Bootlegs in the Age of Quarantine
Gail Bello
For years now the bootleg debate has raged in the theatre community. It has been a constant back and forth of whether or not it is theft or at the very least if it is rude.
My personal stance is while I don’t like the idea of someone filming in the theater during a live performance as it is distracting to both the actors and fellow audience members, I really cannot be mad as I myself have enjoyed many a bootleg in my day. I have consumed the fruits of someone else’s no no’s. I have done so because otherwise, I would have little to no possibility of ever seeing these shows either because they are years old and now closed or they are currently running but I have no financial means to see them live.
Every time I ponder this, it always ultimately comes down to accessibility. For myself and many others, live theatre can be inaccessible whether it is Broadway or regional. Most people just cannot afford to see a live performance due to high ticket prices and travel costs. Bootlegs though controversial, are often the only way some individuals, especially children and young adults, ever get exposed to a complete theatrical performance aside from the Tony’s broadcast and other television appearances of Broadway casts that are almost always limited to one number, and often a shortened and possibly even censored version of said number completely out of context of the story.
The theatre industry has yet to make real changes to be more accessible by making professionally and legally filmed versions of every show available to the public for a reasonable price, which you’d think they’d be more incentivized to do given the advent of Broadway HD and other streaming services. Though even that is not a perfect solution given that those who can’t afford tickets and travel for a one-time experience, most likely cannot afford monthly payments to multiple online services.
The day I am writing this, the film of the original Hamilton cast was just announced to be coming to Disney+ this July rather than its original fall 2021 release date. In order to see it I am probably going to do a free trial or borrow a loved one’s login info. As much as Lin-Manuel Miranda deserves every penny for his masterpiece, it still stinks for the average theatre fan that it has been sold away to a major corporation that is eating every beloved franchise one by one. Especially when Miranda himself has said that he wants as many people to see Hamilton as possible due to its educational and cultural significance. A public rather than private release would have seemed more in line with this philosophy.
In an ideal world, there would be a right to art and media at least after a certain time frame has passed. But until we see a push for such things from our leaders in the theatre community, us fans are effectively being told that the industry values monetary gain over the number of eyes and ears on the art, which reinforces the need and desire for bootlegs.
However, these days, Broadway and all live theatre has been closed since March Twelfth and is not slated to reopen until September.
Now that we are at this unusual juncture of bootlegs literally being the only way to see theatre, are they now more if not entirely ethical to view as any previously legitimately streaming musical or play? Or at the very least, are they for the time being, guilt-free?
Before the shutdown forced it to tragically close too soon, I couldn’t see Beetlejuice The Musical (The Musical! The Musical!) on Broadway. But I could see several different “slime tutorials” with various Lydia “solutions” (my sincere apologies to Alex Brightman you were terrific by the way!).
Regardless of the show, watching the bootlegs I find is always exciting. But in this time when absolutely no one else can see it in person as intended, it feels like more of a miracle. Like an oasis in the desert or a deus ex Machina when all hope seems lost. It’s like being the only one to catch a glimpse at a shooting star that everyone else missed or discovering the contraband a false utopia was hiding from you.
Theatre companies have realized this as well and have started to release many of their professionally filmed shows on YouTube for a limited time to raise funds for both Covid-19 related charities as well as themselves. During Easter I enjoyed the filmed version of the Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Tour starring one of my personal favorite performers, Tim Minchin as Judas. It was spectacular and a wonderful treat for me as I had never seen any production of this musical. I was blown away by the vocals of Minchin and Ben Forster as Jesus. It felt incredibly timely as well as the story was set in the subculture of an Occupy Wall Street style movement commenting on both politicians and the media alike. Andrew Lloyd Webber himself even made an appearance during the curtain call!
But it was gone in forty-eight hours.
Imagine if it were possible to have it for free permanently for more folks to see.
It makes you wonder at what point does the value of people witnessing the art itself out-weigh money?
And much worse,
Why did it have to take a pandemic to get us even this far?