629. How Is Live Theater Still Alive?

第629问:如何解释现场戏剧依然充满生机?

Freakonomics Radio

社会与文化

2025-04-11

59 分钟
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单集简介 ...

It has become fiendishly expensive to produce, and has more competition than ever. And yet the believers still believe. Why? And does the world really want a new musical about ... Abraham Lincoln?! (Part one of a three-part series.)
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  • Making something out of nothing is hard.

  • In the beginning, all you have is your imagination.

  • It's your only tool, your only muscle.

  • But if you are determined and lucky, that thing in your imagination can become real,

  • and then, if you are very lucky, people will pay to see it.

  • There's been theatre since the beginning of man, really.

  • What is theatre?

  • What is going to theatre and being in a theatre?

  • What is it?

  • What happens?

  • What transpires in that moment?

  • It's the same as the oldest human endeavor of all, which is gossip.

  • Theatre is gossip.

  • This is a crazy idea, I know, except that it's true.

  • What do you do when you go to the theatre?

  • You overhear conversations.

  • It's staged, but people are talking to each other, and you're listening to them.

  • You're making assessments about their moral character, about their intentions, about what's going to happen.

  • This guy's not trustworthy.

  • She's ambitious and is concealing it.