Playbill

Playbill is a monthly U.S. magazine for theatregoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of Playbill are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's program. Playbill's CEO and President is Philip S. Birsh.

This article is about the theater magazine. For a program, see Programme (booklet).
Playbill
EditorMark Peikert
CategoriesTheatre
FrequencyMonthly
Total circulation
(2012)		4,073,680
First issue1884; New Series 1982
CompanyTotalTheater
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.playbill.com
ISSN0551-0678

Playbill was first printed in 1884 for a single theatre on 21st Street in New York City. The magazine is now used at nearly every Broadway theatre, as well as many Off-Broadway productions. Outside New York City, Playbill is used at theatres throughout the United States. Circulation as of September 2012 was 4,073,680.[1]

History
Cover of The Playbill for a 1939 production of No Time for Comedy starring Katharine Cornell

The Playbill, as it was called until 1957, was billed as "The Magazine of the Theatre" and was published by an entity known as the New York Theatre Program Corporation.[2]

Format

Each issue features articles focusing on actors, new plays, musicals, and special attractions. This "wraparound" section is the same for all Playbills at all venues each month. Within this wraparound, the Playbill contains listings, photos, and biographies of the cast; biographies of authors, composers, and production staff; a list of scenes, as songs and their performers (for musicals); and a brief description of the setting for the particular show. It also lists the number of intermissions and "At This Theatre", a column with historical information on the theatre housing the production. The Playbill distributed on opening night of a Broadway show is stamped with a seal on the cover and the date appears on the title page within the magazine. Which is not the case for every openingsnight playbill, there are a lot in circulation that one have the date.

In lieu of the cast and show information, the subscription edition of Playbill contains listings of Broadway and Off-Broadway productions and news from London productions and North American touring companies.

The Playbill banner is yellow with black writing. Each June since 2014, the yellow banner has been replaced with a rainbow banner for LGBT Pride Month.

The Playbill banner has changed the yellow to another color on rare occasions in its history:

  • October 2008 – green for the fifth anniversary of Wicked
  • October 2011 – royal blue for the tenth anniversary of Mamma Mia!
  • October 2013 – green for the tenth anniversary of Wicked[3]
  • April 2018 – white and red for the 5th anniversary of Kinky Boots

Other media

Playbill launched Playbill Online in January 1994. The free website offers news about the theatre industry, focusing on New York shows but including regional theatre, touring, and international stage happenings. It is read by show fans and theatre practitioners, and is updated regularly. It also offers discounts on tickets and dining for its members.

In 2000, Playbill added www.playbillstore.com, an online shopping store offering official Playbill merchandise and merchandise from most current Broadway and touring productions.

In 2006, Playbill released its first records on Playbill Records, an imprint of SonyBMG. Releases included Brian Stokes Mitchell's eponymous solo album and two compilations of show tunes entitled Scene Stealers, The Men and Scene Stealers, The Women.

Playbill Radio, a 24-hour Broadway-themed internet radio station featuring news, podcasts, and a musical library of over 20,000 titles, premiered in 2007.

In 2011, Playbill launched Playbill Vault, a comprehensive online database of Broadway history. Playbill Vault provides records of Broadway productions from 1930 to the present.[4] Information on the website includes original and current casts, actor head shots, production credits, Playbill cover images, scanned Playbill Who's Who pages, production photos, and videos.

In 2012, Playbill launched Playbill Memory Bank, a website that allowed theater-goers to track their memories of their theater attendances by entering dates they attended a show, along with information like ticket scans. The site provided information about cast members, including which performer had each particular role, for roles that may have had several replacements over the life of the show. Playbill Memory Bank shut down December 31, 2016.[5]

Playbill launched its first app, called Playbill Passport, on January 4, 2016.[6]

Competition with Stagebill

For decades, Playbill concentrated on Broadway and Off-Broadway theaters, while Stagebill focused on concerts, opera, and dance in venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.[7] However, by the late 1990s, Playbill was highly profitable; Stagebill was not, losing millions of dollars annually by 1998.[8] To increase revenue, Stagebill entered Playbill's turf. The truce was first breached in 1995, when The Public Theater quietly defected to Stagebill, and more noisily in 1997, when Disney contracted Stagebill for its musical The Lion King at its newly reopened New Amsterdam Theatre.[9] The main point of contention in the latter case was control over advertising content: Playbill is distributed free to theaters, relying on advertising revenue that is completely under its authority, whereas, per company policy, Disney required a program without cigarette or liquor ads.[10]

In response to Stagebill's upstart incursion, Playbill began to produce Showbill, a sister publication that conformed to Disney's advertising requirements for all publications distributed in its properties.[7] Now with an alternative, Disney switched from Stagebill to Showbill for The Lion King late in its run at the New Amsterdam. (When the musical moved to the Minskoff Theatre, which Disney does not own, it was obligated to use Playbill, as are Disney productions at other theaters.[7]) The Ford Center for the Performing Arts also commissioned Showbill for its inaugural production of Ragtime, presumably to exclude other automakers' ads.[7] In a different circumstance, the producers of the Broadway revival of Cabaret wished to maintain the atmosphere of a sleazy nightclub at its Studio 54 venue, and insisted on handing out Playbills after the performance (instead of before). Playbill, sensing missed exposure for its advertisers, offered the show's producers "Showbill" instead.[11]

Additionally, Playbill responded further by producing publications for classic arts venues, aggressively courting many venues that were once Stagebill clients. In the spring of 2002, Playbill signed a contract with Carnegie Hall; this milestone was bookended by the earlier acquisition of the valuable Metropolitan Opera program and the ensuing contract with the New York Philharmonic—both tenants of Stagebill's erstwhile stronghold Lincoln Center.[9] With the acquisition of the programs for performing arts venues, Playbill broke from its typical format and began publishing completely customized programs in the vein of Stagebill.[10] This, coupled with continuing fiscal troubles, signaled the end of Stagebill as a publishing entity; later that year, Stagebill became insolvent after five years of head-to-head competition with Playbill, which acquired the Stagebill trademark.[12]

References
  1. "National Rate Card" (PDF). Playbill. January 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  2. "Inside description of ownership". The Playbill. 1939.
  3. "Wicked Playbill Will Be Greenified for 10th Anniversary on Broadway". Playbill. 30 September 2013. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  4. Dries, Kate. "Daily Rehearsal: Theater nerds rejoice over Playbill Vault". WBEZ Onstage/Backstage. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
  5. "Playbill Memory Vault 2012 - 2016". facebook.com. 6 December 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  6. Playbill Staff (6 March 2016). "Playbill Passport App Launches: The First-Ever Mobile Companion to Broadway Programs". Playbill. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  7. Pincus-Roth, Zachary (18 October 2007). "Ask Playbill". Playbill.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2013. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  8. Jones, Chris (10 June 2002). "Stagebill is sold to rival Playbill". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  9. Brodesser, Claude; Jones, Oliver (9 March 1999). "Melodrama at Met". Variety. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  10. Mandell, Jonathan (25 August 2002). "Theater's memory bank expands". The New York Times. NYTimes.com. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  11. "Playbill? Showbill? Stagebill?". Talkinbroadway.com. 19 March 1998. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  12. Hofler, Robert (9 June 2002). "Playbill corners legit market". Variety. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
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