Do you keep your Theatre Playbills?

No OP, but most lesbians have a room in their place where they keep their used sarurated tampons. Little secret for ya.

Why are you making the same mistake twice. What are you going to do with them when you are old and senile? Can't you just remember fondly. And if you need info - perhaps look on line and accept that you might not get all info? Also aren't there public archives of them? Such as NYPL?

Ugh. My partner has 30+ years of Playbils saved. Good thing is they’re so thin, but they just seem like a waste of shelf space.

I’ve kept a handful but not all. I probably have 20 or so. Not a big deal, I have the storage space.

Sell them on eBay. Very collectable especially signed

I keep them all, and programs from every play or performance I see. They filled up a drawer, and I transferred them to a box. It's interesting to look at the casts of some plays to see actors who weren't well known at the time, for example, John Cameron Mitchell in The Secret Garden. There was a discussion about Cintra Wilson recently, and I have a program from an early show she did in San Francisco, probably in the '80's.

I'm like you, OP. I have all of mine in the official Playbill binders, too. Up to about 4 or 5 now. I've thought about getting rid of them but every once in a while I do flip through them and enjoy the memories ("Oh, shit, I totally forgot I saw that"). But the more room they take up, the more I'm wondering what to do with them ultimately as it gets to be untenable storage-wise. Perhaps digitizing them would be a good idea; that way I'd still have them all but they wouldn't take up room in my apartment anymore.

[quote]I keep them all, and programs from every play or performance I see.

Same here, R6. Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off, etc.

What is the consensus of the value of old Playbills? I have quite a few myself.

I have saved every Playbill from 1990 onward and nearly all movie ticket stubs from 1986 onward.

I keep mine framed on my walls in the order I saw them. It’s nice to remember what was

Anyone here a performer? Is your name in any of those Playbills in your collection?

My mother went to see 42nd Street back in the day sitting two rows in front of her was Liberace. His blonde twink was with him. During the intermission mom asked for his autograph. He was very gracious and signed the playbill; they chatted for a few minutes. I still have the playbill.

Very few of them are worth any significant value, even really old ones, unless they are like new and from a hard-to-find show or cast replacement as mentioned above. If they're legibly autographed that can add value but usually only if it's complete cast (at least, all the stars) or some huge star who doesn't sign much or is dead with a hard-to-get autograph.

If you really don't have space throw them away.

Do they spark joy?

Both of you sit down, go through them, pick the ones you loved the most for whatever reason. Hire a frau to decoupage the covers on an old trunk or suitcase or do it yourself. Sell, donate or toss the rest. If you donate, your local high school musical theater and drama homos will be thrilled.

I like the idea to digitise them.

I’m a babygay fan of Asian theater and it always delights me to find HQ scans of playbills in online archives, that I can then edit use for sharing or fan projects.

As a foreign fan there’s no way for me to get this kind of paratext physically unless I find a connection and pay what I can’t possibly afford for the privilege - so to have a free digital copy format scanned by a kind soul of something I could never lay eyes on otherwise? That is very cool.

Maybe you could find a younger person to scan them for you and then upload or send to the suitable Wiki? Or make a Reddit thread on the appropriate r/?

[Sidebar: I’m on the hunt for full-size Takarazuka production/cast posters to buy and ship internationally, so I can frame them for my den/office-space and freak people out. The fandom itself is very hoarder-like and insular and frowns on trading for $$, so a source would be divine.]

I'm loving the flagrant geekdom of the Takarazuka Troll. Let your freak flag fly!

Sadly, I don't have what you're looking for, I hope someone else does.

I keep all mine. Its like a souvenir.

I just keep them so I can remember where Derin Altay and Lee Roy Reams recommended to get fondue or Moroccan cuisine after a show thirty-five years ago.

Save any Gap In-Store Playlists?

Oh, brother!

I too have been collecting them since I was a kid (which is a long time ago). I eventually scanned my favorite ones and got rid of the actual playbills. I printed the covers and made a sort of collage. With the scans I have them if I ever want to find or look at one and I have the printed collage which makes me happy when I look at it.

Very nice, R23.

I kept all for years. Then, a few years ago I went through them all and tossed the ones I really didn't care about, primarily those made-in-haste shows piggy-backing off the successful films (e.g. Big, Billy Elliot, etc). But I did save some that have meaning to me, the first show I saw, another with Amy Adams as one of the leads, the Broadway shows, etc.. I have a bunch of those larger programs one can buy. Some are really cool, others are kinda meh.

The only playbill regret throwing out was for Bobbie Boland, the Bway play starring Farrah Fawcett.

The show was just okay and while it got through previews, it closed before officially opening.

I threw the program away as I left the theatre. Within a week, these playbills were selling for $50 on eBay

Two playbills (actually, opera bills) I kept are ones signed by Jessye Norman and Beverly Sills.

I was an extra for a NYC Opera performance years ago. Sills was the Executive Director of the NYCO at the time. She was walking through the dressing rooms and I asked her to sign my program. The only problem is no one around had a pen so I handed her an eyeliner pencil. She smiled, signed, and laughed, “I don’t think this will last very long.”

It’s been over 30 years, and I still have it. It looks pristine because I put some plastic wrap over it

FY6, most playbills have little to no value, except sentimental value. And Playbill.com now has playbills online.

I've kept the more recent ones.. since 2000. I saw a lot of shows in the 70s, but didn't keep those. I don't have a lot, less than 10.

They make good litter trays when sweeping.

I’ll be in NYC next week. Does anyone know of any stores there that sell the Playbill binders? I have a stack of them on my shelf and need to organize them. I’m living abroad now so the skipping costs from playbill.com are ridiculous.

I keep them because I do leaf through them from time to time to bring back memories. I have no delusions about them being worth anything. Like everything I keep that’s sentimental to me, I’m totally fine with it being tossed into a skip when I croak.

R31, I can't think of the name of it off the top of my head, but there's a theater merchandise store right on the corner of 44th and 8th that sells the official Playbill binders. Last time I bought one there, it was around $44 or $45. You might try them first.

From today's NYT:

Yes, I keep them all.

Thanks r32

I tear them into strips and fashion them into a cocoon using my saliva to hold it together. I will emerge a butterfly some day.

I saw Carmen Jones this year at the Classic Theatre Company In NYC. It didn’t give out paper playbills. Instead the cast was listed on the wall and online

This is an example of when's Marie Kondo's strategy works. And an example to consider Swedish Death Cleaning.

Do Encores! productions give out Playbills?

Going back to 1979

I saw that production as well, R37. They sent out digital programs, so I printed mine and took it with me to the performance.

Seems like a useless and very hoarder-ish thing to save.

A new option, a Playbill storage box from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, was my go-to Christmas gift for friends this year. A new take on Playbill storage and a good cause.

A better photo of the Playbill box.

I love that, R44. Thank you.

I don't really see what the big deal is about keeping all of your Playbills if you get the official binders to keep them in. When I fill up a binder, I just set it up on my book shelf like any other book. Even if you have 4 or 5 of them, you just set them on the shelf and they're fine. They also tend to grab the attention of visitors who always want to take them down, flip through them, and put them right back.