As we begin the month of August, we now enter the 2019/2020 season and also year two of Tours To You! It’s certainly been a productive and crazy year, and I look forward to continuing for many years to come. However, before moving forward, here are some brief updates recapping a busy month of July!
SHOW NEWS
1. Producers of ANASTASIA officially announced the stops of year two. If you have been following the venue announcements, nothing should have been too surprising. Click here to see the current tour route.
2. AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN is set to tour starting in fall 2020. The musical, based on the 1982 Oscar-winning film of the same name, will be touring North America. No launching location or any other stops were announced. The production was in the UK until recently, with lukewarm reviews.
3. In conjunction with Christmas in July, several venues took to announcing additional holiday productions to their previously-announced seasons. These shows include CIRQUE DREAMS: HOLIDAZE, MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER, and THE ELF ON THE SHELF, a new addition to the field.
4. THE LAST SHIP announced additional cities as part of its international tour. In addition to the previously-announced stops of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the show will also visit Washington, D.C., St. Paul, MN, and Detroit, MI. Sting is scheduled to perform at every performance.
5. Key casting announcements were made for MEAN GIRLS as well as JITNEY. However, as of the time of publication, I have yet to receive the specific details for either productions from my sources. So, I suggest visiting broadway.com for that information. Should I receive the releases, I will make sure to add the news to the site.
SITE NEWS
A few new and exciting changes also happened to the site this month!
–Recent Updates: a new feature on the site that will be displayed on the homepage, this addition will provide visitors with brief updates that I make. If applicable, an accompanying link to the specific page associated will the update will be added.
–New YouTube channel and videos: one of the new features that will be included starting next year will be the addition of montage videos, when available. I have already added videos to several 20/21 season shows (see, for example, THE PROM). On YouTube, the videos will be presented in playlists organized by season. To access the channel from tourstoyou.org, scroll down to the very bottom and you’ll find the YouTube icon, which, when you click it, will take you to the channel.
–Calendar: thanks to a few tech-savvy individuals, I was able to add the show calendar to the Calendar section of the site. This calendar features frozen rows and columns so you can find which show is playing on any given day. Due to size limitations, location names that could not fit into a cell have been abbreviated and a note has been added with the full location name. This calendar works best on a desktop/laptop computer. The plan is to add each subsequent season without removing the previous season. You can toggle between seasons by scrolling down to the bottom of the calendar section, and clicking on the tab of the season you’re interested in viewing. The default calendar will be the one associated with the current season. (FYI: there is no “official” start to the season; so I’ve designated the last Monday of July as the unofficial start to the season, even though there will be some carryover from the previous season.)
LOOKING AHEAD
New Shows: While a large amount of shows have announced that they will be touring starting in the 20/21 season, I am still anticipating a handful more to announce very soon, including current Broadway shows HADESTOWN, BE MORE CHILL, and BEETLEJUICE. I am also expecting announcements from GROUNDHOG DAY, and the return of AN INSPECTOR CALLS, which was here in the 18/19 season on a limited run at a small amount of venues.
Site Updates: As we begin the 19/20 season, I will eventually be moving the 18/19 season from the homepage banner to the archive tab. I anticipate making the change some time in September. My current plan is to place only the “All Shows” and “All Shows (by Venue)” pages in the archive. This will still allow site visitors to find which shows played at any given venue during that season.
I have been mulling the idea of creating a venue archive so site visitors can see a history of which shows played at any given venue during a particular season. However, this would be a massive undertaking for myself at this time as there are over 300 venues that could present a Broadway show during a season. I could realistically complete the task, but it would take me a long time. I will keep you updated should I have the time and means necessary to compile and publish such an archive.
Thank you for visiting the site today! And thanks to the over 5,000 of you who have visited over the past year. Don’t forget to come back often, as well as follow the site’s social media platforms, for the latest news and information.
Go and see a show!
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