News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

PUFFS Off-Broadway Production and Filmed Version Recoups Investment and Production Costs

For seven years a certain boy wizard went to a certain Wizard School and conquered evil. This, however, is not his story.

By: Sep. 22, 2023
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

PUFFS Off-Broadway Production and Filmed Version Recoups Investment and Production Costs  ImageThe international sensation Puffs has recouped its investment of the original off-Broadway production, as well as the full recoupment of production costs for the 2018 film, Puffs: Filmed Live Off-Broadway, released nationally by Fathom Events. The critically acclaimed, hit theatrical parody by playwright Matt cox is one of the most performed plays in the US and is licensed by Concord Theatricals under the Samuel French imprint.

 

After a record-setting run at New World stages that concluded in August 2019, Puffs has become a mainstay of the American Theatre. Last year, Puffs was ranked #2 – for the second year in a row – in the Educational Theatre Association’s Top 10 High School Plays list and has remained in the Top 10 since it was released for licensing in 2019.

 

David Carpenter, Producer: “I am thrilled that this incredible comedy has yielded so much joy and success to the people who believed in it from the beginning. Our partnership with Samuel French and Concord has been nothing less than stellar. Having the show & film recoup is a huge validation that a parody, which began in a small off-off-Broadway theater, can transform a certain universe to deliver a message of inclusivity, diversity, acceptance, friendship and love, and remind people everywhere to be the hero in their own story. The true heroes of this story are the Puffs fans nationwide who celebrate our message in middle schools, high schools, colleges, universities and communities across the country."

 

Matt cox, Author: "I will forever be astounded by the sheer number of people across the country who have shared our little show's story and message. Puffs was originally created by a bunch of friends with the hope that we might run for three weeks at a comedy theater. Across the play's journey to Off-Broadway, movie theaters, schools, and communities all across the world, that sense of camaraderie and joy has stayed with it. I love hearing about the special bonds forged by each production's cast, often with remarks that no show has brought people together quite like Puffs. Knowing there are now more people in the world running around crowded backstage areas dressed as wizards fills me with a true sense of accomplishment."

 

Mark Fleischer, Executive Producer, Pittsburgh CLO: “Puffs was the perfect summer blockbuster for our Second Stage. While first and foremost Puffs provided audiences much needed laughter, audiences also spoke of the heart and humanity lurking beneath the jokes. This is the show’s real magic: a spoof with heart that proclaims the joys of friendship and the delights of being different in a world that often forces you to fit in.”

 

From its origins at the Peoples Improv Theater in 2015, to its official off-Broadway opening at the Elektra Theater in 2016, the critically acclaimed hit comedy Puffsdefied the odds with its remarkable journey – ultimately transferring to New World Stages in July 2017. The smash hit run broke multiple box office records at New World Stages and concluded its storied run in August 2019. Following its New York premiere, Puffs opened internationally, and audience response exploded, with productions in Sydney, Brisbane and notably in Melbourne, where the hit comedy became one of the city’s longest-running plays of the last century.

Puffs: Filmed Live Off Broadway, which originally premiered in 2018 with a two-day national screening presented by Fathom Events, is currently available on iTunes, Amazon, BroadwayHD and other digital platforms.

 

ABOUT PUFFS

For seven years a certain boy wizard went to a certain Wizard School and conquered evil. This, however, is not his story. This is the story of the Puffs...who just happened to be there too. A tale for anyone who has never been destined to save the world. 

 

This clever and inventive play “never goes more than a minute without a laugh” (Nerdist) and provides a new take on a familiar adventure from the perspective of three potential heroes just trying to make it through a magic school that proves to be very dangerous for children. Alongside them are the Puffs, a group of well-meaning, loyal outsiders with a thing for badgers “who are so lovable and relatable, you’ll leave the theater wishing they were in the stories all along” (Hollywood Life). Their “hilariously heartfelt!” (Metro) and epic journey takes the classic story to new places and reimagines what a boy wizard hero can be.

 

BIOGRAPHIES

David Carpenter

(Producer) has spent 23 years in media and entertainment. He is an off-Broadway and Tony-nominated Broadway producer and a multiplatform content developer. David is currently the founder and CEO of Gamiotics, Inc., which is bringing real-time audience engagement technology to the live entertainment market and powering the next generation of interactive experiential entertainment. He is the producer and co-creator of The Twenty-Sided Tavern experience, which has been produced in Pittsburgh, Chicago and was a smash hit of 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He is also one of the founders of Eye / Heart / Color, a new immersive interactive experience that is currently in development. He was the lead producer of the critically acclaimed 2019 Broadway run of Slava’s Snowshow, and off-Broadway’s Puffs, which ran in New York City from 2016-2019, and is now the #2 most produced play in the country. Additional credits include Executive Producer of Puffs: Filmed Live Off-Broadway, released nationally through Fathom Events; producer of Puffs in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane); and publisher of all four editions of the Puffs script. Www.gamiotics.com www.thetwentysidedtavern.com

 

Matt cox

(Playwright, Puffs) is a playwright, actor, improviser, sound designer and former comic book retail associate based in New York City. He is the writer ofPuffs or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic, which broke records off-Broadway. Puffs had the honor of being the longest-running play of the century in Melbourne, Australia, and is currently one of the most-produced plays in high schools across the country. Other plays include The Magnificent Revengers, Happy Little Trees: A Bobyssey, and the three-part epic Kapow-i GoGo (as well as its spinoffs, The Kapow-i GoGo Holiday Specials 1 & 2and I Am Mr. Snuggles). Cox created and ran the online interactive “Chooseical” Guy Choiceman Decides To Save America! The Chooseical: Where You Do the Chooses from 2020 to 2022. Upcoming work includes two new plays, Witches!? In Salem?!, and Thirty-Two, and a new musical titled The Ferret Show.

 

For more information visit: www.puffstheplay.com


 




Comments

To post a comment, you must register and login.






Videos