Watering Down The Broadway Product (And It Is Product)

Touring Broadway shows use scaled down sets, smaller casts and smaller orchestras. The lower budgets make the touring possible. But there are artistic compromises, and even though audiences will pay to see smaller versions of Broadway shows, it would be a mistake to think that Broadway itself could scale down and hold its allure. “What’s troubling about the settlement of the musicians’ strike is that the top level of Broadway entertainment and artistry, the brand-name level, has been subject to a watering down that may eventually inform the expectations of an audience.”