How important is merchandise to your theatre experience?

[THEATRICAL100]

So I was at the FoxWoods for SPIDER-MAN and there were more merch stands than i felt necessary. Like 4. And then a gift shop, not to mention Spider-Man selling photos in the lobby.
And while I'm a huge merchandise fan (i actually wouldn't mind working merchandise for a show sometime)... I found it a little ridiculous. Does anyone else feel the same?

[broadwaydevil]

I'm not a merchandise person at all. If anything, I'll get maybe the window card (and of course the cast recording if I love the show!) and that's about it.

[Broadway Joe]

I never buy any merchandise but I have no problems with Spider-Man having all those merch stands. There are a lot of people in that theatre.

I'm not sure what this has to do with your theatre experience but from the way you posted it's as if this really bothered you. You have the option to walk straight on by all of the merch tables so it shouldn't have affected your experience at all.

[Playbilly]

Personally, I never buy the overpriced merchandise. But, I can see why tourists do -- it's part of the NYC experience. The souvenir cup is a decent trend. At least ya get SOMETHING for the watered down soft drinks.

[TheGirlUpstairs]

I'm not a big merch person at all. I mainly go to the theatre with student rush tickets, so a trip to the stand might actually double the money I spend that evening. With my limited budget, if I'm going to spend $30-40 on something theatre-related, it had better be a ticket!

I have a couple of odds and ends, but they were mostly bought online when they were on sale. I've got a mug from A Little Night Music and a keychain from La Cage. Oh, and the tote bag from War Horse.

[madbrian]

We ALWAYS get a magnet, and we use them to decorate our family room.

[aasjb4ever]

I’ll usually get a souvenir cup from one of the Nederlander houses, and a windowcard if I really love the show’s artwork.

[Jordan Catalano]

I like windowcards. If there's anything else I want from a show I usually wait until the Flea market (10 weeks away!!!) to pick it up at a reeeeeally reduced price.

[Marianne2]

^ That's what I do too. Most things I don't need from the theatre. But, if I can get it later on reduced, I might buy it.

[ClumsyDude15]

It really depends on the price and whether I have the money, honestly. Like many people have said - a lot of the things you can find for much cheaper at the Broadway Flea Market, but I've bought things here and there at shows. I usually just like seeing what they have, but the show is more important than the merchandise.

[JohnyBroadway]

I always pick up a souvenir program. it's always fun to look at before the show starts and then after the experience, I also love reading the excerpts from the creative team.

[californiasnow]

I usually get a t-shirt, but I wait until either intermission or afterwards to make sure I actually enjoy the show or not. I only get a program if it is of the actual cast I saw (I live in Atlanta, and before that LA). I agree with others that a lot of times it is easy for the merchandise to exceed your ticket price. I love the Les Mis revival when I saw it in April, but there was no way in hell I was paying $45 for a t-shirt.

[JRybka]

I always get a program if they have them. And I will ALWAYS buy a poster if BC/EFA is offering them signed.

[artscallion]

I always ask for two playbills and immediately stick one inside the other so it stays in good condition. Then they both go in a bag until I get home. The inside one is immediately protected and stored. The outside one can then be read in the comfort of my home. I also always get the souvenir program, even if I didn't like the show (Spiderman for example) I don't even open them to read them though. They're treated the same as the playbills and go right into storage. I have hundreds of them. And I've never opened any of them.

I'm not even sure why I do this. I have no real intention of ever displaying or selling them. I do have a vague idea that some day, when I'm old, I'll sit down with my partner and make a big ceremony out of pulling them all out and going through them, reliving all the great times we had together at the theatre.

Aside from that, I don't think I've ever bought any merchandise, except for a The Light in the Piazza T-Shirt and mug because I thought that was probably the best theatre experience I've ever had.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Souvenir program and magnet, if available (I was disappointed that there was no merchandise of any kind for the recent Death of a Salesman). My better half usually gets a tee-shirt.

[Dangerous Jade]

I always get a coffee mug at the theater. Funny how different shows treat their merchandise - at Evita they charged $15 for the mug and put it in a plastic bag with no box to protect it (it broke when I put the bag down but they were nice enough to give me another one); at Ghost it was $20 for the pottery mug but it came in a nice gift box; at End of the Rainbow, Venus in Fur and Porgy & Bess the mugs were around $10 - $15 and came with gift boxes; Sister Act was the best, though - $5 and they put it in styrofoam and a gift box and made me feel like I was at Macy's at Christmas.

[EponineAmneris]

I always buy the program (if available) and save my PLYABILL.
If the tee shirt(s) appeal to me, I get that(those) as well

[luvtheEmcee]

I'm a little conflicted on this; I buy merch a lot less now than I used to just because it's so damned expensive. When I was younger, I bought a program for every single show I saw. My parents had started collecting them for me when I was really small, and picked up one at every show we saw, so they had a big box of them to turn over to me when I was old enough. I still really love having those programs, but it seems like they've become less prominent and less worth having when they do exist. I had a brief phase where I bought t-shirts for almost everything I saw, but I was a teenager and not really paying for much out of my own pocket. I've since quieted that habit, heh. All of that being said, though, I'm big on tangible things, so I still often manage to come home with ridiculous items that I don't need, but a lot of them end up coming from the flea market -- reasonable prices and a good cause. :)

[SFFrontRow]

I used to get merchandise, but don't any more. I found that (1) it became a little too intrusive on my small house and storage and (2) I rarely looked at it or used it.

Mugs and t-shirts are the most useful things, but how many t-shirts and mugs can you have?

I think the ephemeral nature of theater (here today, gone tomorrow) begs for you to have something that helps you remember the show. Here is what I do...

I get an extra Playbill (one to protect and keep sacred), I pick up whatever free flyers or pamphlets they have on the show (with pictures - the poor man's show program) and I take pictures of:

(a) the exterior of the theaters (i.e., full pic of the theater and the marquee, both daytime and nighttime)
(b) the artwork outside the theater (cast list and any scene pictures)
(c) the show posters in Shubert Alley/around Times Square

Between those and the free pamplets/flyers (which usually have pictures as well), I have a keepsake that is almost as good as a show program.

I have pictures of theaters in NYC that I have taken going back to 1987 - that is 25 years of theater history (some of the photos are digital and some developed from film because back in the day, digital did not exist). I find the pictures of theaters and their marquees very interesting - it is a snapshot frozen in time and really gives you the feel of what it was like to be there at the theater. My "collection" represents the history of how theater has evolved since I have been going to NYC (look at some old B'way theater pics - in the old days, they looked more like movie marquees than what we have now).

It is always fun for me to see old films or TV shows (like the opening credits for the TV show That Girl) that show theaters from the time (the opening credits starting with the second year of That Girl showed snippets of theater marquees and if memory serves, they included the original Cabaret and Cactus Flower).

The next best thing is the show program (mostly musicals though).

[vegas2]

I have never purchased any merch.

[Bettyboy72]

I dont purchase much merch and I feel bad for some theatre fans who should be on Hoarders.Most of the stuff is useless crap. I used to buy a program to every show I saw until I realized I never looked at them and never had any place to store them.

I actually prefer to get one Playbill and have actors sign my smudged up one, because that is the Playbill that I had the experience with. That's the one matters to me. I then file it in my binder.

Cast recordings are hard enough to store. I cant even think about mugs, shirts, lighters, pillboxes, pillows, towels, etc.

I will purchase BC/EFA signed windowcards only if it is a show that I personally enjoyed. I dont buy blank windowcards anymore. What the hell would I do with them.

My signed windowcards are all professionally framed at JoAnns (with a 60% off coupon) and look great.

[Emmaloucbway]

I usually buy a souvenir program, magnet, and keychain for every show I see. I usually buy a cast album, but only if I like the music.

[LimelightMike]

Very rarely will I ever buy anything at the theatre.

Though, admittedly, last week, I bought myself the script to HARVEY post-show. I was enraptured, and wanted to remember the laughs!

[Idiot]

I'm a mug collector, which has gotten a bit out of hand. But I do love them.

I always wanted there to be a CARRIE mug that was an aluminum bucket on the outside and red on the inside.

But I guess that would just be too 'campy'.

[Broadway Joe]

"I always wanted there to be a CARRIE mug that was an aluminum bucket on the outside and red on the inside.

But I guess that would just be too 'campy'."

haha that would be awesome! I would buy one of those.

[kdogg36]

I'm not even sure why I do this. I have no real intention of ever displaying or selling them. I do have a vague idea that some day, when I'm old, I'll sit down with my partner and make a big ceremony out of pulling them all out and going through them, reliving all the great times we had together at the theatre.

It sounds to me like you know exactly what you're doing, and it's very beautiful.

I always buy the magnet, and am somewhat disappointed when they don't have one (only The Lyons fell into that category among Broadway shows I saw this year). Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do when your refrigerator surface is full?