lot of money, never got the rights because it was so involved. So my love of Broadway actually translated to the creative side of actually trying to get something produced. We were trying to make a musical of pocket full of miracles. The rights issue was just so involved. It took a lot of money and it didn't work out, but we wrote it in this musical. How long did you work on it? A couple of years. It was in my 30s, so way back when. But anyway, so that my love of theater also is personal and that it was also trying to get in on the creative side. And right now, I'm also trying to bring it to seniors every twice a month. I do a presentation with seniors. So one of the things we wanted to talk about, this idea about innovating the Broadway experience. And I want to tie it a little bit to the whole pandemic. What happened with Broadway? If you remember, it had to shut down for almost two years. And during the pandemic, people were thinking, what can we do? We miss theater. We want theater. And there was so much going on in the streaming services. There's many services that already have content of shows that have been recorded live in the theater, both in DVD and the streaming services. And since we have so many streaming services now, they all have different ones. And so what happened during COVID, people tried to get even more creative. And for instance, one of the things, Andrew Lloyd Webber released his entire library of recorded shows and he put it up on the internet, everybody to use it, no cost. So they had access to his whole library, cats, Phantom, Joseph, the whole range of his shows were up there. Other people were also putting things up that they allowed a stream of that normally you couldn't see just during the COVID experience. And one of the things I noticed is you have a lot of these regional theater companies starting to film their productions and actually stream them. People would buy tickets online and watch the stream because there was no go live to the theater. And so people were selling these products online and you could just get your ticket and watch it. I watched quite a few of them while I was in. So what we're talking about today is this whole concept of the live capture of theater, especially Broadway theater and then being presented to the public in various medium. Now, one of the ways we always saw it, actually, I'll take you back to your childhood, you'll also Peter Pan live member Peter Pan with Mary Martin, NBC broadcasted that live. Now that wasn't considered a theater capture because they actually shot that in NBC studio, you know, so the sets weren't exactly what you were seeing on Broadway, but everybody loved it and they would do it live. They did it live for about three, four years. And then Mary Martin said, you better record it because I'm not doing it again. So in 1960, they recorded it, we saw it. But that's an example of where everybody, you know, weren't you applauding at your screen for Tinkerbell? Without a doubt. Right. So we still got you in. It was still theater. So one of the things that's been going on is there's been a lot of capture of theater mainly with PBS, public broadcast system. They used to have American Playhouse. And then they had great performances. And what they would actually do is they would go in, they would help fund and go in and record something like Live at Lincoln Center. They did a number of shows. Now, because of the union contracts and all, once PBS showed it live, it could never be reshown. It was it was negotiated as a one time live performance. So they did, they did a number of them. The Revival of South Pacific was done. Light and the Piazza was done. Into the Woods was done. There was a number of shows over the years that we all would watch on PBS. And you could see it that one time. Now, what's happened because of funding, because of expenses, PBS, all the all the musicals they've been showing recently are the ones that were actually filmed live in the theater. They were mainly they were all all the ones they've been showing were filmed over in England. Why? Because of cost. So like if we like when you show like example would be Memphis was a Tony winning best musical. It was filmed live in the theater and then put out to the movie theaters for people to see that costs $3 million to film. Why? Because you had all the unions. Yeah, the actors union, musicians union, you had a ton of unions. So did they ever recoup it? No, they never recoup their $3 million. Now, a show that was on PBS that they that was filmed over in England, American and Paris, the musical, it was again, won the Tony for the best musical. The entire American cast went over to London, and they was playing over there and the companies over there filmed it. Now, what was the difference? The cost over there to film American and Paris would have been $950,000. That's under a million versus over here, $3 million. So that's why what happens is all our American cast are going over there, and then they filmed them and PBS everything they've been showing on PBS are all of these ones that were filmed in London, some of them released one of the things we've had in the last, I'm not going to get I want to say about 10 years, there's something called Phantom Events, which is they will show retrospective older movies or whatever, but they show all these taped Broadway shows or plays I've also seen plays, and they show them in the theaters all across the United States and in other countries. And when it's a Phantom Event, you're basically paying like $20 to see it, but they have an unbelievable amount of people who attend this more than who would ever see a show, no matter how long it was on Broadway or how long it ran. And so the events in the theater, is that a one night show? Yes, they announce a date. Usually it's one or two dates. A good example would be Disney had a show called Newsies. I saw it when it was being getting ready for Broadway, so I didn't actually see the final version of it. And what happened is Disney, because Disney owned the product, so you're already talking less money, because they own everything, you know, it's there, it was their rights to everything. So it was a lot different, you weren't having to pay all these different people. And so Disney had film newsies in the theater, and they released it as a Phantom Event, and it broke all records, it broke some previous records. It was released four times because it was so popular, and then it was on Netflix for a while, but when Disney Plus came on as a streaming service, Disney took it back off of Netflix onto Disney Plus. Are these Phantom Events in major cities? Yes, they're all over. You go on, you key in your zip code, and it tells you where. Like, let's say in an area like Philadelphia and surrounding areas, it may be in five, six theaters. If you go to places that aren't as populated, maybe one. So they pick certain venues. And to give you an example of how many people we're talking about, after three showings of Newsy, over 200,000 people saw that. Now think about paying $20. Now here's the most interesting thing. When they went to see who actually were the audiences who were going, it was a mix of people who loved Newsy's. I myself had seen the show, I went to see it as a Phantom Event. And there were people who were going to see it again. And then there were people who never heard of it, but they thought it sounded kind of interesting. So that's what happens when these shows go out, when they're released as a Phantom Event. And then there was another company that was actually doing it in the movie theater. Now, one other show I want to talk about, because it's, I think in terms of creativity and its historical perspectiveness, George T'Kai, who you would know from Star Trek fame, he wrote a show called Allegiance. And it was based on his childhood, his real childhood. He was one of the Japanese Americans who were interred during World War II. So he created this show. And about that whole experience, it was a great musical. I saw it on Broadway. I thought it was fabulous. Of course, the critics weren't too nice to it. And so it didn't last very long. It maybe ran seven months. But what George T'Kai did, he made an agreement. He did this. He filmed in the theater right before it closed. And he put it out as a Phantom Event. It was in 600 cities all over. And he held the original record for selling out every single theater. It was in Newsy's Broket. But, and then it was such a success, he released it again. And when did he release it? He released it on the 75th anniversary when that executive order to enter the Japanese Americans was given. And then he released it yet again on Pearl Harbor Day. And he released it a fourth time. So here's a show that was really important that no one would have seen otherwise. Right. And he created an educational kit and made it available because now that was filmed, but it was filmed right in the theater with an audience. And so it was like being there, you know, when you experience these shows because the audiences are there. And it's, it's like being in theater. Now, does anything replace live theater? No, we all love live theater. But let's face it. I don't know if our viewers out there have been to Broadway and saw the cost of tickets recently. I mean, you're talking, you have to pay anywhere from 300 and some dollars to a hundred. You know, I was going to ask you, that was one of my questions. What's running cost right now? Yes, because what happened, I want to say now, I may be getting this wrong. I want to say it was back, I don't know, maybe 10 years now, maybe I'm off some years. The theaters started this concept called premium seating. They didn't like that when a show was a big hit, the scalpers would sell tickets for so much so they created their own system. So, but what happened initially, it was maybe 12 rows in the center orchestra that the seats were $300. Now, you'd say, who would do that? Okay, well, oh, I will go back. When Miss Saigon opened, and that was about 28 years ago, there was premium seating for Miss Saigon. And the premium seating back then was like $199. And I'm one of these people who paid because I wanted to be in the theater to see that show. And it was, you know, so did I pay? Yes. Now, the premium seating is like 325 depends on the show. But the thing is, initially they would take like middle of the first two rows of the mezzanine and maybe 12 rows in the orchestra. Not now, they go back maybe 13, 14 rows and they go in the four seats on each side. So, if you really want a great seat, you're paying premium. Who can afford premium? Really, you can't. And so what happens is you end up being on the side if you want to be close or further back because you don't want to, because you can get like, let's say then the what theater is done now is they have about five or six different prices with depending on where you're sitting. But basically theater is out of range for many people. If you're a student, a lot of the New York shows, you know, give the student tickets and they have the Russian certain shows like Hamilton will do the lottery, you know, where you can get the first two rows. But basically, it's really expensive for people. And even a touring company that will come, let's say where you live or where I live in Philly, you're still talking $100 and some dollars for a ticket. And so it becomes really prohibitive. So the idea that they now are can go in with now, especially nowadays with the better sound systems, high definition, and they film the show over a number of days. So you're really you're seeing the show in the best possible way. And you're going, Oh, I could pay $20 and see it in the theater. And now with streaming services, we can see them right from our very home. So when if you remember when Disney Plus brought Hamilton out, they paid $80 million for Hamilton Hamilton was filmed. It was supposed to be released. It was filmed on the stage. It was supposed to be released to the movie theaters. And what happened is COVID hit. And they didn't want to sit and hold it for two years or whatever. So they sold Disney Plus bought it and showed it. Now, people were very worried, the producer said, if we allow people, we, and you know, capture our shows, and then show it who's going to come to the theater. That was their thought. Last week's Broadway grosses, Hamilton was the second highest grossing show. It's been on Disney Plus with the original cast recorded in the theater for at least a year and a half. And yet on Broadway, it was the second highest grossing show. And how long has Hamilton been running? Oh, God, let's see. Oh my God, see, I don't even know. Let me see. Hamilton, I would say, I'm going to guess like six years maybe, maybe more. I saw it when it first moved up. But this is an interesting thing. People were so convinced that if people could see the productions filmed in the theater, they wouldn't go. And there's no correlation to that. Memphis was recorded while the show was still running. And it had one best musical. And they originally did it because it didn't get the greatest reviews when it first opened. And they thought this would be a way to get interested. They were going to do a touring company. And so what they ended up doing is it was in the movie theaters, it was still running on Broadway. And but again, because I told you about the cost, they never made the money back. Some other shows just because of COVID to give you an example, Diana the musical was scheduled to open in Broadway last November. Okay. And so they were just going into previewing COVID shut everything down. So the producer was worried that it would disrupt everything so much that he'd never make the money back. They wouldn't make the money back. So they made a deal with Netflix. They filmed Diana the musical. There wasn't an audience. This was one time it was filmed on stage, but there was no audience because no one was allowed to go in the theaters. So they sold it to Netflix. So he probably recued the cost of his musical. But unfortunately, the interesting thing was it premiered on Netflix two weeks before it opened on Broadway when it when when COVID, you know, let Broadway reopen. So when it was on Netflix, every they predicts trashed it. And then when poor Diana opened on Broadway, they trashed that too. But I didn't think it was I did. I think it was great. No, but I found it very enjoyable watching it. Yeah, I didn't have to pay $199. So I said, okay, yeah, it was very enjoyable. And so a lot of that was, you know, that that was an interesting thing that they were able to recoup it, even though it didn't work. Now, an example where it did work, Cameron Macintosh was bringing the 25th anniversary production of Miss Saigon into New York. And it was 25 years later. And it was like the cast, he brought the London cast over, and it got rave, rave, rave, everybody. So it was going to open in Broadway in March, in a March as well. Meanwhile, he decided he filmed it live in the theater in London. He released it to phantom events on two different dates before right before the New York opening. And I was thinking, wow, why are you doing that? I was like, so I saw it in the theater. I wasn't in New York at the time. So I got to see the production. But it was a limited run in New York, which they knew was going to pretty much sell out anyway. But there is an example of he wanted to hype it all up. And later it was shown on PBS, that version, people could have seen it on PBS. And so that's an example of it. The show was ready to open, and it didn't hurt the box office in the least. So the producers have changed their mind. The problem is the cost if you film in here in the United States. So one of the places that probably for any of our viewers who would love to see all these shows, there's a service called Broadway HD. I subscribed to it. I was one of the original subscribers, but they have so much content now. They have basically all of National Theater from England, all their Shakespeare plays, film live in the theater. They have almost all the any Broadway show that's been on phantom events they have. So they started out by their idea was they wanted to lease as much content as they could. They also tried to do something that was started back in 2000. And in 2000, there was a company came about called the Broadway television network. They had this idea, we're going to film four shows and broadcast them live from the theater, because we did not streaming services then. You had pay per view. Okay, there was no stream, you had cable, and then they had this pay per view, you would pay for extra kind of events. And so they were going to do four shows. They actually did three, and they went under. Why? Because they did the first, and this is considered the first show ever streamed live from the theater. And it was sophisticated ladies. It was a great show. It was a Duke Ellington review. It didn't have all the original cast because they didn't want to do it. They had to bring in the touring company because they were arguing about money. So and other things. So but it was a great production. It went live from the theater. And here's the problem. Back then, pay per view across our country had about 613,000 subscribers approximately. Because remember cable was new back then. People didn't want to pay for television, you know. And so what happened is when they put it out on pay per view, they were charging $15. Well, they only had about 10% of their audience sign up for it, which is about 6,200 people. And so they made less than a million dollars. But it was 2 million to do because again, this company spent years negotiating with the unions for years over that. These four shows they were going to do and they did forever plaid. And they did Jekyll and Hyde was live. There's I don't want to miss this opportunity. You have an exciting situation that you've fallen into and you really developed it. And that is the work that you do at a home for seniors. So just a little bit about that. We just have a few minutes left. Oh, I didn't realize. See, we went so quick. Okay. So basically, there's so much to talk about. I know. So basically, twice a month, we show a Broadway show there and the play subscribes to Broadway HD and all. So I've showed them a range of shows. They imagine the seniors, they also Hamilton and loved it. And, you know, we I show, you know, they're the shows the Rogers and Hammerstein shows and their shows. So they love it and they ask excellent questions. And this and of course, we run closed caption. And I did just want to mention for our viewers out there, if you're looking for the best source for this stuff, it's Broadway HD. I think I forget how much the yearly thing is, but they have mean, I'm saying hundreds and hundreds of content. So in this senior home that in this great experience, we should. Yes. So what's the age range? Oh, okay. I would say, yes, the youngest person is probably in their seventies and they go up to my aunt who's there. She's 96. And so I was curious because, you know, one of the things about Hamilton is the speed at which they're saying right words. It's faster than sometimes that you're here, which is why we ran the closed caption. We do it on all the shows, but they liked it. They didn't love it, but they liked it. But what a great experience for them because I suppose that there's no, there's not a possibility for them to get to Broadway on a regular. Yes. And I think that's true about a lot of people. You know, and I will just say this, one of the things I say to them, and I'll say to everybody out here, it's so great to experience stuff shows that you think you would hate or not like that you can go and see them. And whether you're looking at a streaming service you already had or one of the others or search at YouTube, but try to search the real stuff, not somebody who kind of illegally filmed it in the theater. It's not the same. And the thing is you're not paying $199. So it's a great, I mean, there's nothing worse than paying all this money going to see a show and you go, that was horrible. And, you know, plus all your travel. So I think you can dabble in a few opportunities and really pleasantly surprised. And fine shows you would never like. And I found with our group here, they loved Kinky Boots, which I wasn't sure they would like. And they loved it. And, you know, shows that you think, like I showed them Oklahoma with Hugh Jackman, there was a version that was filmed in the National Theater there. And it's three hours. And they just felt it was, believe it or not, Oklahoma, they thought it was kind of too long. And that would have been their show. So very interesting. But yet other shows, like when we did King and I, that was, they didn't care about three hours there. So it's interesting to see the response. But I think the greatest thing is, don't forget about theater. And in our new environment, you have access. Because you're going to see it more and more. Because you'll be able to, you don't want to go to theater, but you'll, you can do it online. I think pretty soon, this is a Lynn prediction. It won't be long before the actually, I believe, the currently running shows on Broadway will figure out they'll have a day where they'll go and do a live stream, you'll go and buy tickets that they'll actually sell to the individual. That's what I think we'll get to because cost is so prohibitive for people. And it, it's so limits who can see live theater. Well, even though all your examples make the theater accessible to those, they can't. You still don't see the chandelier and phantom come crashing down above your head or the helicopter from this side. Oh, right. Well, you see that you want, you do see it. Right. You're not there. I mean, yes, yes, you won't think of that. Yes, I'll say, what, if you're sitting in the back of the fandom, it's not coming over your head. True, true. Right. Well, Lynn, thank you. This has been, this has been our pleasure to hear, hear about all these opportunities and take us back. Those of us that have been to the theater, bring us back to some memories. And I hope we can do this again. And with that, I, I thank you. And I thank you, our viewers for joining us today. And we look forward to seeing you again in two weeks. And until then, Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.