2013 Theses Master's

A Tale of Two Cities: An Analysis of Audience Behavior in the West End and on Broadway

Fogel, Alona

London’s West End theatre is most commonly compared with that of New York’s Broadway. Many theatre makers try to emulate what the other is doing across the pond by using different aspects of one another's successful working systems. Producers occasionally transfer their hit shows from one city to the other hoping for the same success. But often the shows do not achieve the same results that they did in their hometowns or they fail in unexpected ways. I believe that the theatrical community needs to stop comparing the two and realize that audience behavior on Broadway and the West End are two completely different entities and that the two could learn from one another but that they should not expect to achieve the same results.