Spartacus Effect?

[silvertrombone]

OK, first, I have to give a HUGE shout out to Triple Crown from 2007 and Faust from 2006 in discussing this topic. Fan love for TC07 has been obvious since early season that year before most of us had even seen the show. And Faust was that perfect mesh of music, story and the drum corps activity that served PR so well and that, I'm sure, led to their design of the 2008 production.

All that being said...

The fan reaction in 2008 was simply incredible for Spartacus. So much so that after viewing it at the 1/4's broadcast I turned to the guy seated next to me and exclaimed (based purely on audience reaction!), "Well, there's your 2008 champion!" Remember, this is after the corps having not defeated Cavies since...what?...1997? 1996?? They didn't beat Cavies that night, even. But semis and finals...

So my question is...what have you guys heard about show designs for 2009 and what impact did the audience's reaction at finals have on show designs? At the theater thing last night, Phantom's preview (opener, I'm assuming?) sounded an awful lot like the 1996 opener in feel...tried and true? Winning game plan??

We had already begun to hear plans from the Cadets last year during the season for their show this year, and their recent history is well-known and well-discussed. I don't mean for it to turn ugly, so please refrain if you cannot discuss in an adult manner, k? But comments from Allentown seem to indicate that Hop heard the stands, too. Maybe just my interpretation, but their show sounds to have taken some tremendous strides towards becoming more fan friendly this year. One example of the Spartacus Effect?

Interested to know your thoughts.

Music in 2004-2006 was somewhat a snooze-fest (personal opinion). It has gotten tremendously better the last two years. Will this trend continue this year, what with the effect that show had last year?

Thoughts?

[Jeff Ream]

it comes and goes in cycles. 90-92, a lot of fan friendly shows...93-95 not so much...96-00....more fan friendly...01-06 really eh.

so we're in that cycle. remember, to get huge GE numbers, you still have to be cutting edge and max out your big moments, marry visual and musical together. But if music that appeals to the masses helps, more power to you.

[Lance]

I'm hoping its effect is minimal.

[luvscorps]

If the "Spartacus Effect" means (and I think it does based on the OP):

--extended, whole melodic phrases

--visual and musical excellence simulataneously

--audience engagement

--emotion & passion

then I hope it's as contagious as the common cold. The fans will win like never before. Give me passion, emotion and the total package anyday over perfection.

[CoHmempho04]

I didn't know Phantom hasn't beat Cavaliers since 1997 (checked it on Blue Knights websites).

[boxingfred]

I really don't think Phantom's win effects what the top corps do. Remember Phantom won by .025 and they beat the third place corps by less than a point. Every corps gets their share of crowd reaction. The mid west corps will probably get a little more being that DCI is in Indy.

[Jeff Ream]

i saw all of the corps a week before Indy at Allentown...expect Cadets and Crossmen to have the babies thrown at them right?

yeah, kinda.

but who owned the crowd? Phantom and Crown. In fact on Friday, more people talked about wanting to see those two on Saturday than BD and Cavies that night.

Phantom and Crown reached something last year that's hard to do....fan friendly shows that work on the sheets in most areas and are performed amazingly. Phantom of the two, got a reaction from a crowd in Allentown I've not personally seen in a long time, including Cadets since the move. I'm gonna say probably since SCV 04.

so I dont think it was just Indy that helped the crowd explode for Phantom. They had been gaining fans all season.

Now...can it be duplicated? tough. Most shows that become instant classics are rarely followed up by one the next year.

[Liam]

I almost hesitate to write this post, because I know it's going to be taken in ways unintended to jump start the whole regular nonsense, but here goes anyway ...

One thing that stood out for me with the Spartacus show was their ability really tell a story that the audience could follow easily even without necessarily having known the Spartacus story previously. INSTANT DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT BASHING THE USE OF NARRATION IN THIS POST OR SUGGESTING THAT NARRATION ISN'T NECESSARY OR CAN'T ADD TO THE STORYTELLING OR REALLY ANYTHING ABOUT NARRATION WHATSOEVER, SO PLEASE DON'T GO THERE.

Even the Faust show, which I also liked, didn't really convey the storyline as well, imo. If you didn't already know the story of Faust, I'm not sure you got what was going on -- guy loves girl, deal with the devil, overindulgence, girl dies, redemption?, etc. Heck, even the various Faust stories over the years are different from each other, so I'm not really clear on the story Phantom was trying to tell. Still loved the music and visual, et al, but it wasn't quite championship-level cohesiveness, imo.

Spartacus, however, had it all. Even if you never heard of Spartacus, from the moment Phantom entered the stadium, you were drawn into the story -- mean overlords abusing slaves, one of the soldiers seems more sympathetic, slave love story, head soldier kills slave, slaves revolt, get thrown down, sympathetic soldier joins slaves cause, much rejoicing. Maybe you don't get all the nuances of the story (one woman behind thought that the head soldier was Spartacus), but you still got the jist and went along for the ride. Plus awesome music and visuals ....

What's my point? My point is that I hope that corps who choose to tell a story with their show (DISCLAIMER #2: I'M NOT SAYING THAT CORPS SHOULD TRY TO TELL A STORY OR EVEN THAT I PREFER THAT, JUST GIVING SOME ADVICE TO CORPS WHO CHOOSE TO GO THAT ROUTE) that they learn something from Spartacus. Integrating story with drill with music with whatever other tools you choose to hook the audience into your story is not easy, but Phantom proved that it is possible. Throwing a storyline over some songs and drill is no longer acceptable for a championship-calibur show.

So what I hope is the Spartacus-Effect is that story-telling shows are brought to this higher full-blown production level or not at all. Meaning that corps who choose to tell a story do so in the full-blown production manner as Phantom 08, and that those who cannot or are not willing to do that, instead focus on kick-butt drill and music and leave the storytelling to the others. Both types of shows are capable of being championship-calibur -- what is not is trying to do both and not fully succeeding at either.

[MikeN]

Liam,

I agree totally with you.

What's interesting to me is that one of the corps I talked to while in Indy actually expected a bit of a shift this year, too - somewhat along the lines of "well, if that's what the judges are going to reward now, then we'll shift that way."

Mike

[2000Cadet]

Just because one show happened to win with a story (a really great story nonetheless) doesn't really mean that this is the formula for a winning show. If we can recall, Phantom's show didn't really win by much and could have been overtaken. They won because they performed their show better than everyone else (in the judges eyes, which is what really matters). If another corps had performed their show better than Phantom, then they would have won. I think it's merely a matter of who performs their show technically better than the rest of the competition.

Phantom's show however is one for the record books and is an instant classic. I personally think it will be a LONG time before we see another show that can be as well received and discussed as much as theirs. And they deserve it. It was by far an EXCELLENT show, and I rarely like Phantom shows.

We'll see what happens this year