Random Rambling #58: Musical Proshots

I am fortunate to afford season tickets to Shea’s here in Buffalo and see between 7 and 10 musicals or plays a year. Seeing live theater is a privilege I treasure, and I wish more people could experience it. Since attending shows can be expensive, I understand why it's seen as elitist. That’s why I strongly support proshots. There are two big reasons why I want to see more shows get proshots that get either a theatrical or streaming release. One is that it is much cheaper than seeing the show live, and the other is that it makes revisiting them much easier.

A pro-shot is a filmed theatrical performance. The most famous is “Hamilton.” Before the original cast left in 2016, they filmed select shows and planned a theatrical release. COVID shut the world down, so instead, Disney released it on Disney+. This gave everyone the chance to watch the hit musical, regardless of ticket affordability. In 2023, “Waitress: The Musical” released a pro-shot, which I enjoyed seeing again. Recently, Netflix premiered “Merrily We Roll Along,” and this summer will bring proshots of “Six” and “Hadestown.” I look forward to these releases and hope they signal a trend toward regular pro-shots.

Seeing live theater can be expensive, and I’m lucky to live in a city that attracts touring shows. Not everyone can access them or get to Broadway, so pro-shots make theater more accessible without the high ticket prices. While they don’t offer the same communal experience, they capture the essence of live performance. If you are someone who listens to a musical’s soundtrack before seeing it, you might know the words to the songs, but you could be missing the context. With most musicals, the songs are only a part of the story. Seeing the songs in the context of the musical can change how you view them. One of the soundtracks I listened to before seeing the show was “Hamilton.” Hearing “The World Was Wide Enough” is one thing, but to see it staged is another thing altogether. This is the song set during the famous duel between Hamilton and Burr. Burr fires his gun, and a member of the chorus “catches” the bullet and moves it across the stage towards Hamilton. This song becomes so much more powerful in this context, and that is something you don’t get when you just listen to it.

Pro-shots also allow a show to be revisited without waiting for a tour or traveling to Broadway. Years ago, I said that if I had to say what kind of geek I was, it would be a story geek. I love a good story more than anything else. There are many musicals with stories worth revisiting. As I said, I am obsessed with “Hadestown” and part of that has to do with the story. My love of writing can be traced back to a shared interest in Greek myths with a friend in middle school. “Hadestown” is a retelling of the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, so it was right up my alley. It is a story worth revisiting, and the musical does some very interesting things with it. Now I get to see the show again, something I have been dying to do since I first saw it three years ago. Proshots allow the show’s fans to revisit it whenever they want.

If you have not seen one of the recent proshots, seek them out. They offer a chance to see a Broadway-level show in the comfort of your own home. All are streaming (“Waitress” is available to rent or on HBO Max, “Come From Away” is on Apple TV), and they are worth your time. My hope is that with the release of “Six” and “Hadestown,” these proshots become more commonplace. They allow the theater to be more than just an experience for ticket holders. For the price of a movie ticket or a rental, anyone can watch these stories. More proshots are a great thing for the theater, as they open the medium to a wider audience.