Broadway and Board Games

Today's post focuses on the Disneyfication of Broadway and what it teaches us about board games. 'Disneyfication' is a term my undergrad theatre professor used to describe the trend of large, splashy, expensive shows being mounted on Broadway. These shows have complex scenery, props, and costumes. And they are frequently connected to an outside IP. As the name suggests, Disney musicals on Broadway are emblematic of this trend and likely its progenitor. Other musicals that fit into this category are The Addam's Family and Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Hamilton, by contrast, has a minimalist set and Brechtian staging that are somewhat jarring when you watch it on Disney+ and don't know what to expect, although it is still a large production budget-wise. (I could write a whole post on Hamilton, Brecht, and Disney audiences, but this isn't a theatre blog.) 

That should give you an idea of what I'm talking about. The results of Disneyfication are farther reaching than the NYC theatre scene, however. Bigger productions changed audience expectations and pushed regional producers to go even bigger on much more limited budgets. (There's a lot more I could say here about health and safety, among other considerations, but they don't apply to board games as much.) Big productions pull in the largest audiences but also cost the most. They are also the hardest to do well if you don't have unlimited resources available. 

Movies, pre-pandemic, had shifted to a place where mid-level budget movies were increasingly hard to make. (I'm not sure how online releases plays into this, so I'm ignoring it.) Instead, big-budget blockbusters and small indie films were prioritized. We also see this shift in video games, with expensive AAA titles and the plethora of indie studios. A similar trend comes out of the Disneyfication of Broadway. Large musicals and small-cast straight plays (plays without singing) appear and do well on Broadway. Large-cast straight plays are much less popular in general and have been for probably over a hundred years at this point. Shakespeare still get performed (not really on Broadway, though), but new plays don't have the same cast size common during the Renaissance or even the century that followed. I'm talking about the difference between 5 and 15 people on stage, which doesn't seem like a lot, but the costs of additional actors in additional costumes adds up. 

Whether or not this shift is a good thing, it has had tangible results in how we view theatre. Large musicals (small ones do exist, usually with single sets and around five actors) are consumed not dissimilar to how summer blockbusters are: wide appeal to a general audience with a sense of bright, sensory-overload entertainment; even the sad musicals have catchy tunes. Straight plays are smaller, closer affairs. They require more intellectual and emotional labor from the audience. 

I haven't worked on Broadway. My concern is, more often than not, the regional theaters who bite off more than they can chew with big shows to the neglect of introducing their audiences to smaller shows or mid-sized shows that were less popular. My concern doesn't transfer one-to-one to board games, but I think we're starting to see a similar trend of large-vs-small polarization. 

Obviously, large miniatures games have exploded on Kickstarter. As game production values have risen, other games, like Rococo, have deluxified themselves into a higher price bracket. Big games at premium prices are clearly a feature of the hobby now. In response, a renewed focus on small games is growing. I do wonder if these trends in tandem will ultimately lead to the death of the forty dollar game the way medium-budget movies and plays have been largely pushed out of their industries. 

Some observations: Big productions are bigger risks, especially for small companies. I hope that crowdfunding will actually preserve mid-sized games as a way for small companies to foray into bigger games without the risks of a huge game. 

Games with fewer elements allow greater opportunity for close attention to detail. I expect we will see a rise in the quality of small box games, as competition increases, faster than we will in big box games. 

There may be increased pressure to shrink box sizes if the market continues to push out the middle. I'm mostly for this. Cheaper, good games are a good thing for the hobby. Maybe the mid-range price can also exist to house deluxe small games, in addition to streamlined big games. 

And really, a lot of this has already happened and is currently happening in board games. The bigger question is if these trends will last and how should designers respond to them. If other industries are an indication, yes, this trend will continue. Independent designers need to be aware of the shift in the market. I think new designers who pitch to publishers are going to have an increasingly hard time pitching medium to large games and the result will be increased competition among designs of small games.