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Abstract
In recent years, the longstanding practice of producing and circulating bootleg recordings of Broadway musicals has escalated as have condemnations of this activity as detrimental to the commercial theatre industry. Drawing on work from media industry studies, this article reframes theatre bootlegging not as a detrimental practice, but as one that may have generative contributions to the theatre industry for its promotional effects. Rather than celebrating such efforts as wholly resistant or co-opted, however, we must understand bootlegging as essentially fraught, staging the inherent tension between the Broadway musical as art and commerce and blurring the distinction between producers and consumers. Critical attention to theatrical bootlegging as a social and cultural practice foregrounds the range of stakeholders in theatre culture as well as the myriad ways that they function as market actors.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 A quick search of “Broadway bootlegs” on YouTube on 31 May 2020 brought up not only hits, but shows with much shorter runs, such as Amélie (56 performances), Bandstand (166 performances), and 9 to 5 (148 performances). There were also a good number of musical theatre productions from around the country that never made it to Broadway.
2 Lobato (Citation2012), 109. I should note that Lobato’s interest here is in cinema, but I adapt his discussion to theatre in light of his subsequent work on informal media economies, to include media content in general.
3 A digital marketer at BroadwayCon told me that casting directors and producers make note of an actor’s social media following when making casting decisions. Therefore, if stars like Murin alienate fans, they ironically could do more detriment to their careers than theatre bootlegs.