JustInsights
Welcome to the site! Below are the latest posts and (below those) a place to sign up for new-post notifications! And that’s pretty much all there is to find here for now
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To See or Not to See: The Outsiders
Minimum Familiarity: None (this article aims to provide you with just the right amount of familiarity as you decide whether you want to see The Outsiders on Broadway) Welcome Back! Sure, it’s been five months since the first entry in this series, but I (mostly) didn’t forget about this series of articles about whether you,…
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Debriefing the 2023-2024 Broadway Season
Minimum Familiarity: You’ll probably get more out of this if you watched the Tony Awards, but that’s the only recommendation. The Tony Awards happened a few weeks back, on June 16th, and I thought it was a great awards show overall. The Tonys tend to be at least twice as enjoyable to me as other…
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Tony Awards Predictions – 2024
It’s officially Tony Sunday, and the only awards show that I’m happy is absurdly long starts at 6:30pm ET this evening (with the main televised ceremony kicking off at 8pm on CBS). Loyal readers have already seen the drama of my attempts to predict and then understand the nominations this year, and now the time…
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Debriefing the 2024 Tony Nominations
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How Long Has It Been Since the Last Successful Original Musical?
Minimum Familiarity: None, I try to explain any requisite terminology as we go. I’ve been thinking lately about how much I like Hadestown, and it occurred to me that Hadestown may be the last original musical that has run for more than a year or two on Broadway. So I did some poking around (during…
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Authoritative Tony Nomination Predictions – 2023-2024 Season
Minimum Familiarity: Heard of it. It’s useful to have a sense of what the Tony nomination categories are. If you don’t care about the Tony Awards or haven’t heard of any shows this season, this post probably won’t be the most engaging for you. This blog is known for having its finger on the pulse…
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Introducing To See or Not to See: The Notebook
Minimum Familiarity: None (this article aims to provide you with just the right amount of familiarity as you decide whether you want to see The Notebook on Broadway) A Brand New Series! Welcome to the first post in a series called “To See or Not to See.” As implied by the title, this series (in…
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Take Me Back to the End of Back to the Future
Minimum Familiarity: Heard of it. It helps if you’re familiar to a mild extent with Back to the Future, either the movies or the musical. I avoid spoiling plot details, but I do talk about my overall impressions of the Broadway musical, so I recommend waiting to read this if you plan to see the…
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Is Sphere the Future of Entertainment?
Minimum Familiarity: None, although it might be helpful to know that MSG insists on calling their venue “Sphere” and not “the Sphere.” I for some reason obliged in this post. When it launched to much fanfare in fall 2023, Sphere came with lofty ambitions, including the promise that the concert venue in Vegas would “[redefine]…
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Anchors and Wienies: How Theme Parks Simplify Decisions
Minimum Familiarity: None (you just need to know what a theme park is!) Theme park designers aim to transport their guests to another world. To achieve this lofty objective, they rely on techniques that derive from a deep understanding of human behavior. The importance of how real people perceive and respond to the choices presented…