Bringing Broadway to the Screen

It is undeniable that theater, and particularly the magic of Broadway productions, is an incredibly unique and special experience. A large part of this magic comes from the fact that you experience incredible acting and singing performances live, in person. However, because live theater tends to be concentrated in cities and Broadway productions are primarily staged in New York City, access to these productions is limited.

In recent years, with advances in technology and the growth of streaming, efforts have been made to bring live theater to wider audiences. One of the most significant ways this has been done is through professional recordings, commonly known as proshots, which capture a stage production with its original staging, performances, and choreography intact. While professionally filmed stage productions existed long before the streaming era, their reach was often limited by where and how they were distributed.

One notable early example of a Broadway proshot reaching audiences beyond the theater was Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway. The final Broadway cast of Rent was professionally filmed in 2008, with footage captured from performances in August and September. The finished recording was initially released in movie theaters before becoming available through pay-per-view and Video on Demand in 2009 (Playbill). This gave audiences who could not attend the production in New York another way to experience the Broadway show after its twelve-year run had ended.

More than a decade later, that accessibility expanded dramatically with the release of Hamilton on Disney+ in July 2020. Rather than adapting the musical into a traditional movie, the recording preserved the Broadway production and featured nearly the entire original principal cast. Its release brought the Broadway production directly into viewers’ homes through one of the largest mainstream streaming platforms. Hamilton became the most-watched streaming program across major platforms in July 2020, demonstrating just how large the audience for professionally filmed Broadway productions could become when they were made widely and easily accessible (Forbes)

The success of Hamilton helped demonstrate that proshots did not have to remain a niche way of preserving theater. Instead, streaming could give Broadway productions an entirely new audience long after, or even while, they were being performed onstage. In the years that followed, other major streaming platforms began releasing professionally filmed stage productions of their own.

One of the clearest examples came just over a year later with Come From Away. The Broadway production was filmed live at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in May 2021 and released globally on Apple TV+ that September. Rather than recreating the musical as a traditional film, the production brought back members of the Broadway cast and its original Broadway director, Christopher Ashley. The filming itself also remained closely connected to the show’s live roots, taking place in front of an audience that included 9/11 survivors and frontline workers (Apple TV).

Its release represented another important expansion for proshots. Come From Away became the first Broadway show to stream on Apple TV+, bringing a production that had previously depended on audiences physically coming to the theater onto another major global streaming service (Shubert). In doing so, it showed how proshots could preserve the elements that made a particular Broadway production special while removing many of the geographic barriers that had traditionally limited who could experience it.

Beyond simply expanding access to Broadway, proshots also have the unique ability to preserve a specific version of a production after its live run has ended. Broadway casts are constantly changing, and eventually every production closes, meaning that even audiences who are able to travel to New York may miss the opportunity to see the performers who originally made a show famous.

Newsies is a strong example of how a proshot can give one of these productions a much longer life. The musical closed on Broadway in 2014, but in 2016, several members of its original Broadway cast, including Jeremy Jordan, Kara Lindsay, Ben Fankhauser, and Andrew Keenan-Bolger, reunited with members of the national touring company to professionally film the show at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. The recording was initially released in movie theaters in February 2017 before becoming available digitally that May and eventually arriving on Netflix later that year. In its original three-day theatrical release alone, the filmed production earned $3.47 million (Playbill)

For fans who never saw Newsies on Broadway, the proshot offered the chance to experience many of the original performers, choreography, and staging years after the production closed. With original star Jeremy Jordan returning as Jack Kelly, the recording demonstrates how proshots can preserve a specific version of a show that would otherwise disappear once the curtain closes.

The importance of preserving Broadway productions became especially clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when shows suddenly disappeared from the stage. Waitress, which originally ran on Broadway from 2016 to 2020, returned for a limited engagement in 2021 with its composer and lyricist Sara Bareilles starring as Jenna. Bareilles explained that when the show closed during the pandemic, the team regretted never having professionally filmed it, making a proshot a priority when they had the opportunity to return (Playbill).

The production was filmed during its 2021 Broadway run and later premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023 before receiving a nationwide theatrical release. The proshot ultimately gave Waitress a life beyond Broadway, preserving a version of the production that audiences would otherwise no longer have the opportunity to experience (Playbill).

Of course, a proshot can never completely recreate the experience of seeing a Broadway production live. The energy of the performers, the audience, and experiencing a show in real time are what make live theater so unique. However, greater access to filmed theater does not necessarily take away from that experience.

Ultimately, proshots are not meant to replace live theater but to make it more accessible and preserve productions long after their final curtain. Whether introducing millions of people to Hamilton or allowing audiences to experience performances from Newsies and Waitress years later, proshots give Broadway a life beyond the stage while preserving the magic that made audiences want to see it in the first place.