I’ve been issued a challenge.

Last night over dinner I mentioned to my fiancé my excitement over the cast recording of American Idiot coming out in May. Yes, I am that sad. I then went on to explain exactly what American Idiot was, ie a staged version of two of Green Day’s albums.

You can imagine how exciting it is living with me.

For some reason, a wry smile appeared on her face. Knowing my disdain for jukebox musicals, she commented ‘but isn’t that a jukebox musical…’ I protested, making it clear that American Idiot was originally a concept album, and therefore this is just a staged version of a concept album, just like Chess or Jon English’s Paris… Ok, so not all concept albums deserve to be staged, but they sure aren’t jukebox musicals. Thus, a challenge was issued.

Prove that staged concept albums are better than, deserve more appreciation, and are ultimately different to jukebox musicals.

Easy.

First off, the definitions. A jukebox musical, according to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, “is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular songs as its musical score.” Jukebox musicals have recently become a plague hit on Broadway and the West End, with shows such as Mamma Mia, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert and Jersey Boys taking other people’s songs, placing them within the show and raking in the money.

Wikipedia also, incorrectly, includes American Idiot on it’s list of jukebox musicals.

Jukebox musicals use previously released popular songs within the context of their plot. That is, they take a song out of it’s original context and give it new meaning within the story of their show. Sure, some could argue that shows such as Buddy, Dusty or Jersey Boys don’t fit within this classification due to the fact that the songs are being performed as part of the artists story. However, I would still argue that they are jukebox musicals, due to the fact that the songs weren’t originally intended to fit as a reference to that artist’s life. They were released as pop songs, devoid of context within a story.

Now we come to American Idiot.

American Idiot was released by Green Day in 2004 as a concept album. The songs follow a narrative based around the story of Jesus of Suburbia.

Green Day’s most recent release is another concept album called ‘21st Century Breakdown.’ The songs also follow a narrative.

American Idiot is also a musical that just premiered on Broadway. American Idiot, the musical, is an amalgamation of the American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown storylines into one story. That is, the songs that are used within the show, with the exception of the curtain call, are all used in their original context, fitting into the storyline that they were written for.

This, to me, is the fundamental difference between a jukebox musical and a stage concept album. Why do I think the latter is better than the former? Mostly due to the fact that the songs were written and intended for a narrative. Writing for musical theatre, or cabaret for that matter, is a very different beast to writing a pop song. Concept albums flirt with the line a little, but generally fall into the musical side of the fence, due to the fact that these songs are written to progress a story. They don’t need to be altered or played with very much because that element already exists within the song. Jukebox musicals, however, usually need to alter the source material slightly to make it relevant to the story. Quite often, due to the fairly strict Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus format of most pop songs, when they are appropriated to the stage they seem slightly naff. A show like Priscilla works for this reason. They don’t want, or need, to provide deep emotional connection through the songs, but simply need to entertain.

Actually, I think most jukebox musicals can be summed up in that last statement.

I get quite snobbish when I get on the subject of jukebox musicals, but I seem to prefer songs within musicals when they were written specifically for the musical/story.

If you think otherwise (and you probably do) then comment.

Convince me otherwise.

At first this was going to be a post on Marketing theatre (I’m guessing a rather long post), but instead I’m going to use it to give my thoughts on how Twitter could be used to build (and/or strengthen) online theatre communities.

There has been some interesting talk about Twitter and Social Media and their use in Theatre, particuarly around marketing. The Stage published an article last week about internet marketing and building communities through social media, using Legally Blonde: The Musical as an example. There’s also been some good posts over at London Theatre Blog about Social Media and Web 2.0 by Sinead MacManus. However, most of these have been around promotion and marketing, and I really think that Twitter can be used to do more than this.

First things first… There is no one way to use Twitter. It is an extremely powerful tool, and the rules keep getting rewritten by the users themselves. For a decent overview of what twitter is all about, check out the Twitter Wikipedia Entry. If you want a help guide, then check out Twitter’s help portal. If there is anything not covered in either of these, I will attempt to link to a relevent article. Also, this post is relying on the fact that people don’t protect their updates. If you protect your updates, you aren’t willing to fully participate in the wider community.

Twitter is a powerful community building and networking  tool. I have been using Twitter for close to a year and have got to a point where I can’t be away from it for long periods of time (Withdrawal-type symptoms can occur including profuse sweating, gnawing of fingernails/limbs, and random screaming. I’ve almost joined a 12-step program). For the most part, I have used it for a mix of socia and professional networking. Within PR and marketing, Twitter has become a fairly important tool for a number of reasons. Here are the key areas I use Twitter for: networking, sharing, resource gathering and promotion.

Let’s see how each of these could be used for theatre…

Networking

Networking within theatre does happen. However, it seems to happen primarily in and around productions. You build your network by performing in shows, and occassionally by seeing them. However, between shows not much else happens. Also, theatre can be rather cliquey. It is rather impossible to penetrate certain theatre circles due to their closed nature, especially when the only opportunity is to perform with these people, or know someone who has performed with them.

Twitter, on the other hand, seems to put everyone on a more even playing field. Unlike facebook, you don’t have to get approval to follow someone’s twitter feed. That means that you can follow anyone (who doesn’t protect their tweets) from your best mate Tim to Oprah. This also means that you have a means of connecting with anybody you follow through @ mentioning them (similar to tagging and commenting in Facebook) or DMing them (similar to a private message in Facebook).

Where these connections really come in handy is at tweetups. Tweetups offer you an opportunity to meet the people within your twitter network and start to really build a community. When I first started attending networking events within the pr and marketing space, I found it rather difficult considering I didn’t know anyone at all. However, at my first tweetup, there was much less apprehension, considering I had already interacted with quite a few people on Twitter and therefore had a starting point.

Tweetups can then strengthen the bond within your Twitter community, as meeting someone in person can often make the connection more tangible. Also, it’s always great to get a group of people together who are all passionate about the same thing!

Sharing

One of the other great aspects of twitter is the ability to share. When I first starting using Twitter, a common description I heard was ‘it’s just like facebook status updates’. For me, Twitter is more about sharing information with your network (although facebook seems to be incorporating more and more Twitterlike features).

Sharing links to interesting articles, blog posts, youtube videos, events etc. has become a really important part of Twitter. Also, Twitter offers you the ability to ReTweet tweets that you might find interesting or useful, but that your followers may not see in their tweet stream, pushing the original tweet out to a new audience. Sharing interesting and useful information benefits you, as it increases your personal profile within your twitter community. Also, this will spur others to do the same, which will prove beneficial to you…

Collecting resources

The other upside to you posting your links to information is that you can then take advantage of others doing the same. Through this you could find out the most up to date news, find interesting articles and blog posts about theatre and related industries, find out about upcoming events, productions and auditions, take advantage of special deals or get free stuff. It’s all about building a community that is based around a mutual interest, trust and reciprocation.

Another side of collecting resources is the idea of crowdsourcing. This could be as simple as asking your followers a question (sometimes lazy questions, often hashtagged as #lazyweb), to more complicated crowdsourcing possibilities. For example, Next to Normal on Broadway has used crowdsourcing through Twitter in a really interesting way. The composers are using their Twitter account to improve their show. This ranges from running ideas past their Twitter followers, to asking their followers to submit lyrics or song titles to new songs they are writing for the show. They then work these into the show.

Think of all the ways theatre groups could use crowdsourcing… what about an impro show that relied on a twitterfeed from the audience using a hashtag for the event? It’s probably already been done, but there are millions of ways that theatre groups could use crowdsourcing, and for theatre venues or companies, it provides an automatic way to connect with your audiences.

Promotion

Finally, promotion. Let me put this out there… Twitter is not a tool purely for promotion. Many brands have attempted to get on Twitter and push their marketing messages out without attempting to engage at all. Many brands have tried and quickly failed.

The important thing with promoting yourself, your event or your company on Twitter is to provide some value for your followers. Although opinion does vary on this, I believe that it is important to show yourself through your tweets. Mix in personal with professional. Not every tweet needs to be about theatre (or marketing or PR etc etc). The main rules I stick by with my Twitter are One: would I say what I’m about to say on Twitter out loud in a room full of people? Two: would the people in this room be interested in what I’m saying? Three: have I been talking about myself too much?

However, promotion through Twitter can be beneficial. Building strong communities and networks can helpl when attempting to promote something related, as you can leverage your position as an influencer, and also leverage other people within your network who are influencers within their own groups. However, it also comes down to the value of what you are saying. Twitter is a great place to promote through special deals or offers, as this provides value to the other users and they benefit from being connected to you.

Also, authenticity is fairly important when it comes to promotion on Twitter. If you are promoting something that you are involved with, whether it be an event, a production or just promoting your new blog post, make sure you are upfront about your involvement. Nothing is worse than being told about how great something is as if it’s a product endorsement, and finding out that it’s actually that person’s product.

Basically, if you are going to promote something, be upfront and honest about it. Don’t spam and make sure that the people who follow you are actually interested in what you have to say.

Wrapping Up

There are loads of great articles out there on building communities through twitter and general overviews for what social media is. I’ve provided a few links to them below.

Even though this post was a bit of a ramble on how we could use Twitter, I hope it still made sense. If it didn’t, comment and I’ll try and clear things up!

Links:

What the F**k is Social Media? – One Year Later – A great presentation on social media and why it’s important.

How To: Build Community on Twitter – Tips on how to build your own community

Community Building 101: Building a Community on Twitter – Some great rules of thumb on building and maintaining a good community on Twitter

Quick update from the land of lurk…

On the 21st of October I boarded a plane and 24 hours later landed at Heathrow Airport. I am currently sitting in my newly rented house in Twickenham, updating my slightly sad looking blog.

I am now yet another Australian in the UK looking for work. However, hopefully this won’t be my status for too long, as I like the sound of ‘Only Australian in the UK earning money’ a little more. So far, my experiences have been great. I have discovered the very green and very beautiful town of Letchworth (where the girl grew up), traipsed around the brilliant and not-so-brilliant tourist destinations London has to offer, found a small cottage in Twickenham to live (with the girl, of course) and have seen one show so far (working also brings the benefit of money).

The show I decided to see was Victoria Wood’s Talent at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Originally, we were only coming to the UK for a week on a trip to visit the girl’s family. However, because of unforeseen circumstances, we ended up moving there instead. Because of my tight budget, we originally planned to see one show. With all that the West End has to offer, I wanted to see something small and different, preferably something I hadn’t heard of.

First off, Menier Chocolate Factory is not what I expected. Having never seen a West End (or off-West End, as the Chocolate Factory is), I was expecting something… bigger. The Chocolate Factory is akin to Sydney’s Downstairs at the Belvoir. Ok, maybe a little bigger than that, but fairly similar in stage space as well. Therefore, when I entered, I suddenly expected something of a more… amateurish affair. However, upon glancing at the bios in the program, these were all west-end performers, with a number having been leads in a number of BBC productions as well. To boot, Victoria Wood herself was directing the production.

To be frank, I didn’t know what to think.

What resulted was a not altogether unenjoyable evening.

Victoria Wood is something of a national treasure in the UK. Having never heard of her myself, my shocked and appalled other half decided to force upon me many youtube clips of the comedienne. I can’t say that I was unimpressed. Wood has a talent for deadpan and has a uniquely British sense of humour that made BBC comedies in the 70s and 80s so fantastic. However, Wood herself has said that musicals ‘aren’t really my thing’. Which is why Talent isn’t so much a musical, but more a play with a couple of music numbers thrown in.

Talent was written by Wood in the late 70s as a showpiece for both her and Julie Walters. Set on a talent night at Bunter’s nightclub, contestant Julie and her fat virginal friend Maureen wait backstage. Through the night we are introduced to a range of characters from ukulele wielding magicians, to lecherous compares and complicated ex-boyfriends. The play barely manages a plot, but does manage quite a few laughs and some interesting characters, as well as a few decent tunes.

Suzie Toase absolutely steals the show as Maureen (the role originally written for Wood). Her performance is brilliantly understated and her comic timing is nigh on perfect. In contrast, Leanne Rowe did an adequate job of playing ambitious singer, Julie, but just didn’t match up to her costars. Considering her fairly extensive West End stage experience, I found her performance rather flat and I couldn’t really connect with her at all. Unfortunate, considering hers is one of the only characters you are supposed to connect with and feel sympathy for. However, whether this was the performance or the writing I’m still not sure.

All of the men did a great job with small character roles. As an ensemble, they performed extremely well, always leaving me wanting more from their characters. However, the standout male performer was definitely Mark Hadfield. His portrayal of the magician’s assistant and the nightclub’s matronly manager were extremely well played. You can tell that this man is a seasoned comedic actor, as his performance was completely without fault, and his comic timing was something that can only come with years of performing.

Staging of the show was good, but not altogether exciting. You can tell they were working on a limited budget, and they achieved what they needed for what seemed like a show more suited to amateur theatre groups.

Talent was enjoyable, but definitely wasn’t the best thing I could’ve seen. It has a few performances left in its run, so if you are in London and want to see something a little different, then I would recommend it, but don’t expect something that will blow your mind. It will be an enjoyable night, though.

I’m currently writing a post on twitter and theatre (long overdue) and should be finished in the next few days. I shall also start updating for more often, so add @lurkmoophy to your RSS readers and you shall be rewarded.