Playbill was first printed in 1884 for a single theater on 21st Street in New York City.
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16 Facts About Playbill
2.
The Playbill distributed on opening night of a Broadway show is stamped with a seal on the cover and the date appears on the title page within the magazine.
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3.
In lieu of the cast and show information, the subscription edition of Playbill contains listings of Broadway and Off-Broadway productions and news from London productions and North American touring companies.
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4.
Playbill banner has changed the yellow to another color on rare occasions in its history:.
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5.
In 2006, Playbill released its first records on Playbill Records, an imprint of SonyBMG.
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6.
In 2011, Playbill launched Playbill Vault, a comprehensive online database of Broadway history.
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7.
Playbill Vault provides records of Broadway productions from 1930 to the present.
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8.
Information on the website includes original and current casts, actor head shots, production credits, Playbill cover images, scanned Playbill Who's Who pages, production photos, and videos.
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9.
In 2012, Playbill launched Playbill Memory Bank, a website that allowed theater-goers to track their memories of their theater attendances by entering dates they attended a show, along with information like ticket scans.
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10.
In 2021, Playbill added a 'post-the-pay' rule to their job site after a campaign by On Our Team and Costume Professionals for Wage Equity called for an increased pay transparency and equity in the theater industry.
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11.
Decades, Playbill concentrated on Broadway and Off-Broadway theaters, while Stagebill focused on concerts, opera, and dance in venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
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12.
However, by the late 1990s, Playbill was highly profitable; Stagebill was not, losing millions of dollars annually by 1998.
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13.
The main point of contention in the latter case was control over advertising content: Playbill is distributed free to theaters, relying on advertising revenue that is completely under its authority, whereas Disney, per company policy, required a program without cigarette or liquor ads.
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14.
Playbill, sensing missed exposure for its advertisers, offered the show's producers "Showbill" instead.
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15.
Additionally, Playbill responded further by producing publications for classic arts venues, aggressively courting many venues that were once Stagebill clients.
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16.
Playbill is a founding member of the Museum of Broadway.
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