• by Karl Greenberg , Staff Writer, August 14, 2008

Karl: I've got a brilliant idea for a column today, just brilliant.

Nina: Shoot.

Karl: I saw this musical last night, "Title of Show."

Nina: Karl, this isn't Theatre Week, it's Marketing Daily.

Karl: No, listen--this is very possibly the best marketing story since "Blair Witch." Remember "Blair Witch"?

Nina: The movie?

Karl: No, the marketing story. Remember how they created a marketing campaign about how the movie was actually found footage about something that really happened?

Nina: Kind of, yeah.

Karl: Well, this is the reverse. In fact, this musical is actually kind of a cross between "Blair Witch," "Seinfeld" and "The Producers." It's about how these two guys--who are actually in the musical, playing themselves--created the musical they are actually in! It's brilliant.

Nina: Okay, I'm trying to wrap my mind around this.

Karl: You mean, how it's kind of like one of those M.C. Escher drawings?

Nina: No, about what this has to do with your day job ...

Karl: It's a marketing story, I told you! Listen--so like I said, the musical is about how they decided to write this musical, right?

Nina: I guess ...

Karl: So it starts with them, you know, singing the opening number ...

Nina: Which would be about ...

Karl: THE OPENING NUMBER!

Nina: What time is it? I haven't had coffee yet ... what day is this?

Karl: So the show is about how they got the musical--about writing a musical to get into a theatre festival--into a theatre festival. Then it's about how these producers who saw the show at the festival backed it for an Off Broadway run at the Vineyard Theater, which also happened, and it was a smash hit. Then ... nothing. The sound of one hand clapping for, like, ten months.

Nina: And this is in the show, of course ...

Karl: Right, and here's the marketing part: they had really come to believe the show could move to Broadway, that became the goal because they were sure it had legs ...

Nina: So to speak ...

Karl: A theater expression ... legs. Like Legs Diamond.

Nina: That would be a Damon Runyan expression, but never mind ...

Karl: But they couldn't raise the cash. And again--this is ALL IN THE MUSICAL!

Nina: Yes, right.

Karl: So they went viral: they created a video channel on YouTube called "The Title of Show" Show, with clips of rehearsals, and of the two guys--Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell--the composer and writer, talking extemporaneously about how the show was actually going to go to Broadway, how it was a fait accompli, even though it wasn't. But the Web campaign generated buzz, and they had this FaceBook page about the show as well, so between FaceBook and ...

Nina: Um ... Karl?

Karl: Yes.

Nina: Where is this going? And btw, Facebook is lower-case "b".

Karl: Oh, right ... so they got something like 10,000 hits, on the first day or something like that. So the buzz they got from the Web, where they posted the music, and did this video, actually created an audience for a show that wasn't bound for Broadway at all, but the buzz created a ... what would you call it?

Nina: Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Karl: One thing led to another, and now they're at the Lyceum on Broadway. The show--about how the show got to Broadway--opened in July to raves (except for Broadway.com, which I think also panned something I wrote, so I feel good.) We went to the show Wednesday night and there were crowds at the stage door, crowds in the street.

Karl: I talked to Hunter already. He said that since they didn't have big names in the show, they had to rely on grassroots and guerilla marketing to make it happen. To make a long story short ...

Nina: Two lines.

Karl: I'll try: there was this dead space after the OB run; but they needed to stay on peoples' radars. They got the video camera, started the video blogging; they got an even better camera, started doing Final Cut-type editing.

Karl: "We started pimping it out and it became a total marketing tool," I think he said. For a year and a half they churned out these webisodes and it began to snowball, and the Web campaign became marketing material for bringing in investors.

Karl: He said the tipping point was where we they did an episode that was packed with it as many Broadway stars as they could find, from Nathan Lane, and ... others.

Nina: Where's the money quote?

Karl: Something like: "Based on who we are and where we were, it forces you to dig a little deeper creatively and play with convention." How's that?

Nina: Way more than two lines.

Karl: That's what you're there for.

Nina: You're fired.