We learn that another celebrity-backed movie-morphed-into-musical is coming to town, courtesy of Dolly Parton. I’m sure ticket prices will be as splashy as the stage.
It’s a case of the chicken and the egg on Broadway these days. Are movies being recycled into splashy musicals to fill seats in the theaters, at unaffordable [to most people] prices, to pay for the high-priced movie and TV celebs and splashy sets? Or do we need the movies-made-into-splashy-musicals and celebs to fill seats, and thus have to charge exorbitant prices to pay for the splashy sets and high-price stars they have to use on Broadway in order to fill those seats.

Big money drives a Broadway production, and big money pays the bill for a night out at the theater. “Disney-fication” revived an ailing Broadway and cleaned up the Theater District, but ticket prices have gone through the roof, and I wonder what’s going to happen if tourism goes down in this crappy economy, especially from international visitors. In his effort to help the middle-class, can Mr. Obama help pass initiatives to subsidize the arts, as they do in Europe, to keep tickets reasonably priced? Or better yet, to help emerging producers, directors, composers, and writers without Disney-type bank accounts to put up original and stage fresh ideas, without such a hefty price-tag?