Broadway’s 2015 breakout success, creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, the streaming release has increased the interest to see the show live. In the 2016 Tony Awards, Hamilton took home 11 trophies, including Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical. The musical follows the life, death, and legacy of one of the United States’ found fathers, Alexander Hamilton. The show was not only a critical success but also a cultural success, as it is now an unmovable part of the zeitgeist, including being used as a reference in other media including the "Rogers" musical from Hawkeye. The Hamilton pro-shot was filmed with the original cast, including Miranda as the title character Alexander Hamilton in 2016.
Hamilton was released on Disney+ in July 2020, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and after Broadway was shut down to abide by CDC guidelines. This streaming release brought about a resurgence of interest in the musical and earned the show another round of critical and popular success. Fans and the theater community have been asking for pro shots of musicals to be more common practice, given the expense of modern shows in addition to travel accommodations. The industry largely ignored these requests with the reasoning that putting a show on a streaming service would leave audiences disinterested in seeing the show live.
Now, according to Playbill, Miranda says Hamilton on Disney+ has done the exact opposite of what was expected and increased audience interest in seeing the show live and in-person. Miranda does not give specific numbers or information about what evidence he has seen to prove his claim, saying "by our estimation, it’s only amplified the demand to see Hamilton live." Read Miranda’s full quote below:
“It forever demolishes the idea that a beautifully shot version of your show diminishes the demand to see it live. In all of our estimations, it’s only amplified the demand to see Hamilton live. To have more pro shots, to have those out in the world, I think is a win. I would love to see more of that going forward.”
The number of pro-shots of musicals is slowly beginning to grow. Netflix has a pro-shot of Diana, a controversial new musical about Princess Diana’s life and marriage to Charles. Diana premiered on Netflix prior to its full stage debut, and thus far, it’s hard to tell if the show has reaped the same rewards as seen with Hamilton. While pro-shots are becoming more popular, there is also an increase in the number of film adaptations that are happening with musicals, including Miranda’s own In The Heights, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, and the questionable Dear Evan Hansen and Cats. Like the pro-shots, it has not yet been seen how much these films have impacted the live productions of these musicals.
For theater fans, the correlation Miranda points out makes sense, because many fans who can travel to New York and afford shows do see the same show multiple times. Releasing Hamilton on Disney+ introduced theater to a whole new audience, and it’s entirely logical that those who have seen the show at home want to see it live, because while the pro-shot was astounding, there are differences between the live and filmed versions of Hamilton. While it’s encouraging to see a growing interest in pro shots it’s also unlikely to see a drastic shift in the industry’s attitude towards them until Miranda can offer more concrete evidence about audience interest in Hamilton after seeing it on Disney+ first.
Source: Playbill
