I'm only going to say this once:
LIVE PERFORMANCE IS A FINITE RESOURCE.
Live theatre costs *money*. A show costs a certain amount to create, rehearse, design, build, and mount. I think we all know that. But here's a thing a lot of people don't get:
Every single individual performance costs a certain amount of money.
Once a movie is made and distributed and marketed, the only ongoing costs are residuals (and power/etc at the theater). The cast and crew have done their work and been paid their contracted amount. Adding seventeen more showings is going to go straight towards the bottom line.
In live performance, however, that is not the case. Each and every single performance requires the same number of artists doing the same amount of work, and all those artists need to be paid. Adding seventeen more performances is going to add significant costs.
Live performance is expensive. Opera is the most expensive by far, but musical theatre isn't far behind. By the time you're at Broadway/West End levels, you're talking about highly skilled, highly trained professionals who are at the very top of their field (and also, not for nothing, living and working in hellishly expensive cities).
Furthermore! Each individual live performance only has so many tickets, i.e. product, to sell. Each performance must pay for itself. You can fudge that a little, average it out, which is how you get reduced/free school shows, rush tickets, half-full Wednesday matinees. But the more individual performances in the red, the harder it is to make money overall. You can only raise ticket prices so much. A show that cannot pay for itself will close once the seed money runs out.
I repeat: a show that cannot pay for itself will close.
Additionally! The majority of Broadway ticket sales come from tourists!
DO YOU SEE WHERE I'M GOING WITH THIS?
I'm not talking about the "ephemeral nature of theatre" or whatever. I majored in theatre and have performed most of my life, and I do believe in the power of live performance. BUT! I have also! been working! as a live performance ticket sales professional for 20 years! And I am talking about money!
I am talking about money. Literally. I am talking financially, economically, realistically. I can't speak to the rest of the world, but US government funding for the arts is laughably inadequate. Live performance must pay for itself in this country, or it will close.
Art is not only happening in New York or London. You want to see the newest, most popular, most expensive musicals running on Broadway/West End? You may have to wait for that, either a national tour or a proshot or a slime tutorial, just like I can't go see the Pyramids right now. That's rough. It really is. I get it. But the good news is that there is affordable, even free art happening all around you!
Community theatre! Regional theatre! College theatre! High school theatre! Children's theatre!
Museums of art! Museums of oddities!
High school band competitions and halftime shows!
Performances of niche choirs singing only music from 1200s Japan!
And all of those artists would love your support.
