Introduction
The case study is about the launch of Mamma mia as performance art by Judy Craymer. Judy joined ABBA to work on a musical performance based on Mamma mia, a song produced by ABBA in 1975. Judy had worked previously with Chess. However, Chess had collapsed as a result of poor Broadway reviews. The case study describes the success of Mamma mia as a musical performance. This paper addresses four questions from the case study.
Can the performing arts be considered an industry?
The changes currently taking place in performing art qualifies it as an industry. According to the United States’ Bureau of Economic Census, performing art is an enriched industry that improves the quality of life. Besides entertainment, performing art contributes to the economic growth of a place by attracting people to spend money on local products and services.
Performing art also promotes creative thinking in local people where it thrives (Stone, 2001). Performing art is one of the major industries that contribute to the economic basket of the United States. In 2001, an estimate of $ 44 million was spent in musical performance in the United States (Stone, 2001). Besides this contribution, the performing art industry creates full and part-time jobs for many people around the world. It is estimated that performing arts created 9000 full and part-time jobs in the United States in 2000 (Stone, 2001). The above contributions underscore that performing art is an industry.
From an entrepreneurship perspective, highlight the issues that must be considered when dealing with creations in the performing arts that have cultural or classical roots.
The major entrepreneurial issues in performing art are related to business ethics and its effects on society. A piece of work in performing art with classical roots and culture has issues with originality and intellectual property rights. From an entrepreneurial perspective, a musical producer should evaluate different items before settling on the viable ones. Viable ideas should then progress through concept, product development, test marketing, and commercialization stages (Hisrich et al., 2007). According to Hisrich, et al. (2007), a shrewd entrepreneur ought to assess ideas of performing art keenly to ensure a successful launch.
The first issue that can be encountered by an entrepreneur in performing art regards the originality of the idea. The credit of performing art is shared between the entrepreneur and the original producer. In the case study, Craymer wondered why people were praising her for the success of Mamma mia, yet she was not the author of the original work. The original work was done by ABBA. She knows that credit for the success of the work should go to the original producer. Therefore, the issue of who should be credited for the success of a performing art’s work should be resolved before production commences.
Are there special conditions or conflicts of interest, which apply, in the quasi-public sector of the performing arts to businesses such as Mamma Mia?
The quasi-public sector has many conflicting interests. This is because the quasi-public sector is partly supported by the government. The first conflict regards the cost of provision of goods and services and the beneficiaries. In a regular business organization, a person who does not pay for the product is excluded from the list of beneficiaries.
However, this is not always the case in quasi-public organizations because they have mandated activities that are performed by specific people. The mandated people and audience can access the benefits of the products and services without necessarily paying production costs. Government support gives the quasi-public organizations an advantage over regular businesses in the event of financial and operational shocks.
What do you think of the Mamma Mia! Show? Is it entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is the process of creating a new thing or adding value to an existing one (Hisrich et al., 2007). Based on this definition, Mamma Mia production is entrepreneurship. The original Mamma mia production was a song produced by ABBA. However, the second reproduction entails a lot of innovations and creativity. It was produced as a musical performance with narrations and stage dancing different from the original ABBA’s work.
Conclusion
The work of Judy Craymer rekindled the fame and popularity of Mamma mia, the ABBA’s song produced in 1975. Performing art can be considered as an industry because it contributes to the economic basket of a country. It also creates formal and informal jobs for youths. The entrepreneurial issues that surround performing art are intellectual property rights and originality of the idea.
The conflicts of interests in a quasi-public sector regard the cost of provision of goods and services and the beneficiaries. In a regular business organization, a person who does not pay for the product is excluded from the list of beneficiaries. However, this is not always the case in quasi-public organizations because they have mandated activities that are performed by specific people. Finally, Mamma mia production as musical performance is entrepreneurship because it requires creativity and innovations.
References
Hisrich,D.R., Peters, P.M., & Shepherd, A.D. (2007). Entrepreneurship, 7th edition. New York : McGraw Hill.
Stone, B. (2001). The Arts as an industry:A Report on the Economic Impact of the Non-Profit Arts Organizations in Sonoma County. The Sonoma County Economic Development Board, 1-28.