Crowdfunding a Modern Musical or “Help a Gay Play See the Light of Day”

I met James, the director and producer of Day After Night, at our Auckland launch (as you can see above!) and told him we had to get a blog up. So here it is! I asked James a few questions, and stalked his trail of publicity – read on, enjoy, and PLEDGE.

I’m a massive fan of musicals, so I must admit I was QUITE excited when this project came through. Day After Night is a musical about a gay man who wants a baby (and his partner, who doesn’t). So – scratch that, two things I love – gay rights and a musical.

There’s a great team behind this project – from James and the Theatre of Love as producer and director, to Benjamin Cleaver’s musical genius, Paul Barrett as the musical director, and Lydia Zanetti choreographing extraordinaire.

What made you decide to crowdfund?
Theatre of Love have done a number of shows over the years, but Day After Night is our biggest professional project to date – and to do it right we knew we had to raise a big figure! We thought crowdfunding would be a great way for people to support our goal of getting new Musical Theatre to the stage. Also they say its the way of the future – so I wanted to get in on the action!

How have you found the experience so far?
Edge of your seat, nerve-wracking, thrilling! We seem to follow the usual trend of an initial spike of interest, a terrifying dead middle period, and now picking up in the final days. We’ve just had a really amazing 24 hours. I’ve been feeling really grateful about the friends from my school and uni days who have supported the project – many of whom are overseas now and won’t get to see the show, but wanted to contribute something. That’s definitely been the most special part of the experience.

In one of his interviews, James provided a few tips on how to make a good crowdfunding campaign “The big lessons I’ve taken to heart are make it personal, have a video, have a publicist, and be realistic about how much work it’s going to take – I’m still learning this one!” [ed. note: we agree! Videos are gold!]

Check out their PledgeMe project and have a listen to one of the song belows. You can pick up your very own copy of the CD for $25.