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GRAMMYs

"Moulin Rouge" Cast

Photo: Bruce Glikas/WireImage

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Inside The Broadway Recording Of 'Moulin Rouge' inside-moulin-rouge-broadway-cast-recording-baz-luhrmann-matt-stine-more

Inside The 'Moulin Rouge' Broadway Cast Recording, With Baz Luhrmann, Matt Stine & More

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Get into the Moulin Rouge state of mind with a deep dive into the making of its GRAMMY-nominated cast recording
Bryan Reesman
GRAMMYs
Jan 8, 2020 - 4:42 pm

Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge seemed like it would be a natural fit for Broadway. It has a fresh pop music score, romantic chemistry between its stars, the glittery Green Fairy (Kylie Minogue) and dazzling scenery and cinematography. Then there is the ill-fated romantic triangle between a writer (Evan McGregor), a courtesan at the titular venue (Nicole Kidman), and the devious Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh) who finances their new "Spectacular Spectacular" show and wants to bed her. Emotional chaos ensues.

While the Broadway show has become a hit, and its cast album is nominated for Best Musical Theater Album at this year's GRAMMY Awards, it took a lot of hard work and some artistic alterations to get it to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre last summer, and then into the studio for the cast recording. There are no grand tracking and overhead shots onstage, but scenic designer Derek McLane created some stunning interiors and impressive miniatures for outdoor backgrounds. The Fairy is gone, and The Duke is a more charismatic villain. But the story is still a crowd pleaser, and Luhrmann, the original film's director and co-screenwriter, is pleased as punch with his Oscar-winning tale's new incarnation.

"I am thrilled with it," Luhrmann tells the Recording Academy. "Look, it's the first time on any show of mine that I've not been at the center of it. I've been involved as artistic counsel. [Director] Alex [Timbers] and his fantastic young team have done the work. I would turn up as Uncle Baz, watch a run and give notes, and then go, 'Fantastic, kids, keep going. I'm off to have a gin and tonic.' That was about the best gig I've ever had. It's a bit like a grandparent, you know – all of the joy, none of the responsibility. Of course, it's just killing it on Broadway."

The Original Broadway Cast Recording for Moulin Rouge! The Musical – which includes star lovers Karen Olivo and Aaron Tveit, dastardly duke Tam Matu, and ebullient club emcee Danny Burstein – was produced by Luhrmann, musical director Justin Levine, music producer Matt Stine, and director Alex Timbers. It is available via Luhrmann’s label, House of Iona, and RCA Records, and last summer it debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Cast Albums Chart.

Luhrmann makes a distinction between working on the "epic" film soundtrack as album producer and then on the Broadway cast album, where he was part of a production team.

"Matt is great at a desk," says Luhrmann. "Justin is so brilliant at running in and out with artists. He really has an orchestra inside his head. He can sing anything, so he's got this great musical connection. The thing about cast albums is that you generally have to run in a room and record it in a day. We had a few days to record, but real constraints, and our whole philosophy was to really keep the experience of the show, but nonetheless move towards much more of a recording in its own right."

Luhrmann adds that the team's goal was to have "the spirit and the freedom of a live recording" but the "production value of a standalone record," which he feels Broadway cast albums do not tend to have.

Funnily enough, Stine, Levine, and the show's sound designer Peter Hylenski also aimed to have the polished sound of a studio album live in the Hirschfeld. "It's live theater," says Stine. "You're up against physics there, but I think we did all right."

Stine explains that the show has actual production elements since the orchestra plays to 32 channels of prerecorded track material. Almost every song is performed to a click track and time code, and their conductor and "fantastic music director" Cian McCarthy runs their Ableton digital work station while conducting the cast and the orchestra. "It's a big job," stresses Stine. The Moulin Rouge cast album expanded the show's sound by taking the 14-piece orchestra and adding 18 more string players to the existing four.

https://twitter.com/MoulinRougeBway/status/1197152987178840064

Pop the champagne! Our cast album has just been spectacularly recognized with a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/47CHuJN13D

— Moulin Rouge The Musical - Broadway (@MoulinRougeBway) November 20, 2019

While many cast albums are recorded in a day or two, Moulin Rouge had closer to two weeks.

"We did a number of sessions with our core band as well as with our additional string section," elaborates musical director Levine. "Then the following week, the company of actors came in over two or three days and we recorded the rest. A cast album is like the reverse engineering of a record because all of the things that you think of as production on an album, particularly a pop album, are the orchestrations and the development of the music itself. You get into the studio with much more than you might on a pop record where you originally lay down scratch tracks, start adding beats, and maybe add strings. [For us] it was about figuring out where we needed to pull things back or what aspects of the mix to really punch up for the album."

Naturally, finding the balance of musical and book sequences on a cast album are important. Moulin Rouge focuses on the music with a few added elements.

"I think one of the big pluses of the stage show is the energy of that live performance," says Levine. "That was something that we often tried to address in the mix. In some cases, a cast album is just trying to capture what comes through the board and get a good mix of it. We did that for the most part, but then there were places where we had a little fun taking advantage of being an album, and in some places treating it a bit more like a concept album where we were using motifs and snippets from the book. About 80 percent of the show has music, both underscore and songs, so I think we were really trying to maintain a listening experience that was independent of the show itself."

"We all decided that it would be exciting to pursue a conceptual side to the cast album and to use Danny's character Zidler as almost like an emcee for the album in a sense, much like he does in the show in the opening number," says Stine. "But just to put in little snippets of him, little dreamlike voiceovers sprinkled through throughout to call back to certain story moments. That was really challenging and fun. A lot of the times with Broadway cast albums, it's just capture the show and capture it well. But this was fun to actually get to dig in, do a little extra production, and try some things and create a vibe."

Stine says that the idea of a music producer is a relatively new concept for Broadway and theater. He relishes the role because he creates a bridge between the music department and the sound departments.

"In this case, there isn't a composer – Justin is the closest thing we have to that," says Stine. "But I look at collaborating with the music supervisor, the music director, and our amazing sound designer Peter Hylenski very similarly to making a record in that when you're producing a record in the studio and coordinating between an engineer and the band, or the band leader or the songwriters, and you're helping to create the sound of that record. In the theater, I look it at the same way – you're just working with all the different departments to help create the sound of the show."

https://twitter.com/MoulinRougeBway/status/1208069493114753024

In honor of our Grammy-nominated vinyl dropping last week, check out this spectacular look behind-the-scenes of the Moulin Rouge! The Musical cast recording! pic.twitter.com/c9a79D3Gew

— Moulin Rouge The Musical - Broadway (@MoulinRougeBway) December 20, 2019

Song changes were necessitated not only by 18 years of newer pop music coming along after the movie's release, but by narrative alterations to the musical version. One prime example: In the film, Satine seeks to leave the club and resists the advances of The Duke who wants to make her his lover. On the stage, she wants to save the club and soon gives in to the sexual advances of this dark and sexy version of The Duke who ultimately wants to own her. (It has been argued that this newer version of Satine is viewed in a more modern and liberated light in her role as a sex worker.) Thus, Madonna's "Like A Virgin," which was featured prominently prior to the seduction scenario in the film, has been replaced by a three-song medley including "Material Girl," "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend," and Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)" as The Duke entices Satine with money and jewelry to try to bring her under his control.

Other songs were replaced because they could not be licensed for the film. Levine reveals that Queen's "The Show Must Go On" was a no-go with the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody being released, and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was unattainable because it is being used in the development of a Kurt Cobain project. Throughout both the film and Broadway productions, issues with licensing kept some ideas and songs from being used, which made the whole process more complicated, but the creators adapted and at times came up with better selections.

Some songs received greater usage on stage. "Lady Marmalade," whose use was expanded in the musical, became a racy and successful music video for Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, and P!nk back in the day. Now, four young ladies appear more than once in the musical to replicate the sexy bravado of that performance. Levine notes that the Police's "Roxanne" runs longer, Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" is featured more, and the film's love theme, "Come What May," is repeated a few times. Further, "The Elephant Love Medley" that closes out Act I has nearly two dozen songs rolling together into one giant mash-up.

Levine says that his personal goal was not to merely update the song catalog and take advantage of nearly 20 years of subsequent music, but also to expand on the different genres that the score would contain. "The show spans about 100 years of popular music and also delves more into R&B, soul music, hip-hop, and some different areas as well," says Levine.

"Justin found so many clever ways to use more and more songs that are familiar to people, call back certain emotions, and use them at just the right moments," says Stine, who also served as music producer on the recent "Beetlejuice" musical.

"The film has its own language, and we were breaking precedents in the film," recollects Luhrmann. "There was no language to latch on, breaking all those publishing rules. But I tell you what, the finesse and the craft and the way Justin and Matt have gone beyond the mash-up... I think about ''Crazy' and the way it goes into 'Rolling In The Deep'. It's a beautiful execution, and they've taken the finesse of the mash-up to another level."

Both Stine and Levine loved working with Luhrmann, who served as an artistic consultant during the production and had a great collaborative role in the cast recording due to his extensive past studio experience.

"Baz was really terrific in motivating the performers, whether it was the orchestra or the actors," recalls Stine. "He would just get on the mic and give them fun exercises and games to play that just kept them excited and engaged. He got great performances out of them. He was also just fun to have around. He had so many really creative and fun ideas to explore once we got into the mixing. Post production was great for me because I love a challenge. Anytime he had some crazy ideas, [we said] let's go for it, let's try it, let's see what happens."

"I was always very taken by how constructive and positive and generous he was," Levine says of Luhrmann. "I can't even imagine what it must've been like for him to watch his baby fall into these different hands and take on this very different shape. But he was always very supportive, and even when he didn't agree with choices we made, he always knew how to talk about it in a way that led us to a better place. He's got such a great ear, and he also really had a lot of faith in myself and Matt to get the thing to where it needed to go."

(GRAMMY.com contributor Bryan Reesman is the host of the podcast "Side Jams" and the author of "Bon Jovi: The Story".)

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Singing—And Streaming—To Success On Broadway

Ariana Grande performs at the 2020 GRAMMYs

Ariana Grande at the 2020 GRAMMYs

Photo: Monty Brinton/CBS/Getty Images

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Ariana Grande & Shoshana Bean To Play Virtual Show ariana-grande-broadway-star-shoshana-bean-perform-subculture-virtual-benefit-concert

Ariana Grande & Broadway Star Shoshana Bean To Perform For SubCulture Virtual Benefit Concert

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The Mon., April 27 livestream show will feature both powerhouse vocalists performing from their homes with Broadway composer and SubCulture concert curator Jason Robert Brown
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Apr 22, 2020 - 2:05 pm

On Mon., April 27, GRAMMY-winning pop songstress Ariana Grande and Broadway musical star Shoshana Bean will treat fans to a special livestream concert for the SubCulture Residency Concert, to benefit the currently out-of-work staff and musicians from the beloved N.Y.C. venue.

The event of theater nerd dreams is led by musical composer and SubCulture Artist-in-Residency concert curator Jason Robert Brown. He will perform with the two powerhouse vocalists/performers—all from the comfort of their homes, of course.

https://twitter.com/MrJasonRBrown/status/1253031873795760129

THE YOUTH OF AMERICA HAVE SPOKEN.https://t.co/qMws8IuUxR

— Jason Robert Brown (@MrJasonRBrown) April 22, 2020

"I had to figure out some way to let these notes and words in my head come out and be shared with my collaborators and my audience, and so, here we are," Brown said in a statement.

"All of us in our homes, making music however and whenever we can, with an amazing team to help pull it all together, and two of the greatest singers on the planet Earth: the patron saint of the SubCulture Residency, Shoshana Bean, and GRAMMY-winner, icon and total theater nerd Ariana Grande. We've put together a show about what we've lost, what we've discovered and what we're grateful for, and I can't wait to share it with you."

2020 GRAMMYs: Ariana Grande Returns To The Stage With A Powerhouse Pop Medley

Back in 2008, Grande worked with Brown on "13," her Broadway and professional debut, at age 15. The "thank u, next" singer more recently showed of her musical theater chops in NBC's "Hairspray Live!" in YEAR. At the 2020 GRAMMY Awards, she served up a sultry, pink-hued medley of "My Favorite Things," "7 rings," which interpolates the Rodgers and Hammerstein-classic, and "thank u, next." The year prior, at the 61st GRAMMY Awards, she won her first golden gramophone; Best Pop Vocal Album for 2018's Sweetener.

Up until 2006, Bean sang her heart out in lead roles in Broadway's "Wicked," "Hairspray," "Funny Girl" and more, and recently returned to the spotlight after time away, with the lead role in the beloved Sara Bareilles-scored musical "Waitress." Tomorrow, April 23, she will perform during the "Stonewall Gives Back!" livestream concert to celebrate and support the LGBTQ+ community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The livestream concert series is free to watch, but viewers are encouraged to donate to their fund to assist the SubCulture staff and musicians. It will be streaming on SubCulture's Facebook page and Vimeo at 5:00 p.m. ET on Mon. April 27.

Taylor Swift And Ariana Grande Donate to Fans Financially Impacted by COVID-19

Billy Porter & Rosie O'Donnell

Billy Porter & Rosie O'Donnell

Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for GLAAD

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Rosie O'Donnell & Friends Fundraise For COVID-19 rosie-odonnell-host-livestream-billy-porter-gloria-estefan-morgan-freeman-more-broadway

Rosie O'Donnell To Host Livestream With Billy Porter, Gloria Estefan, Morgan Freeman & More For Broadway Coronavirus Relief

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On Sun. March 22, the daytime TV icon will revive her Emmy-winning show with a star-studded special guest cast for one night only, to benefit The Actors Fund
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Mar 19, 2020 - 2:31 pm

Today, Emmy winner Rosie O'Donnell revealed she will be hosting a star-studded special livestream show this Sun., March 22 to benefit The Actors Fund, a non-profit org supporting entertainment professionals in need. Billy Porter, Gloria Estefan, Morgan Freeman, Jordin Sparks, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Jessica Parker, Barry Manilow, Ben Platt, Kristen Chenoweth and many more stars will join the show for performances and conversation—while practicing safe social-distancing from their own homes.

https://twitter.com/Rosie/status/1240469712393457664

sunday night 7 pm https://t.co/pzkQDS6T8G and youtube/broadway.com - we will be raising money for @TheActorsFund - dont miss it ❤️👍🏽♥️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/wVtv20WIE6

— ROSIE (@Rosie) March 19, 2020

The special edition of The Rosie O'Donnell Show will be streamed on Broadway.com's YouTube and website at 7:00 p.m. ET, and will encourage viewers to donate to the Fund. A week ago, on March 12, Broadway closed its doors until at least April 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, along with many other aspects of the entertainment industry that have come to a screeching halt.

WATCH LIST: Live Streaming Concerts From SOFI TUKKER To Neil Young

"Everybody who knows me knows that Broadway has been one of the brightest lights in my life since the time I was a little girl. It has also been the lifeblood of New York City for generation after generation. After all Broadway has given to the world, now—in this time of tremendous need—it's our turn to give something back," O'Donnell said in a statement to People. "There is no better way to support this community than via The Actors Fund. And, with a line-up like this, I dare you not to tune in."

Read: King Henry VIII's "Six" Wives Are Alive & Live On Broadway

John McDaniel, The Rosie O’Donnell Show's original music director/composer/producer will return for the epic reunion.

"This is the ultimate win-win proposition; The Actors Fund needs our support, and we're all desperate for some fabulous entertainment we can enjoy from the safety of our own homes. I'm so grateful to Rosie, and to this truly jaw-dropping array of talent that have agreed to participate," said actor/producer Erich Bergen, who will be joining in on the online fun.

The Actors Fund supports people working in arts and entertainment in many ways, such as with housing, career and health care resources,including counseling, addiction/recovery, HIV/AIDS and senior services.

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Recording Academy And MusiCares Establish COVID-19 Relief Fund

Ben Platt performs at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards in 2020

Ben Platt performs at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards in 2020

Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

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Ben Platt: Hasty Pudding Theatricals 2020 MOTY ben-platt-named-harvard-university%E2%80%99s-hasty-pudding-theatricals-2020-man-year

Ben Platt Named Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals 2020 Man Of The Year

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The multi-hyphenate, 26, becomes the youngest recipient of the honor in the award's 54-year history
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Feb 7, 2020 - 11:58 am

Multi-hyphenate Ben Platt is adding another entry to his already-extensive résumé. The GRAMMY-, Tony- and Emmy-winning actor, singer and songwriter has been named Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals 2020 Man Of The Year.

The annual award, presented by the university's Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the oldest theatrical organization in the U.S., recognizes "performers who have made lasting and impressive contributions to the world of entertainment," according to a press release announcing this year's honorees. (The organization also announced TV and film actress, director, writer and producer Elizabeth Banks as the 2020 Woman Of The Year.) 

Previous winners of the Man Of The Year award include Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, 10-time GRAMMY winner Justin Timberlake, Robin Williams and others. Platt's win now makes him the youngest recipient of the honor—he's 26—in the award's 54-year history. 

Read: "Hadestown" Wins Best Musical Theater Album | 2020 GRAMMYs

Platt is widely known for his starring roles across film, TV and theater. He is currently the star and executive producer of "The Politician," the new Netflix series from Ryan Murphy, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance By An Actor in the TV category this year. He's also starred in the Pitch Perfect musical film franchise, in addition to roles in Ricki And The Flash, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Drunk Parents and other films. 

In 2017, Platt won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor In A Musical for his starring role in "Dear Evan Hansen." The cast recording of the musical would go on to win a GRAMMY for Best Musical Theater Album at the 60th GRAMMY Awards, held in 2018, marking Platt's first and only golden gramophone—so far.

On the music front, Platt released his 2019 debut album, Sing To Me Instead, which became a Top 20 hit on the Billboard 200 chart. 

The Hasty Pudding Theatricals award follows a stellar performance from Platt at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards last month, where he joined Camila Cabello, Gary Clark Jr., Common, Cyndi Lauper and others in a special performance of "I Sing The Body Electric" from the film Fame in a tribute to GRAMMY executive producer Ken Ehrlich.

10 Unforgettable Moments From The 2020 GRAMMY Awards

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Amber Gray and the Broadway cast of Hadestown

Photo by Matthew Murphy

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Singing—And Streaming—To Success On Broadway singing%E2%80%94and-streaming%E2%80%94-success-broadway-0

Singing—And Streaming—To Success On Broadway

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How the success of streaming platforms has launched an unorthodox new wave of Broadway productions
Bryan Reesman
GRAMMYs
Aug 7, 2019 - 10:17 am

The traditional trajectory of a musical seeking to reach the Great White Way was that it would start as a local or off-Broadway production, go through multiple permutations of performance and development, find the right commercial casting choices, do an out-of-town tryout, and then, if the creators got lucky and the show thrived, arrive on Broadway. But some recent productions have been bucking traditional channels, finding audiences through original soundtracks available on CD and more prominently by streaming platforms like Spotify, which has allowed unorthodox shows like Hadestown and Be More Chill to skirt the usual gatekeepers and reach mainstream theatergoers in New York City.

Streaming is making a difference. During opening week performances of both Hadestown and Be More Chill, their audiences emanated incredible enthusiasm. This was beyond even the normal warm reception given new shows. Many people in those seats intimately knew these shows.

Writer/composer Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown, a retelling of the Orpheus myth with both New Orleans and an industrial Hell as its settings, began life as an abstract, DIY community-style show in her home state of Vermont in 2006. Two incarnations later, she recorded a cast album in 2010 featuring vocalists Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, and Ben Knox Miller from The Low Anthem.

GRAMMYs

Andre De Shields in Hadestown

"It was a very magical collaboration," says Mitchell. That first cast album later lured director Rachel Chavkin and co-star Patrick Page to the project, which lead to productions off-Broadway and in Edmonton and London between 2016 and 2018. Later, Hadestown premiered on Broadway this past spring and won eight Tony Awards.

Mitchell does not seem to concern herself with streaming numbers on Hadestown (the Top 10 tracks on Spotify have notched up 7.6 million streams), but she notes that the three different recordings—the original concept album and off-Broadway and Broadway cast albums—"have definitely helped the show reach people who otherwise might not set foot in the theater. For all the complicated aspects of music streaming, I love that music is free. It's like water running to the sea. It will find the people who will listen to and love it, whoever they are."

The Hadestown creator adds that the process of developing the show over the past six years has been very public. "It's a little intense sometimes because people get attached to one version of a thing, and they inevitably have feelings when that thing changes," notes Mitchell. "But people have been incredibly supportive of the time it took to bring this show to Broadway. In a way people are invested in, and have really been part of, the journey itself, not just the destination. They’ve literally been part of the process."

GRAMMYs

Be More Chill

After the sci-fi teen comedy Be More Chill (adapted from Ned Vizzini's book) finished its four-week run at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey in 2015, the original cast album was recorded to commemorate the experience. "No one ever thought that it would lead to having the show find a way back to a stage," admits composer Joe Iconis. But something unexpected happened.

"It was a perfect storm of things,” says Iconis. "There were a few shows around that time that had come out that had some audience crossover with us, like Dear Evan Hansen and The Lightning Thief musical. Through the magic of social-media algorithms, Be More Chill was suggested to people because of that." From their growing streaming audience, old-fashioned word of mouth built up interest. By August 2018, the offbeat musical Be More Chill, about a geeky teen outsider who swallows a supercomputer that seeks to turn him into a cool insider (with consequences), landed an off-Broadway run and then transferred to Broadway in February. It ends its official five-month run this Sunday, and a film adaptation is reportedly in development.

"The craziest thing when we were first experiencing this viral sensation was that kids who were listening to it just didn't know that it wasn't playing somewhere," recalls Iconis. "I would get messages every day being like, 'I'm confused. What theater is this that?' We had this bizarre thing where for the longest time we had this hit show audience without having a show. It was just these kids who knew it so well from the album."

The two soundtracks for Be More Chill have reportedly racked up over 300 million streams combined, with the older off-Broadway version accounting for a greater share of those. The show made enough of an impact that it was parodied on the opening sequence of the Tony Awards this year (although, oddly enough, the source material went uncredited). The musical was nominated for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written For The Theatre, the award for which ultimately went to Hadestown.

"When people first started discovering the show I would get messages, and I was just so thrilled that anyone was listening to the show at all," says Be More Chill writer Joe Tracz. "People were not just listening to it, but living with it and thinking about it and wanting to know more about the characters and the world. [This is] a show that's actually looking at whether technology is a good or a bad thing. The grand irony of Be More Chill is finding an audience through the Internet."

On the indie circuit, Buried composer Cordelia O'Driscoll says her offbeat show, about two serial killers who serendipitously meet on a date, has mainly built up an audience through over 70 performances in the U.K. and U.S. over the last two years. It was originally crowdfunded through Indiegogo for its 2017 debut at Scotland's annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Based on a book written by director Tom Williams, the show recently played at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in N.Y.C. Streaming has helped the show's creators find new fans as existing ones share the music, which she says has exceeded 200,000 streams, reaching many fans who do not live near where a current production is happening.

"In terms of what we've found out about our fans, it’s been interesting to see which songs have been streamed more than others, to see what music people are connecting with the most at certain times," says O'Driscoll. "It's an amazing way to start to understand audiences." The fun, irreverent show looks like it will continue to thrive and grow.

Other productions have been aware of streaming potential for musical exposure. Between their 2015 D.C. run and 2016 Broadway debut, the producers of Dear Evan Hansen released the streamable single "Waving Through A Window" which reportedly accumulated over one million streams prior to the show's N.Y.C. premiere. On the Broadway side, fans who have been waiting and clamoring for Hamilton tickets have repeatedly streamed its score and memorized it. They know the show before they have seen it. The full Hamilton soundtrack on YouTube alone has racked up nearly 10 million views.

"The new British musical Six has grown a huge following from the streaming of its album," says O'Driscoll. "The music is brilliant and works very well as a stand-alone album, so people are going to their shows already knowing all the words. It's really cool to see."

"It feels like with more musicians like myself coming to the theater from different angles, and being able to reach supporters by way of musical channels and not just theatrical ones, we all benefit,” says Mitchell. “It makes for more aesthetic diversity, and brings different folks with different tastes to Broadway.”

"When I was a kid, you'd find any musical by like digging through the musical theater section at Sam Goody or your local library, and you were lucky if they had like one Sondheim title," recalls Tracz. "The things you saw were restricted by what was there with physical media. Now with streaming, if you're looking to discover something new, you can find it. Or, even better, it can find you."

"Streaming has huge potential to significantly expand the reach of musical theatre, and remove the perceptions of elitism or exclusivity that some people think it has," says O'Driscoll. "It’s a very exciting time for musical theater."

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