Theater Is For All Audiences

Tonight I saw Stick Fly on Broadway. I knew it was a family drama, starring Tracie Thoms and star produced by Alicia Keys. And I'm really glad I went.

Today there was a tempest in the theatre twitterverse. You've Cott Mail, a popular theatre email list, posted several blogs under the title "Is it bad to admit theater is for white people"?

It's not a surprise that Broadway audiences are wealthy and white. Most of the Broadway content creators are wealthy and white. The surprising part was that a serious proposition was made, stating that we, as a community, should just accept that theatre audiences are comprised of rich white folk and move on.

Let me tell you about the audience I saw tonight. It was not just white. And that is a welcome relief. Stick Fly is a solid piece of craftmanship about family drama. It had me engaged emotionally and thinking critically at the same time.

The audience tonight was different than the regular reserved Broadway audience. There was music in the house as well as onstage tonight. Sure, all of the Christmas present iphones were vibrating like crickets- but there was also solid waves of vocal appreciation. The laughs were longer- both nervous and joyful. I heard so very many different kinds of laughs tonight. People talked back to the characters in a way that made the audience feel like extended family.

One of my favorite etymologies is of the word 'entertain'. It originally means to bring together. Home entertainment systems miss the original meaning, and even a theatrical intermission contains less chatting with your neighbor and more reconnecting online (and Stick Fly is no exception, it had a program insert encouraging contact with its various social media accounts).

But the audience tonight was varied in its demographic in that the audience was not just white people, but people of color. The varied audience present tonight was engaged and committed to the show. I don't think the director anticipated this kind of enthusiasm, as it was a pronounced departure from the more typical and reserved Broadway response. At times, some dialogue was lost and that was disappointing. But the incredible work of the cast, especially Condola Rashad, made it a great night at the theatre.

One of my favorite plays is Jane Wagner's Search for Signs of Intelligent Life. In it, there's a vignette about how some visitors forgot to watch a play- they were too busy watching the audience. After the standing ovation, as I stood to get my coat, it was a real pleasure to watch the audience gathering their things and preparing to disappear into the night. The woman in front of me had a large smile and two tears paused midway down her cheeks. Couples stood in place, debating the politics and the poetry of what they had seen. And there were so many different people leaving, who had been able to come together to share in this art.

There is great theatre being made every day by people who aren't the typical Broadway content creator. And some of this great theatre has come to Broadway. Stick Fly is not alone. The Mountaintop also opened this season, and Audra McDonald & Norm Lewis come to Broadway next week in The Gershwin's Porgy & Bess.

The field has been dominated by wealthy white people. That's known fact. The primary demographic is also wealthy white people. Also known fact. To assume that these facts will persist is foolish at its best and foul at its worst. The core theatre-going group is rapidly aging out. The Great White Way will die when its theatre-goers do.

If theatre-makers continue to focus solely on the historic theatre-goer, they are focusing their efforts on only a small slice of the people seeking entertainment. And they'll miss out on another great entertainment experience- the response of new audiences.