Billy Elliot the Forum

Good point mrmikerocks. They all need a break. So it would be better if retired Billys, Michaels and Debbys were to be the advance publicity. As an example, Alex and Marcus are from Iowa, and it would have been good public relations if they were visiting Des Moines dance schools. Excitement needs to be generated in advance of the show's visit.

accessmenj wrote:As an example, Alex and Marcus are from Iowa, and it would have been good public relations if they were visiting Des Moines dance schools.

Except they are leading their own lives. At the moment, Alex lives in NYC and Marcus is at school at NBS in Toronto. Plus I don't get the feeling that the Tour producers want to spend money for transporation costs and a stipend to non-regular employess.

On the other hand, Greg Jbara and Kiril Kulish did do some advance publicity in L.A.

When the tour is not on hiatus, if the producers at one of the upcoming stops want to foot the bill for a Billy who is not scheduled to be on stage and a chaperone to fly to their city for some publicity, I think that would make some sense. This was done several times during the previous incarnation of the tour.

porschesrule wrote:

accessmenj wrote:As an example, Alex and Marcus are from Iowa, and it would have been good public relations if they were visiting Des Moines dance schools.

Except they are leading their own lives. At the moment, Alex lives in NYC and Marcus is at school at NBS in Toronto. Plus I don't get the feeling that the Tour producers want to spend money for transporation costs and a stipend to non-regular employess.

With so many former Billys, Michaels and Debbys out there, I'm sure that some would love a Summer Job with BETM promotions. But whether BETM would spend the money is the problem.

It is always difficult to convince any business to spend money on promotion. But a few thousand dollars spent on promotion can be recovered with only around an additional one hundred ticket sales. Any decent promotion can do that many times over, especially over a week or two of ticket sales.

This thread is trying for suggestions to attract more boys and girls who are already in dance classes. I think that the kids in the show could do that with visits to the dance schools. It could even be part of local news stories.

Any other suggestions?

I think another big audience could be history buffs. Talk of BW always focuses on the Billy-ballet aspect, but from my experience, a lot of people are fascinated by the whole coal miners strike too. My dad found this interesting as he is into history.
Perhaps marketing the show to this audience would help as well. Plus once the tour reaches Canada, there are a lot of Brits here who will personally remember the strike. It's something that could really resonate with them.

rob_hanson1979 wrote:I think another big audience could be history buffs. Talk of BW always focuses on the Billy-ballet aspect, but from my experience, a lot of people are fascinated by the whole coal miners strike too. My dad found this interesting as he is into history.
Perhaps marketing the show to this audience would help as well. Plus once the tour reaches Canada, there are a lot of Brits here who will personally remember the strike. It's something that could really resonate with them.

History buffs would definitely be a group interested in the miners strike part of BETM. I know that I enjoyed reading many articles about the strike.

We can all help by telling friends who enjoy reading history about this side of Billy Elliot The Musical that is not obvious to the public. It would be particularly interesting to those interested in a specialty, such as the history of labor relations or the history of socialism. Colleges would be a good target for such promotions.

Colleges would be a good focus for promotions for Billy Elliot The Musical for many different majors. In addition to Industrial Relations majors, any History or Social Studies majors, Political Science majors, English majors, Theater majors, Writing majors or Dance majors would become strong fans of BETM. But the promotions would have to emphasize the serious theater side of the show.

Another group that could really appreciate Billy Elliot The Musical is all the mothers who take their kids to activities many times a week. It can be play practice, cheerleading, sports or dance. They will relate to the idea of encouraging and enabling their children's dream. How can we better promote BETM to them?

That's not a mom exclusive thing, though. Dads do that, too. If I were marketing the show to mothers I would stress the role of Dead Mum in the story and her relationship with Billy.

Perhaps the promotion people from BETM should place adds in High School programs for plays and athletic events. It would reach all the groups that have been discussed as potentially the best fans of Billy Elliot The Musical. It's not expensive, and usually supports a good cause.