Buying tickets to Broadway shows could soon become easier.
Preevue, a leading provider of technology that allows theatergoers to get sneak peeks of the views from their seats, could soon become available at more Broadway theaters. “We are in discussions with a major Broadway theater owner about starting the scanning work,” confirmed its chief executive officer, Ryan Metcalfe.
Founded in 2016, the London-based company uses laser scanning technology and computer-aided design to create three-dimensional digital replicas of theaters. Capturing one million measurements as small as an inch every second, Preevue has scanned more than 65,000 seats in more than 250 theaters around the world, including more than three-fourths of the theaters in London’s West End.
“Customer satisfaction is incredibly positive,” observed Metcalfe. “People are totally aware now of what they are getting,” he said, adding that “you never have a moment anymore when people get to the theater, and they are bummed to find a pillar blocking their view of the stage.”
But, the British company has a much smaller footprint on Broadway. It has only scanned Disney’s New Amsterdam Theatre and Ambassador Theatre Group’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre, Hudson Theatre, and Lyric Theatre.
While there are websites that let theatergoers share photographs from their seats at other Broadway theaters, it is often difficult to find photographs from specific seats in each theater, and “the architecture of the theater can drastically change along a row or in a different part of a section,” explained Metcalfe. For example, there could be an overhang from the balcony or a speaker obstructing the view from a specific seat.
Also, with crowd-sourcing images, there is not any standardization or quality control. “There is no way to know whether the person has taken a photograph with a wide-angle lens while standing or a zoom lens while sitting,” Metcalfe mentioned.
Preevue’s technology, offering both two-dimensional images and 360-degree panoramic views from each seat, provides “total transparency to audiences during the booking process,” stated Metcalfe.
“When people are about to spend $250 on a hotel room, they will often spend at least 20 minutes looking at photographs and reviews, deciding whether or not they want to get it,” Metcalfe said. “But, when they want to spend $250 at a theater, the theater will often give them no information and is like “just trust us,’” he lamented.
In addition, Preevue’s technology provides useful information to producers and designers.
Accessing the digital twin of each theater, creative teams are often able to speed up and even complete tasks that typically come up during technical rehearsals. “You can use the files that we build to pre-program lighting and pre-visualize anything from anywhere in the world,” Metcalfe confirmed. Creative teams can refine their lighting and set designs before ever stepping foot in their theaters.
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the producers of Moulin Rouge! decided to use Preevue’s scan of the Broadway production at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre to fine-tune the design for the West End production at the Piccadilly Theatre. “We cut out the Broadway production from the laser scan, and we adjusted it to fit the Piccadilly Theatre, working with the production team on how it adjusted and how it changed,” Metcalfe recalled. Checking the sightlines for different designs from different seats, the creative team was able to “make decisions that otherwise would have basically been guesswork until they got into the venue,” he said.
“If you can minimize the amount of time that you actually need in the theater, then everybody involved can save money,” Metcalfe added.
Disclaimer: I am a principal of the theatrical production company 42nd.club, which is a co-producer of Moulin Rouge! However, I am not personally involved in the production.
