The Economics of Storytelling: Musicals

My passion is storytelling, so for this assignment on economics, I will delve into the genre of Musicals and how it effects economics.

Supply and demand effects the production, success and effect of musicals on the general public, whether on Broadway or your High School show. Firstly there must be a demand for the musical, or the belief someone would want to see the musical. After all, the production may be amazing and jaw-dropping, but it won't be produced unless there is a demand for it, or someone to come and see the musical, pay for the tickets and provide money to pay the expenses for the show. Demand also has shaped the many genres, types and subjects of musicals from comedic musicals about weddings to dark musicals about murderous barbers. There must first be a demand for a type of musical before it produced.

Now recently on the radio I heard that David Hasslehoff is planning on making a musical about the life of David Hasslehoff (himself really), so for the next few paragraphs I'm going to use his musical as an example. Now Mr. Hasslehoff thinks that there is a demand for a musical about his life, which may be true since Hasslehoff has recently been in the spotlight for his pledge to stop his drug addiction and his spot on "America's Got Talent". Now for the next few paragraphs I would like to continue on the theme of the Hasslehoff Musical, but instead of having Hasslehoff as the author we will use and imaginary author (John), to make it easier for me to fit in my needed vocabulary words. Just as a note: David Hasslehoff is the true writer. Now lets say John is ready to produce the musical, there are a few things he needs to consider:

• Quantity Demanded: There may be a demand for a David Hasslehoff musical but is there enough of a demand to allow for John's musical to be a hit?
• Whether the show is a Normal Good or an Inferior Good or a Neutral Good: John may think that his show is good, but if the songs are dull, and his plot is shoddy, success is virtually impossible because as income increases then the demand for the good may decrease. However if the show is full of songs which are knock-your-socks-off amazing and a plot which is flawless, success is on the horizon because as income increases then often the demand also increases. Now if his show is pretty much normal, not all that great or not that bad, then it is probably a neutral good which will allow it to be somewhat successful because as the income increases then the demand will probably remain the same

Now John is concerned about casting for his show, and what he will have to pay the actors who will star. John would like to hire David Hasslehoff to play himself in his musical, but he may have to choke up a lot of money to hire Mr. Hasslehoff because of these reasons:

• Supply: There is only one David Hasslehoff, and his willingness to participate in the musical at different costs may determine whether he will participate due to the:
• Law of Supply: As the price John is willing to pay Hasslehoff increases, the more willing Hasslehoff is to star in the show and the longer the amount of time he is willing to star in the show.

If David Hasslehoff wanted to show John how much he wants to be paid for the amount of time he performs in the show he could do it in one of two ways, or both ways. He could use a Supply Curve or a Supply Schedule.

• Supply Schedule:

  Price	Amount of Time
  $10,000 a month	three months
  $15,000 a month	six months
  $20,000 a month	a year

• Supply Curve:
• 

Now for his other actors, the cost to John may vary, depending on how much of an established reputation John wants for his actors. Hopefully he will be able to reach equilibrium, where the price he is willing to pay for the amount of established reputation of an actor matches the price that the actor wants to be paid for their work. The price he then pays for these actors would be the equilibrium price, and the amount of actors he is able to hire for that equilibrium price would be the equilibrium quantity.

Now let's say that John has put together a stellar, one-of-a-kind cast and his show is ready to be put on sale on the market, which is in this case ticket buying services reached either by phone, e-mail, or manually. Now normally the law of demand would institute that as John increased the price of his tickets the amount of tickets he would sell would decrease. This can be illustrated through a Demand Schedule:

Price of Ticket	Amount of Tickets Bought
$50	5,000
$30	4,000
$25	3500

Now while this is the normal way that the prices will be adjusted there may be other factors that may effect how much the tickets may cost. One of the principle factors is the elasticity of the price of the tickets. If the price of the tickets has an elastic demand or supply, then a change in price, whether up or down, will greatly affect the amount of tickets sold. Now if the tickets become an inelastic demand or supply then the price can be moved up with either the same or more amount of buyers leading to an increase in profits, or a lower amount of buyers but not enough to hurt or decrease the amount of revenue. Now two of the factors that effect whether the tickets will be an inelastic or elastic are as follows:

• How many other shows with similar themes, or substitutes are there?: If there are a lot of shows on Broadway about the lives of television celebrities or shows with similar songs and themes as John's musical, then his show will be relatively elastic because if the price for his tickets go up, then the audience could just go see another musical for less of a cost. However if there are few musicals on Broadway and none about the lives of celebrities, then his show will be relatively inelastic because the audience doesn't have much of a choice on what to see.
• What are the prices of complements?: Complements in this case would include prices of restaurants, concession stand prices, hotel costs and other travel expenses. If these complements greatly increased in price, then John's tickets would become more elastic because people would be more pressed for money. However if the prices of complements decreases then Johns tickets would become more inelastic allowing him to charge more and increase his revenue.

Now in addition to elasticity there is one other factor that may affect John's price and that is Quantity Supplied vs. Quantity Demanded. If there is more quantity demanded than quantity supplied then John is faced with a shortage which will allow him to increase the price of his tickets. If there is a larger quantity supplied than quantity demanded then John is faced with a surplus which will probably lead him to decrease his price. John will usually want to have a shortage so he will be able to charge a higher price for his tickets and earn more profit for the show.

Now with his newfound knowledge of economics, John is ready to produce his musical and make it a big success. I would just like to wish David Hasslehoff the best of luck as he prepares to launch his musical and if anyone is interested in learning more there is and excellent article at http://www.insideeonline.com/news/details/20060630-360/david_hasselhoff..._the_musical?.html .

Introduction To the Tales of Libby sparrow

Hello, welcome to my first blog, believe it or not! Well here goes nothing (or everything depending on how you look at it)!

If you are viewing this blog you probably think that there is something somewhat interesting here and I am pleased to tell you that sadly you have wasted your time and that is not the case. But please, don't leave and go waste your time somewhere else, for out of all places to waste your time this has to be among the top 1000. Anyway I do plan for this blog to become more interesting as time goes on.

Here is where I plan to post my feelings and discoveries on the various areas of storytelling from musicals to plays to movies to novels to songs to tradition and fairy tales. Here is also where I plan to post some of my own stories, plays, songs, musicals and such, as well as tell updates on my perilous journey into the foggy depths of the methods of storytelling. Now a little about me.

Once Upon a Time there was girl named Libby Sparrow, named so because a few years ago she was convinced that she would audition for and get the part of Jack Sparrow's neice in the second Pirates of The Carribean Movie. This girl loved to sing, dance, act, write and most importantly dream. Dream of imaginary or real worlds in which characters overcame gigantic odds and achieved great feats. So she started a blog and now your reading it.