Another year is in the books for theatreMAMA, and what a year to remember it was! We were fortunate enough to be able to bring back some of our iconic street teams, such as the Chicago Dance Mob and Rockettes Toy Soldiers, while introducing some new promotions such as Cirque’s Twas the Night Before, Friends the Musical Parody, and Jersey Boys. Of course, the ongoing pandemic continued to provide its own challenges, such as early show closings and performance cancellations. Buckle up, readers, as this year was one for the books!
Acting Circles
The year began with the continuation of our program called Acting Circles, a program that provided a networking opportunity for actors to learn from top Casting Directors and Industry Leaders from all over the world! The program continued to prove successful as we had several casting directors such as Seth Caskey, Erica S. Bream, and Duncan Stewart (to name a few!) join us for classes. We worked tirelessly to create a variety of classes ranging from scene study to commercial to musical theatre classes. You think of it, we worked to create a class to strengthen those skills for actors!
MAMA Gets Wild
Adventure found MAMA with our new client, WildPlay at Jones Beach. The team headed over to Jones Beach over some high traffic weekends, such as Independence Day. The team handed out discounts, branded carbineers, and stickers. Because the location was so dependent on weather, we were forced to reschedule a few weekends due to rain. Crowds were slowly coming back to life, finding a balance between safety and normalcy.
The One Where… We Get a New Promotion
Summertime not only brought scorching temperatures to NYC, but it also brought the new Off-Broadway Musical Friends, a Musical Parody. The team with Friends, a Musical Parody was eager to work with the expertise of theatreMAMA to create a fun and interactive street team campaign to garner interest. The first step was to find the ideal location for our teams. While Times Square may have been the closest in location, the foot traffic had greatly dwindled due to the ongoing pandemic. Instead the team researched local hot spots that were popular with the ideal demographic. This had our team hitting up locations near Madison Square Park, Union Square, and Washington Square Park.
Next step- what was going to get people excited about the show?! The creative team at MAMA created a fun “Which Friends Character Are You” quiz, complete with custom giant heads that the team carried from location to location for fun social media photo opportunities! Along with a fun in person team who was handing out branded discount stickers and giving away tickets to unsuspecting patrons, MAMA also provided real-time social media content for the client. This included posed photos, videos of the ticket giveaways, and fun shots with the character heads. This successfully provided additional exposure for the brand, as well as content for their social media outlets
A Tasty Treat with Fields Good Chicken
Things were really picking up for us in the summer, bringing our second new promotion for the food company Fields Good Chicken. MAMA’s Ambassadors donned branded t-shirts, hats, and tote bags while handing out a free meal from the new University Place location, celebrating the return of university students at nearby schools such as NYU and The New School. To ensure the team hit up the correct demographic, MAMA researched the move-in dates of nearby dorms to station themselves nearby, because what’s better after a long day of moving in than a delicious free meal! The promotion came with its own challenges, particularly in regards to patrons abusing the amazing deal. However, MAMA is quick to adapt on site, and worked to change tactics when engaging with customers to prevent that from happening again.
Razzle Dazzle Return
New York City was slowly coming back to life after a crazy year, and that meant Broadway’s lights were coming back on. Chicago reopened in September, and needed the perfect way to open with a bang! The team at Chicago reached out to MAMA to create a fun opening night activation where a slightly dressed down version of our Chicago Dance Mob brought a little extra razzle dazzle by handing out roses to audience members as they left the theatre. The energy was fantastic. The return of a Broadway staple like Chicago left people in high spirits, and they were beside themselves at the gift of the red roses, making them feel like the star of the show!
And All That Jazz
With the return of Broadway, it was only a matter of time before our Femme Fatales returned to the Cell Block. We wanted to make sure our Chicago Dance Mob looked the part for their return, creating a look that kept the iconic feel but made patrons and ambassadors both feel safe amidst the pandemic. We sourced new costume pieces, including some razzle dazzle red gloves and black masks. And, we’ll never forget it. October 11th marked the long awaited return of the iconic Chicago Dance Mob. The team may have been smaller, but the excitement and performance had never been bigger! New York City locals were thrilled at the sight, and tourists couldn’t help but pose for photos. That day the name on everyone’s lips was MAMA
Can’t Keep Our Eyes of You
Meanwhile, we had a traveling team to get people in the New York and New Jersey area excited about the return of Jersey Boys in November. Rather than a traditional street team, MAMA researched for events that would ensure high traffic to allow for maximum exposure. COVID-19 definitely had lessened the number of events happening nearby, but through careful planning the team was able to hit up some great events such as The Feast of San Gennaro and the Long Island Fall Festival. While our team handed out branded collateral, such as brochures, board games, and various swag, the team also gathered email addresses by having patrons scan a QR code to enter for a chance to win tickets for the show upon its reopening in November! The ticket giveaway proved very successful, gathering hundreds of emails. Once again, the team also created real time content over social media outlets. This provided extra exposure for Jersey Boys, who even used several of the snaps on their social media outlets as well!
The team at Jersey Boys was so impressed with our efforts, we were thrilled to continue to work with them in a street team capacity. We took the training and excellence of our team to create a TKTS specific team for them. In an effort to continue the MAMA standard and stand out from other promoters in the area, we created a polished look and worked to create highly informed ambassadors to answer any questions patrons may have.
Let’s Pick Up the Pace… and make it HOT!
Chicago hit a huge milestone on Broadway and celebrated 25 years of performances. Now, the question was… what was the perfect way to celebrate? MAMA worked closely with the production team of Chicago to create operation #Chicago25. The plan was to have 20 Chicago Dance Mob members to kick off the festivities, introducing the surprise of the infamous marching band Brooklyn United, and help usher the crowds the party and red carpet in front of the Ambassador Theatre. However, the pandemic had our roster dwindle and staff availability limited. Once again our casting team really rose to the occasion, auditioning several dancers to be a part of the fantastic event! Meanwhile, our production team sourced costumes for all of the dancers to ensure that the cast looked red hot. And the event was a huge success, with our dancers the face of several articles, videos, and photo sets!
High Kicking Off the Holiday Season
November brought the long awaited return of the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes! After having been gone for a year, it really started to feel like Christmas had come early. The return of the iconic show meant the return of our Toy Soldiers as well as our Candy Cane Greeters. With the return of these promotions meant we would need to ramp up our casting efforts to ensure we could fill the large casting needs for 12 performers each day for each promotion. With our current promotions (Chicago and Jersey Boys) that could mean up to 30 ambassadors needed for each day! Our casting team went full throttle, hiring around 50 new ambassadors to be added to our ever growing roster! Casting efforts remained ongoing throughout the holiday season, allowing us to constantly bring in new and dazzling talent!
Because of the pandemic, training efforts were done remotely. This meant countless Zoom meetings were run, training videos were in constant production, and several training documents were made available for our staff. This allowed our team to receive the same incredible training while keeping everyone as safe as possible. We also made the decision to employ only fully vaccinated staff members, following Broadway and Radio City’s guidelines.
Right This Way!
Madison Square Garden was so impressed with MAMA’s Candy Cane Greeters, and we were delighted when they reached out to see if we could bring something similar to their shows at Madison Square Garden. We worked to create a team of MAMA Ambassadors to assist with the ingress at the venue. The team would work to direct audience members to the correct theatre, particularly when there were two shows happening at the same time. Due to the consistency of gigs, we were able to create a roster of staff dedicated to these shifts only which ensured experienced ambassadors for each event.
Funny Festivities
The team who brought Friends The Musical Parody over the summer were so pleased with the efforts from the MAMA team that they asked us to once again create a team for their new show, Love Actually the Musical Parody. The activation was similar to what we had done previously, however this time we used the famous poster board sign from the movie. It was a clever way to create a mobile photo opportunity, as well as a large QR code for patrons to easily access tickets. On top of this, we were also able to continue giveaways, complete with pairs of tickets and candy canes. The activation started Thanksgiving weekend, which proved just how excited New York was about the show. As we had done previously for the client, we had live social media coverage from our teams for each shift!
Cirque-tastic Holidays
December brought about even more holiday cheer, which included Cirque’s first holiday show Twas The Night Before Christmas, which opened at the Madison Square Garden. Our costume team created a costume inspired by the looks and colors of the show, with a blue sparkly puffer jacket and a custom fluffy headband. While the costumes were being made over in Santa’s workshop, MAMA’s production team researched high traffic holiday locations such as Herald Square, Chelsea Market, and Union Square. The goal was to target patrons who were looking for something a little extra to keep the holiday spirit going! And what a success our team was! Heads were instantly turned at the whimsical looks, sparking a smile from even the toughest New Yorker!
COVID Strikes Again
The holidays were in full swing, and New York City was starting to feel like itself again. Tourism was increasing, theatres were filling up, and there was magic in the air again. MAMA was busier than ever. But plans were put at a quick halt as another wave of COVID hit New York City hard. Breakthrough cases were escalating, causing performance cancellations throughout Broadway as well various performance venues including MAMA client Jersey Boys. As cancellations increased, some shows were unable to continue their runs. This included three MAMA clients: Christmas Spectacular Starring Radio City Rockettes, Cirque du Soleil’s Twas The Night Before, and Love Actually the Musical Parody. Using our training from the Candy Cane Greeters, MAMA offered to help at the theatres to inform patrons about performance cancellations in a friendly and informative manner. Disappointment was unavoidable, but our team found they were met with understanding from most.
Looking Ahead to a New Year
As we enter 2022, we already are having conversations with new clients as well as clients current and past. It seems like we enter another year with COVID still looming over us, but when we look back at this past year it’s clear that will not stop MAMA from success! This past year taught us perseverance. This past year taught us gratitude. This past year taught us strength. Here is to a great 2022 from us here at MAMA, and we are wishing you all a happy and healthy new year.