Jessica Ryan
@jessicaryan
Piratical pioneer of experiences live on the Internet (circa 2013) // CEO Broadway Unlocked, your friendly theatre on the internet // Indefatigable advocate for arts
Jessica Ryan
watch.broadwayunlocked.com
Some artists might bristle at your strategy of inviting in fan feedback as you create the work, leaving it open to significant influence from the audience in the middle of the creative process.
Julia Jacobs • TikTok to the Grammys: How a ‘Bridgerton’ Musical Beat Broadway (Published 2022)
They learned that they messed up. A blind spot was revealed to them. In terms of fixing that blind spot, they did a very accessible step for an institution — you educate yourself, you hire consultants, you have a “gender explosion” workshop with your current production. But often that first step of education ends when the workshop is done, which I... See more
Vulture • 1776’s Sara Porkalob Has Some Notes
It’s not just that creators use the internet
It’s that they were raised by it.
They’re more attuned to thinking like product designers than studio executives
They test ideas, respond to feedback, and ship what connects.
They understand... See more
It’s that they were raised by it.
Their feedback loop is instant
They understand internet culture
They publish, adapt, and evolve in real time.
They’re more attuned to thinking like product designers than studio executives
They test ideas, respond to feedback, and ship what connects.
They understand... See more
The Entire Hollywood System Explained in Tech Terms
It’s not just that creators use the internet
It’s that they were raised by it.
Their feedback loop is instant
They understand internet culture
They publish, adapt, and evolve in real time.
They’re more attuned to thinking like product designers than studio executives
They test ideas, respond to feedback, and ship what connects.
They understand momentum.
They’ve already absorbed the logic of bottom-up SaaS, intuitively.
This is why the next great storytellers won’t come from film school.
They’ll come from YouTube, Discord, & Substack
All thats missing is proper infrastructure.
ATG Entertainment, which has a long-term lease on the Lyric, has collected more than $34 million in rent on Broadway from Cursed Child. In the year ending in February 2025, rent consumed nearly 11% of box office sales. To be sure, ATG has its own real estate expenses. In 2013, it paid $64 million for the lease to the Lyric, and later spent millions more on Cursed Child renovations.
In hindsight, the reasons for the failed promise seem somewhat obvious: the Creator Economy was never really meant to be a solution for 99% of the hundreds of millions (or quite possibly billions) of creators that exist today; instead, it was designed to operationalize the financial infrastructure for the top 1%–the creators who have already broken... See more
Fast Company • fastcompany.com
Three years ago, as I was starting my consulting business, I made a big commitment to myself: my goal was to work toward a vibrant and sustainable performing arts field...
linkedin.com
This show needed younger members and I don’t believe it fully reached that audience. This is in part because of social media failures. Social media influencers that focus on theater aren’t really selling tickets generally (I’ve done research on this—more on that in a future column) and they aren’t even coming up on the feeds of non-theater fans.... See more
Cara Joy David • HERE LIES LOVE Tries Hard, But Still Fails To Find Its Broadway Audience
And you did “Bridgerton” without a record label?BARLOW In the beginning when it first started to blow up we had a few conversations with labels, but none of it felt right. We knew that we wanted to capitalize on the moment, and we knew that the faster we released it the better.BEAR We would have gotten an orchestra and a cast, and that would have... See more
Julia Jacobs • TikTok to the Grammys: How a ‘Bridgerton’ Musical Beat Broadway (Published 2022)
In order to imagine where the future is headed, let’s first lay out the three main steps of connection building to examine how the physical and digital worlds fare at each:
- Discovery : you find someone you want to meet, or that person finds you
- Connection : some initial contact is established
- Connection strengthening : further interactions