“Look around! Look around! The curtains are going back up and the lights are coming back on!” Renėe Elise Goldsberry said at the 2021 Emmy awards during the acceptance speech for Hamilton.

With the release of Hamilton on Disney+ in 2020, as well as the 10th anniversary movie theater release in September, the release of Wicked last November, and the upcoming release of Wicked: For Good, live theatre has seen a major impact in popularity. 

Over the past decade, Broadway has seen a major increase in attendance, and that’s not just due to the amazing shows performing on Broadway. After the release of Wicked, the movie, Broadway attendance skyrocketed and has yet to come back down again, and their revenue grew by 10 million dollars . 

Theatre was, and still is, sometimes referred to negatively; something only the weird kids, as well as, in all honesty, gay kids, enjoy. On the contrary, these thoughts weren’t always the case. You see, before video was invented, the theater was where everyone went for their entertainment. Do you want to see a comedy, a drama, perhaps a mystery, maybe even a romance?  Back in the day, the theater was the place to be. More modernly, though, its popularity has diminished. 

Thanks to more movie musicals, as well as social media, the theater is starting to see life again. There have been trends on social media that have utilized sounds and characters from theater shows, like musicals and plays, and have been used by some of the most popular influencers. Whether they know it or not, they have been helping to advertise and promote these shows. Sometimes, though, it is much more intentional, with social media users promoting a show they have just seen or are planning to see. 

Not only do influencers who make content about anything there is to make content about sometimes promote theater, but so do professional actors in the theater community. People like J.J. Newman, Jisel Soleil Ayon, Kendyl Sayuri Yokoyama, and even the creator of Hamilton himself, Lin-Manuel Miranda, all use social media as a way to promote the fun and joy that is live theater, effectively helping the love for it revive and flourish. 

So, if you ever have the opportunity to support live theater, do it. If you don’t want to seem weird about it, take it from the statistics, it’s very trendy right now.