Gen Z may have seen Little Shop of Horrors, Company, or Into the Woods on Broadway recently, but they didn’t grow up with these shows the way previous generations did. Instead, they came of age with political unrest, economic anxiety, a global pandemic, and TikTok. As a result, they’re discovering Broadway through social media rather than traditional theater marketing. So how do you connect classic musicals to audiences whose first Broadway encounter might be a 30-second TikTok?
This theater marketing approach builds younger audience engagement by making traditional productions relevant to Generation Z’s lived experiences.
The answer isn’t nostalgia marketing or celebrity casting. It’s relevance. The best classic musicals can speak directly to Gen Z’s lived experience if you know how to make those connections visible.
How Gen Z Discovers Theater Through Social Media
Nearly 40% of Gen Z and Millennials say they’ve never seen anything about Broadway in their social media feeds[1], yet social media has become the primary discovery tool for this generation when they do engage with theater. The Beetlejuice phenomenon proved this point.
Beetlejuice the Musical opened on Broadway in April 2019 in the Winter Garden Theater to mixed reviews and struggled with ticket sales in its early months. In June 2019, after the Tony Awards, lead actor, Alex Brightman, asked 16-year-old Presley Ryan about current trends, leading her to introduce the cast to TikTok[8]. Ryan’s behind-the-scenes videos showing authentic moments from Broadway life began attracting younger audiences who had never considered theater before.
This growth was largely driven by younger audience members and first-time Broadway attendees: 54.95% of audience members had never bought tickets on Telecharge before, and 70.79% were between the ages of 19 and 54, well above the 49% benchmark of most Broadway shows[2]. When the show was eventually forced to close in December 2019 to make way for The Music Man, fans mobilized with hashtags like #SaveBeetlejuice trending on Twitter. I, personally, saw the show 8 times on Broadway, but that was even consider amateur in comparison to the fanfare surrounding the show.
The show had found its audience through TikTok, but despite being evicted from it’s original home, Beetlejuice the Musical would later reopen in the Marquis Theater, have a successful national tour where it recouped it’s initial investment, and will haunt the Palace Theater in another limited engagement run on Broadway beginning October 2025.
This wasn’t traditional theater marketing or celebrity casting that caused hundreds of thousands of attendees dressed in cosplay to fill the seats. It was authentic, humanized content that made theater feel accessible. Gen Z connected with the cast as people, not just performers.
Understanding the Gen Z Theater Landscape
Recent research shows that 67% of Gen Z and Millennials describe themselves as “Broadway curious” and 91% say that simply learning about theater makes them more interested in attending[3][4]. Yet 40% have never seen anything about live theater in their social media feeds, and 84% think there are 20 or fewer shows on Broadway (there are 41)[1][5].
The disconnect is about awareness more than relevance. More than half of Gen Z adults (51%) and 44% of Millennials attend theater at least every few months, compared to 19% of those 55 and older[6]. The average age of Broadway theatergoers dropped to 40.4 years in 2022-2023 which was the youngest in twenty seasons[7].
This data reveals an opportunity: Gen Z wants theater, but traditional marketing isn’t reaching them where they are.
Why Traditional Theater Marketing Fails to Reach Gen Z Audiences
Most theater marketing treats classic shows like museum pieces. The promotional materials focus on legacy, awards, and “timeless” themes. But Gen Z doesn’t care that Little Shop of Horrors premiered in 1982 or how many awards it has won over the years. They care about what it means for them and their communities in 2025.
Traditional approaches miss the mark because they assume cultural knowledge that Gen Z doesn’t have. References to original productions or comparisons to decades-old movies don’t resonate with audiences who discovered theater through Hamilton bootlegs on YouTube or trending Death Becomes Her sounds on social media.
The Little Shop of Horrors Case Study: Finding Contemporary Relevance
Little Shop of Horrors isn’t a quirky horror-comedy about a man-eating plant. It’s a story about economic desperation, moral compromise, and the cost of success in late-stage capitalism.
Consider Seymour’s journey through a Gen Z lens:
Economic Anxiety: Seymour works a dead-end job with no prospects. He can’t afford basic needs, much less his dreams. This mirrors Gen Z’s experience of delayed milestones due to student debt, rising housing costs, and economic uncertainty.
Influence Culture: The plant demands to be fed in exchange for fame and success. Replace “human sacrifice” with “ethical compromise” and you have every influencer’s moral dilemma. How far would you go for followers, for success, for relevance?
Moral Compromise Under Pressure: Seymour must decide whether to sacrifice people he cares about (and those he doesn’t) to maintain his success. Gen Z faces similar choices daily regarding supporting brands with questionable ethics, staying silent on important issues for career advancement, or participating in systems they know are harmful.
The Plant as Metaphor: The plant can represent capitalism, white supremacy, or any system that demands human sacrifice for individual success. Gen Z recognizes these systems and questions them constantly.
When we as theater creators shortcut the powerful messages that can be conveyed through strong direction, we underestimate Gen Z’s ability to discern sensitive themes and the level of care they have to confront these difficult truths. This should challenge us to rise to the occasion and create a space for them to process these personal and societal challenges.Marketing Strategy: Connect the Dots Explicitly
1. Lead with Contemporary Themes in Your Messaging
Don’t make audiences work to find the relevance. Effective theater marketing to Gen Z requires explicit contemporary connections. Your marketing copy should explicitly connect classic themes to current issues:
- “What would you sacrifice for success?”
- “A dark comedy about the cost of capitalism”
- “When your dreams require feeding the machine”
2. Leverage Influencer Marketing and Authentic Voices
Gen Z trusts peer recommendations over institutional messaging. Partner with local micro-influencers, vloggers, or even passionate fans who can authentically speak about their lived experiences and the show’s relevance. Invite them to table reads, dress rehearsals, or talk-back sessions. Their genuine reactions, commentary, and insights will resonate more than polished promotional content.
The Beetlejuice success came from cast members sharing real, behind-the-scenes moments, not scripted promotional videos. This humanized approach builds emotional connection.
3. Use Visual Language Gen Z Recognizes
Skip the vintage poster aesthetics. Use design elements that feel familiar them such as, neon colors, bold typography, imagery that references their visual culture while still honoring the show’s essence.
4. Social Media Theater Promotion That Works
Create content for platforms Gen Z actually uses. TikTok videos exploring character motivations. Instagram stories and reels with behind-the-scenes content that connects rehearsal moments to broader themes. Instagram Threads and Substack articles unpacking the social commentary.
5. Partner with Voices They Trust
Collaborate with content creators, influencers, or thought leaders who can authentically connect with Gen Z audiences and speak to the show’s contemporary relevance. This can be done through conversation reels or post-show talkbacks.
Learning from Recent Success Stories
The recent revival of Gypsy starring Audra McDonald demonstrates how contemporary casting can reframe classic material. For the first time, Mama Rose was played by a Black woman on Broadway, transforming the story from a tale of a demanding stage mother into something deeper. Rose’s desperation for her children’s success takes on new meaning when viewed through the lens of a Black mother fighting against systemic barriers by pushing her daughters toward a better life than society typically offered African American families in that era.
This wasn’t colorblind casting; it was intentional, race-conscious casting that gave audiences permission to see familiar material with fresh eyes. The production didn’t change a single line of dialogue, yet the entire emotional landscape shifted. I remember sitting in the audience exhausted by the intense energy Audra gave while performing this role. As a white male, it gave me even the smallest of glimpse into the urgency the world being portrayed. It is within these performances where empathy for your neighbor is developed, that is the power of theater.
Beyond Little Shop: Finding Modern Themes in Any Classic Musicals and Plays
This approach works for any classic show:
Company: Urban loneliness and commitment anxiety in the age of dating apps
Into the Woods: Consequence culture and the complexity of moral choices
Sweeney Todd: Class warfare and systematic injustice
Hair: Generational conflict and resistance movements
Oklahoma!: Toxic masculinity and consent culture in communities that enable predatory behavior
A Streetcar Named Desire: Housing insecurity, mental health stigma, and how society discards vulnerable women
The key is identifying which contemporary issues align most naturally with each show’s core conflicts and themes.
Applying This Strategy Beyond Broadway
While Broadway provides the most visible examples, this approach works at every theater level—from regional theaters to community productions.
Regional Theaters: A regional production of Rent can market itself around the housing crisis and healthcare access rather than 90s nostalgia. Local young professionals and healthcare workers discussing medical debt and gentrification will resonate more than critics praising Jonathan Larson’s score.
Community Theaters: Cabaret becomes a story about political apathy and the rise of authoritarianism rather than Weimar Republic history. Partner with local political advocacy groups, journalism organizations, or community engagement nonprofits who understand these themes personally. This promotion strategy scales from Broadway to community productions.
Educational Productions: High school productions of The Crucible can explore themes of social media mob mentality and political extremism that students see in their daily lives, rather than focusing on the Salem witch trials setting.
The key is matching the show’s core conflicts with your community’s current conversations. Every theater can find local voices that authentically connect classic material to contemporary issues.
Why This Matters for Theater’s Future
Gen Z holds significant power in shaping the social, cultural, and political future of the United States and internationally. Their generation is marked by zealous curiosity, questioning the institutions and systems they grew up with, and demanding authentic answers. They want to and will make a difference.
Theater provides the perfect space for this generation to confront their biases, build empathy for one another, and become advocates for change and increased humanity in our society. Gen Z represents the future of theater audiences. They’re willing to engage with challenging content and complex themes, but only if you show them why it matters to their world.
Classic plays and musicals survive because it contains universal human truths. Your job as a marketer isn’t to preserve these works in a specific time period, but to help new audiences discover how those truths apply to their lives.
The theaters that master Gen Z theater marketing and contemporary relevance won’t just sell tickets to Gen Z. They’ll create the passionate, engaged audiences who use theater as a catalyst for social change, ensuring these stories continue to matter for the next generation.
Ready to make your classic musical speak to modern audiences?
The key is understanding both the show’s deeper themes and your audience’s lived experience by building bridges between them. I Can Help With ThatReferences
[1] No Guarantees and Culture Co-Op. “Broadway’s Next Act: Gen Zs and Millennials.” PR Newswire, April 24, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-research-shows-nearly-70-of-gen-z–millennials-are-curious-about-broadway-so-why-arent-they-coming-302124824.html
[2] Stokel-Walker, Chris. “Can TikTok Save ‘Beetlejuice,’ the Broadway Musical?” Rolling Stone, April 19, 2023. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/beetlejuice-broadway-musical-tiktok-trend-920184/
[3] “New Study Shows That 67% of Gen Zs and Millennials Are ‘Broadway Curious.'” Playbill, April 25, 2024. https://playbill.com/article/new-study-shows-that-67-of-gen-zs-and-millennials-are-broadway-curious
[4] No Guarantees. “Broadway’s Next Act: Gen Zs and Millennials.” 2024.
[5] No Guarantees. “Broadway’s Next Act: Gen Zs and Millennials.” 2024.
[6] “Live Theater’s Post-Pandemic Comeback Driven by New, Younger Audiences.” CivicScience, March 6, 2025. https://civicscience.com/live-theaters-post-pandemic-comeback-driven-by-new-younger-audiences/
[7] “The Broadway League releases 2022-2023 audience demographics report.” Broadway News, December 11, 2023. https://www.broadwaynews.com/the-broadway-league-releases-2022-2023-audience-demographics-report/
[8] Stokel-Walker, Chris. “Presley Ryan’s TikToks Have Made Beetlejuice Broadway’s Hottest Ticket.” FFWD, December 13, 2021. https://ffwd.medium.com/presley-ryans-tiktoks-have-made-beetlejuice-broadway-s-hottest-ticket-fa9c76b1f123
[9] Boffone, Trevor. TikTok Broadway: Musical Theatre Fandom in the Digital Age. Oxford University Press, 2024.
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