The MTA is welcoming back theatregoers by launching a new ad campaign featuring characters from seven Broadway shows all riding the trains underground. The poster series is a throwback to a 1977 campaign titled “The Only Sure Way to Make It to Broadway,” a playful take on the well-known traffic jams of Times Square that the MTA bypassed underground.
The new campaign includes Moulin Rouge! Tony winner Danny Burstein and co-star Bahiyah Hibah, Jordan Fisher (Dear Evan Hansen), and Six stars Adrianna Hicks and Andrea Macasaet. Joining them are Stephanie Torns and Maiesha McQueen from Waitress, Avery Sell and Rob McClure from Mrs. Doubtfire, Mary Claire King and Arian Keddell from Chicago, and Paul A. Schaefer and Julia Udine from The Phantom of the Opera.
New York Magazine reports the ads, produced by live entertainment marketing agency RPM, will premiere mid-November on NYC Subway, LIRR, and Metro-North trains. In addition to the group shoots, individual shows will have their own posters throughout the transit system.
The original campaign featured Melba Moore and Eartha Kitt from Timbuktu!, Carol Channing from Hello, Dolly!, and Stephanie Mills from The Wiz, among others. Check out a comparison, shared by RPM Creative Director Steven Tartick, below.
How it started How it’s going pic.twitter.com/cwmH3BK00D
— Steven Tartick (@Tartick) November 9, 2021