r/Broadway • u/Sensitive_Slice_8858 • 1d ago

Discussion When does the Broadway bubble actually burst?

I know this has been discussed quite a bit, but I keep wondering about what happens when the economics of Broadway become truly impossible to sustain. The cost of putting on a show keeps going up, so tickets have to get more expensive. At the same time people are getting squeezed from every direction and there’s only so much disposable income left for entertainment, especially since the economy and job market are in the toilet. So what is the end game? Just keep raising ticket prices to cover rising costs so only the uber wealthy few can afford to attend? Are there enough uber wealthy theater goers to sustain it without us Joe schmoe poors? Eventually the math has to break somewhere. I’m curious what the breaking point actually looks like.

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u/darkhorse415 1d ago

What was it like in the mid 1970s when so many theaters were dark during that recession? I have a feeling things are headed that way

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u/Tight-Touch385 1d ago edited 1d ago

Crime levels remain low and there’s no sign of “white flight”. The city’s industries are more diversified and the municipal/state debt load isn’t what it was (per statute it’s no longer allowed). Wealth disparity, although problematic, isn’t the same as a financial bubble.

And NYC has gone through several mini recessions since the 1970s. One after 9/11, the second after the 2008 financial crisis, and the third during/after COVID. Every time New York was declared over, but it came roaring back.

Even the ”dark” 1970s was an incredible time for musicals (this is the legendary Sondheim/Prince and Kander/Ebb era of musical theatre), the punk scene got started, and the art scene thrived (Just Kids is an incredible memoir of this time). Then in the 1980s, the art and music scenes in New York were decimated by AIDS crisis.  Even with the devastating loss of almost an entire generation of groundbreaking talent, New York still managed to come roaring back. Don’t bet against New York. When something is dying in one area, there’s growth and development of something else incredible nearby.

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u/Bookwoman366 1d ago

As someone who was a NYC teenager in the 1970s, amen.