Hi hello, I’m Jess Ryan, founder of Broadway Unlocked. I write about theatre, technology, live broadcast and digital audiences every other Tuesday.

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As unearthed in our last Substack, at Broadway Unlocked there is no “situationship” when it comes to because our business gives us a clear and direct line to product and audience insight. Scores of studies and data, as well as our ~140 live shows on the internet, continually reinforce to us that there is a solid relationship to be had, with demand for both in-person and digital access to great theatre.

We’ve talked about the past history of theatre on screens, and we’ve talked about the present realities that get in the way of including digital audiences. So today, in Part Three of this series, I wanted to share some of the irrefutable evidence that there is very real demand and opportunity to attract and engage those audiences.

THE DATA

Digital Drives In-Person: Adults who used media to consume visual art or music, dance, or theater performances were at least five times as likely as other adults to attend in‐person arts events. (NEA: Paths to Participation Study 2021)

When I cite this data to people, it often comes as a surprise to them. But think of all the barriers you have to bust through to decide you want to go to in-person theatre, especially if you’re not someone who already is bought in: you have to decide going to the theatre is what you want to do with your evening. You have to spend money (often a lot of it), you have to travel to get there. Your confidence that you will enjoy your experience has to be pretty high to hit the go button. It’s much easier to stay home, watch Netflix, spackle your tile (I just like the word spackle).

When there’s the opportunity to experience live theatre and theatrical experiences on the internet, we make it easier to decide to watch - you don’t have to leave your living room, and you can make a last minute decision. We make it cheaper to buy in - thank you metrics of scale we talked about in the last Substack. If we can deliver a great show and a magical experience to the digital audience - then, of course, they are going to be more likely to come in-person. We’ve created demand that wasn’t there before. A bit of FOMO, even.

Streaming Is An Open Invitation: Of the 43 percent of total respondents who viewed livestreamed performing arts events, 62 percent were Black/African American and 48 percent were Hispanic (NEA: Arts Attendance, Art-Making and Social Connectedness Spring/Summer 2024)

This is a north star for me and our team– a big “why” behind the exceptionally hard and complicated work to build an ecosystem where live digital access is a reality. You and I know, theatre changes hearts, cultures and minds. If we can help increase the likelihood that all kinds of people will go to the theatre, that is a job well done in my book. On the flipside, this data is an invitation to acknowledge there are folks out there who are just never going to step inside a physical theatre. There are many reasons for this - chief among them financial, geographic and cultural barriers to entry. That doesn’t mean they should live a life without art. I want a digital place to exist for those folks, too.

Side note - my favorite part about building for this data is that it goes hand in hand with creating an arm of Broadway that *does* know what to do with the musicals and plays our current theatre system seems to have a hard time with.

Digital audiences want to champion, watch and support new musicals about a famous female Chickasaw sharp shooter, a queer superhero universe of shows, a play asking who gets to decide what makes a woman - the town, tradition or the ancient forces that have been watching all along?

I’m obsessed with building a home for these shows and joining our audiences in helping to make them successful.

55+ Is An Opportunity: 88% of those ages 55+ use YouTube on a weekly basis. Creating Results: What Do Seniors Do Online 2025

I’d say this is the biggest change from when I started this work, and a very big driver for us. This largely results from the pandemic forcing folks to become digitally native, but also, I offer this anecdote: We often take sales calls for new technology products we feel could help improve our business and efficiency. Nearly every 20-something startup sales guy I talk to finds out what we do and says - “Oh my god my parents would love that - they loved going to the theatre but just can’t get there anymore”. We’re taking a disciplined approach to building an audience pipeline that finds these folks and invites them in.

There’s a Verified Floor: 62% of the 14.7 Million admissions to Broadway shows in 2024 were folks from out of town or overseas. 94% of surveyed respondents registered intent to see another Broadway show. Broadway League: The Demographics of the Broadway Audience 2024-2025

That means 8.1M ticket buyers are outside NYC with no reliable, consistent and enjoyable digital option. Then we zoom out and start to think globally. Over the past 6 years, we’ve seen a pattern - our core digital audience markets are the US, the UK, Australia and Germany. Together, that total Theater Performance Arts market for those countries is valued at $5 Billion dollars. These stats tell us there is a desire to see more theatre and there is money to spend on it.

THE WRAP UP

WHEW. And so - here we are at the end of a deep dive into Broadway’s “situationship” with the internet. My takeaways? I gotta tell you, they aren’t particularly of the Pollyanna variety: Streaming in-person theatrical productions is complicated. It’s a “situationship” for very understandable reasons. Our physical theatrical system is vast and complex and can’t move at the speed of technology. This presents problems that are going to take years to solve.

And also: people categorically want this. Producers, artists and audiences alike. So what are we left with?

For me, it’s the realization that what we’re building here at Broadway Unlocked has to be bigger than Broadway (the physical place).

Yes, Broadway Unlocked will be where you can go see great Broadway theatre from home. But it also needs to be a place that doesn’t fully rely on Broadway’s permission to exist. A place by and for those of us ready to dive in, build and experience something new together.

That’s what making and going to the theatre has always been about, right? It’s certainly the part I love the most. And whether it’s in a physical space or live on a screen, the end game is the same: we want to reach more people, open more minds, shape more culture and warm more hearts.

So, what does making a home for live theatre on the internet look like, then? If you’re here, you’re along for the ride! Tune in here, every other Tuesday to find out.

So many of you here are from outside the New York universe.I am hungry to know what you’re thinking about on a day to day basis when you’re contemplating digital audiences. What have been your successes in building for this new world? What’s been hard? Have you had experiences as a digital audience member that you loved or hated? Please let us know!

Leave a comment

PS: Check out our collection of studies on digital and the arts here!

Previously on Broadway Unlocked

Find out what I learned when I was interrogated by seas of Broadway producers - check out my most recent Substack.

•••

Next up - June 30th, 2026

See you in two weeks!

Hi hello, I’m Jess Ryan, founder of Broadway Unlocked. I write about theatre, technology, live broadcast and digital audiences every other Tuesday.

Subscribe now

BUT FIRST THE TONYS…

Boy howdy, did I love this year’s Tonys - did you? For me, there was better set design, more satisfying camera shots, slightly cleaner audio, the bits felt more culturally relevant to me than they have in previous years. And how much did we love hearing Alden Ehrenreich talk about using film and live broadcast to create a financial counterbalance to the extreme costs of the in-person experience (and the resulting astronomical ticket prices)?!

I hosted a party and woke up Sunday morning really craving an interactive ballot experience for my guests that would allow us to track our picks and also see what we liked in relation to each other. So I took the opportunity to take my first whirl at coding with Claude. Anyone else done something like this yet? I honestly was thrilled with the results and so were my guests! My team and I are frequent beta testers for super early technology, so we’re very used to providing feedback on bugs and the user flow gap between what the engineers want and how we actually use it. Which kind of made me born for creating something with this tool.

If you’re interested, I used Claude to code, Visual Studio Code to edit the code generated by Claude, Supabase for the tables and databases and Netifly to host. It took me about 3.5 hours to fully build, refine and squash bugs. And it cost me around $20 in extra Claude usage fees and another $10 for hosting. Wild!! I have to be honest with you (and I’m dating myself a little here), it took me back to my Xanga blog days, when I taught myself to read and edit HTML because I wanted to customize what my blog looked like (to tie it all together, my username was Savionfunk, after Savion Glover lol).

I learned a ton - not the least of which was, as a theatre fan, I would love to have a record of how I voted each year and how that stacked up against the industry’s votes. And I think having dynamic leaderboards that connect us all together might be really fun. Who knows what the future holds for this fun app, but for now - you can go check out the leaderboard that included my friends and a few friends parties around the country (special thanks to Anant Das, Nico Juber, Greg Kamp, Andrea Prestinario, Dustin West) – and you can sign up for future updates HERE!

Alright - back to your regularly scheduled programming…

AND NOW, FOR THE DYNAMICS

In Part One of my examination of Broadway’s “situationship” to the internet and screens, I focused on tracing the past to see how it informs the present. Today, in Part Two, I want to look at my own direct experiences over the past six years, and see what insights we can glean from them.

As a bit of framing, I spent 2013-2020 deliberately staying out of the way of Broadway — I was building live broadcast concerts with YouTubers who were musical theatre kids first, running down to Rockwood to livestream my writer friends showcases, experimenting with cloud-based liveswitching tools to make TV-style content live on the internet. I felt like bumping up against capital B Broadway directly would create too much friction to keep myself and my business moving forward. Then, as the pandemic hit and All Together Now, my production company, was born, I gradually started to go inside commercial and institutional theatre. What I uncovered was… complex, messy and wildly inspiring.

After six years squarely focused on building theatrical livestreaming experiences inside Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theatre, there are a couple recurring relationship dynamics I’ve witnessed that keep us in the messy middle of this “situationship”.

Us-Versus-Them: Why is this so common?!

A few years ago, I was hired by a tech company to direct a live broadcast run on Broadway - 8 shows a week for two weeks, live cut and streamed at the same time as the show was happening in New York. While sitting in the orchestra during install, two young riggers above me, not knowing I was below them, started talking. I heard anxious chatter above me and I tuned in just as they said:

I am ashamed of how grumpy this makes me seem, but I gotta be honest - my first thought was “Listen kids, I’ve been doing theatre longer than you’ve been alive!

And in my day, I did theatre barefoot, uphill and in the winter!”

Jokes aside, it was a curious assumption to witness. My team and I (all theatre makers, btw) creatively led the project—we created the plan and executed the production, while the tech company paid the bill for that specific broadcast. I saw it as a symbiotic relationship and another step towards innovation, but some of the theatre employees saw us entirely differently. I’ve now seen it multiple times at various levels within the industry - there is an ingrained us-verus-them cultural vibe going on that has very real downstream effects. It’s one of the reasons Broadway Unlocked is built by artists who are entrepreneurs. It puts us in a unique position to combat this relationship dynamic and hopefully build collective action and a more unified way forward.

A Tale of Two Financial Models

This one’s a doozy. I’ve sat in front of dozens of general partners of Broadway shows, as they consider streaming for their show. They’re curious. They have questions. They want to want to do it. So why, 9 times out of 10, don’t they? These conversations revealed to me that the chasm between the theatre and livestream financial models have a lot to do with it.

As a founder of multiple businesses, I appreciate how tough it is to consider starting a new “arm” of your business with an entirely different financial model. The scale and finances of a Broadway show—where you know exactly how many seats you have, what your weekly operating budget is and how many weeks it will take to recoup—is patient, disciplined and legible. That’s quite different from a live broadcast of theatre—where the business model is basically a startup smashed into one night instead of ten years. I compare it to startups because live broadcasts create an environment that rapidly increases revenue at a significantly faster rate than costs, enabling sustainable, high-volume growth after a particular inflection point - the definition of scale.

As I continue to have these conversations, it’s clear to me that the business logic of a physical theater is deeply ingrained. The business logic of digital access is deeply different and much more foreign. And that is just a difficult square to circle, no matter how much we want this dual world to exist.

So, back to the question at hand: Is there a way out of this “situationship”? I find myself going back to the startup analogy. What makes a startup successful? This is certainly simplifying it a bit, but generally:

• A great product

• Understanding what your customer wants and needs

• An environment where constant iteration is possible

• A scalable business model

Broadway currently doesn’t have a sufficient environment under which these elements can be implemented and tested. And this leads directly to why I’ve been out on these streets, shouting about my boyfriend, live broadcast – Broadway Unlocked has it all and that’s enough to commit. Over the past six years, we’ve done 140+ shows. We’ve seen 250,000+ digital audience members cross our doors. We’ve evolved our definition and execution of what watching a live show on the internet actually entails, we’ve survived failed ideas and made them better the next time. I know Broadway will get there eventually - mostly because we have to. For me, the question becomes - what can we build that will help it along?

Is there a real relationship to be had here for Broadway and theatre more generally? Yes. Our data and experience proves it - I’ll dig into that in the next one. But maybe a more important question I want to be asking is — how are we cultivating that relationship? And do you think there is a better way than how we’ve been doing it over the past 50 years? I’m particularly interested to hear diverse perspectives on this - Broadway, indie, community international and regional theatre makers alike!

Leave a comment

Previously on Broadway Unlocked

Part 1 of this series is a deep dive on the history of our stages on screens.

Check out my most recent Substack to read more.

•••

Next up - June 16th, 2026

I typically do this every other week but I was really jazzed about this topic (and I learned so much going down the rabbit hole ) - it’s a three part series and it’s coming out every week for these three weeks. Here’s a preview of next week.

Tune in next week for more of the data we’re tracking at Broadway Unlocked.

Hi hello, I’m Jess Ryan, founder of Broadway Unlocked. I write about theatre, technology, live broadcast and digital audiences every other Tuesday.

Subscribe now

In my first note about MISCAST, I mentioned Broadway’s “situationship” to livestreaming, screens and the internet in general. I wanted to come back around and spend some time unpacking those thoughts. In case we’re not all hip to the lingo, I’ll use most of Merriam Webster’s definition of a situationship: “...a relationship whose members have not formally defined it or officially committed to it.” Lord, that describes livestreaming theatre to a T.

People have been trying to figure out the stage ⇆ screen relationship forever. At Broadway Unlocked, we’re certainly on that train. We’re closer than ever to a viable path (of which I believe there are many), but I maintain that the recipe for success is truly tied up in understanding why things stand as they do.

As anyone who knows me can tell you - when I get stuck on a problem, I LOVE to look back as a way to move forward. So, I started to do some digging:

THE HISTORY

In 1973, a purportedly great production of Much Ado About Nothing was telecast on CBS while the show was still running on Broadway. The box office tanked, the show closed nine days later and The New York Times headline read: ‘Much Ado’ of TV Dooms Stage Version.” Yikes. Ominous. That failed TV to Stage story has lived rent-free in Broadway’s collective memory for fifty years.

But context matters, right?

The social, technological and financial dynamics of a live broadcast in 1973 (and its impact on the in-person show) were entirely different than streaming the RENT30 concert today.

Where streaming is everywhere, our lives are digital and pro shots like Hamilton and Wicked only increase demand for the in-person theatrical show. I think one of the biggest mistakes we can make when it comes to our “situationship” with the internet is to draw straight lines from 1973 (and sometimes further back) to current times.

So here I am, wondering what other “Ado“s inform how we think about the live stage on screen today. Let me tell you—it’s incredibly difficult to get a clear and full picture of what came before when it applies to this arena. But I’m going to give it the old college try.

Recently, Gordon Cox put out a super comprehensive history of stage shows on screen via his Substack, Jacques. My friend and colleague Luisa Lyons did her graduate research and thesis on cataloging filmed live musicals—the most complete record she knows of— housed at FilmedLiveMusicals.com. Both are very worth checking out. When I did, I learned about the broadcast of Pacific Overtures on Japanese television in 1976. And that the original production of Gospel of Colonus had a PBS Great Performance in 1985, hailed as surviving “the transformation [from stage to screen] with its unique spirit remarkably intact.”

I noticed Gordon didn’t account for the She Loves Me Broadway livestream in 2016 (which I believe was the first Broadway livestream?) but Luisa has that one. Evan Shapiro, one of my favorite media commentators, told me at South by Southwest last year that he livestreamed something for opening night of Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk back in the 90’s, which was not present in either of their analyses. I actually can’t find a record of it anywhere (and that’s my favorite show in the entire world, how did I not know about that?! Evan, tell us more!)

Even more ironic: two shows that I directed, the live broadcast runs of Clyde’s (2021) and Between Riverside and Crazy (2022) at Second Stage are totally unaccounted for in both Jaques and Filmed Live Musicals, most likely because they literally don’t exist anywhere anymore. I find this so astonishing. In-person theatre is ephemeral and yet we still have a historical record of it happening. But a whole swath of streams - Clyde’s, BRAC, JaJa’s, they just seemingly….disappeared.

No wonder we can’t commit to our feelings for livestreams (and any other screen format of theatre, for that matter). This journey through history clarified at least one of the big problems: There’s not a clear quantitative, qualitative or even anecdotal data set to evaluate when trying to make up one’s mind. No Nielson, no League reports, no Netflix catalogue - no ability to watch Saturday night performances live every week, to discover if you like it and, more importantly, if it works commercially.

New section, who dis? (people still say that right? JK).

Anyone who pretends like the challenge of extending great theatre to digital audiences isn’t complicated is full of sh*t you know what. So many people around here have all the answers, but I certainly don’t so I’m ending each Substack with an opportunity for conversation.

I’ll leave this Part One missive with a question for you - Do you think there is a real relationship to be had here for capital B Broadway? I’m curious to hear your honest thoughts.

Leave a comment

PS: I am deeply grateful to both Gordon Cox and Luisa Lyons for their remarkable work on the history of filmed theatre. Please check them out via the links above!

Previously on Broadway Unlocked

Curious how the MISCAST26 digital premiere performed on YouTube this year? Check out my most recent Substack.

•••

Next up - June 9th, 2026

I typically do this every other week but I was really jazzed about this topic (and I learned so much going down the rabbit hole ) - it’s a three part series and it’s coming out every week for these three weeks. Here’s a preview of next week.

Tune in next week to find out what happened when I went inside and share with someone who would be interested!

Hi hello, I’m Jess Ryan, founder of Broadway Unlocked. I write about theatre, technology, live broadcast and digital audiences every other Tuesday.

Subscribe now

A quick note today, but an important and interesting one:

Last Tuesday at 7pm, the Broadway benefit concert MISCAST had a second opening night - this time on the internet.

📈 ~3000 unique audience members showed up for the live premiere on YouTube (that’s 2x the MISCAST capacity at Hammerstein where it’s captured).

💬 People showed up 45 minutes early to talk to each other ahead of the show.

🌎 15 countries and 16 states were accounted for (and that was just self-reported in the chat).

👀 We had more than 88,000 views of the show in under two days. We’re now well past 100,000.

The best theatrical moments don’t have a demand problem when it comes to the internet and streaming.

Which leaves the question of supply….

But more on that soon ;)

Previously on Broadway Unlocked

Want to know more about the history of MISCAST’s relationship with digital audiences? Check out last week’s post.

• • •

Next up - June 2, 2026

Broadway Has a Situationship With The Internet

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year, marking the seventh MISCAST live broadcast that we have produced in collaboration with our friends at MCC Theater. I’ve been honored to be at the helm as the director of the broadcast for the past three.

If you know anything about Broadway’s “situationship” with livestreaming over the years, you know how remarkable seven years in a row of a broadcast is. But it’s not surprising. Under the leadership of Bernie, Will, Blake, Vinny and Scott - MCC as an organization and MISCAST as an event understands and prioritizes the power and presence of the audience that can’t be in the physical room. For decades, and long before most anyone else in theatre, MCC has actively leveraged including a digital audience to showcase talent, build audiences and engage their community.

MCC’s flagship event, MISCAST began in 2001 and is a one-night-only musical spectacular featuring Broadway’s hottest stars performing songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast. Each year, the benefit concert happens in New York. Everyone’s favorite performers give wild, buzz-worthy performances. In 2008, MCC started releasing a montage of the show on YouTube (check out their very first one here, with baby Kelli O’Hara, Steven Pasquale and Brian d’Arcy James!). Then, in 2013 (the same year Broadway Unlocked was born, coincidentally), they started posting full songs to their YouTube channel and the internet began to excitedly wait for the video drops, hungry for the performances. In 2020, the entirety of MISCAST was streamed for the very first time - Broadway Unlocked hosted an exclusive stream for MCC’s most ardent supporters that first year and the rest of the world joined on MCC’s YouTube channel. And the rest is history - over the past six years, hundreds of thousands of people from around the world who aren’t able to come to the in-person show have gotten together virtually to be in the audience for the incredible night that is MISCAST.

When I was asked to direct the live broadcast for the first time in 2024, I spent a lot of time thinking about the essence of the show and how I could best reflect it to the digital audiences I love so much.

There are a few standout moments in every MISCAST concert that I come back to.

The big belty notes (hi Lea Michele and Nicholas Christopher looking at you tonight). The costume reveals (you really don’t want to miss Sara Chase and Alex Brightman). The jaw dropping takes on songs we’d never get to see otherwise (Vosk get OUT of here with I’ll Cover You).

There is so much magic in these A List performers loving on each other. My personal favorite is the fanciest people giving stink face because their fellow castmate is belting a note that shouldn’t be humanly possible (LJ Benet wins this one for me this year). I love every hand over the mouth. Every tear being dried. Every standing ovation.

I want everyone to witness those special moments, no matter where or how they’re watching. So we now place a camera facing the stars sitting on stage and regularly cut to their reactions and riotous applause. To me, that’s MISCAST. This one glorious night where we ALL get to experience theatre together. The sheer, unfiltered joy of being in community with people who love the same thing you love.

And that, at its core, is why I built Broadway Unlocked as a conduit to theatre that’s purpose-built for the internet.

It’s not about the platform or the pixels. It’s about the feeling of being in a room with people who love this thing as much as I do. As you do. As the 17 year old in Kansas who is going to watch MISCAST for the first time this year. As the 70 year old in Connecticut who loved coming in to see the show and just can’t make the trip anymore.

The theatre has always been meant for more people than could fit in one room. MISCAST teaches us that year after year. And we plan to open doors to these rooms a whole lot wider in the coming months.

So, register to watch the premiere with us: live, tonight at 7pm EDT - then enjoy on demand until midnight on Tuesday, May 26th. And stick around here for more observations and insights from the front line of building a new digital frontier for live theatre.

Til next time -

I’m Jess Ryan, a serial entrepreneur and award winning creator-director of live shows on stage and screen. Working at the intersection of live theatre and broadcast since 2013, I have directed or showrun nearly every major live broadcast to date including Clyde’s, Between Riverside and Crazy, The People’s Filibuster, Gavin Creel’s Memorial, Freestyle Love Supreme+ Live at the Waldorf, 7 years of Miscast, Amplify and The #Giveback Concert.

My studio and creative economy platform Broadway Unlocked® forges new digital pathways and pipelines for Broadway and theatre artists, producers and audiences. We open up access and successfully champion world-changing theatre earlier and more often.

I’m also the founder of a production company - All Together Now. In addition to being the exclusive production provider for Broadway Unlocked, ATN is a premiere live digital and in-person team for theatrical events and one night only stage shows. From a live podcast series at The Algonquin Hotel, to a late night-style live show for Apple TV, MLS and Walmart, to a livestreamed Afrofuturism symposium for the Smithsonian, All Together Now translates world-changing businesses into shows.

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