Audience demographics

[ruinexplorer]

I saw this article released by the Broadway League about who was coming to see the shows. I wonder how this compares to other theaters around the country/world. I like that they said that younger viewers were on the rise, but I wonder if that has to do with some specific shows or is a trend among all shows.

 

[macsound]

I presume a certain amount has to do with new musicals that are more edgy.
Also, as someone from the Bay Area and having many friends who are programmers/ engineers and make ungodly amounts of money. So their lifestyle has elevated from our younger days working in community theatre to having week long trips in NY and Florida, doing things like spending $500 per seat to see Hamilton.

 

[sk8rsdad]

In my neck of the woods I expect to see a bump in younger theatre-goers over the next decade. School support for theatre arts took a nosedive a few decades ago but in the last decade has recovered somewhat thanks to programs like the Cappies, TV shows like Glee and Smash, movies like Fame, and MTI's TYI and Jr. scripts that have renewed attention and/or made it easier to put on a show.

 

[josh88]

I'm not sure it has anything to do with anything being edgy, for that matter there haven't been a ton of new "edgy" shows. I think it has more to do with Spongebob, Mean Girls, and a bunch of other new shows targeting younger people. There are a bunch of more "family friendly" shows around right now. I still think the biggest hurdle to getting people to shows is how expensive they are. They've gotten better about it with giveaways and lotteries which has made it more accessible to younger people who can't afford to just go see a show otherwise.

 

[tdtastic]

"* The average annual household income of the Broadway theatregoer was $222,120".....seriously?....average?!? Jesus. somebody buy ME a damn ticket...

 

[MNicolai]

"* The average annual household income of the Broadway theatregoer was $222,120".....seriously?....average?!? Jesus. somebody buy ME a damn ticket...

* The average Broadway theatregoer reported attending five shows in the previous 12 months. The group of devoted fans who attended 15 or more performances comprised only 5.5-percent of the audience, but accounted for 31-percent of all tickets (4.3 million admissions).

Sounds like Broadway, whether they like it or not, caters to a very specific type of audience, and that audience can be a bit incestuous.

Would be more interesting if they released the raw data or associated some charts and graphics to that data set. Could be some significant outliers that drag the average up.

Notable that the average attendee age is skewing downward. I wonder what happens if you eliminate Hamilton from the data -- does that 1 show represent the entirety of that trend or is the average age of Broadway theatergoers across all events actually beginning to come down?

 

[sk8rsdad]

It's not just Hamilton. School of Rock, all the Disney shows, Matilda, and many others are family fare.

 

[josh88]

And add in Waitress and Dear Evan Hanson, those have a pretty big younger following DEH especially. My annual income is well below 100k and my wife an I got down to the city to see 3 shows last year if I remember right. All at a reasonable cost, and I managed to build for 3 that I never got to see.

I also have former students at Hofstra, Fairleigh Dickinson, and a few others and they seem to be stepping up the amount of tickets to shows that they are giving their majors, so I assume that may play a part in it as well. Not to mention the uptick in live shows on tv in recent years exposing more people to theatre (as we watch the wicked halloween show on right now).

 

[macsound]

And add in Waitress and Dear Evan Hanson, those have a pretty big younger following DEH especially. My annual income is well below 100k and my wife an I got down to the city to see 3 shows last year if I remember right. All at a reasonable cost, and I managed to build for 3 that I never got to see.

I also have former students at Hofstra, Fairleigh Dickinson, and a few others and they seem to be stepping up the amount of tickets to shows that they are giving their majors, so I assume that may play a part in it as well. Not to mention the uptick in live shows on tv in recent years exposing more people to theatre (as we watch the wicked halloween show on right now).

Whats the Wicked halloween show?!