Dialsmith

(Audience members with Perception Analyzer dials at Broadway-bound musical “Somewhere in Time.” Image courtesy of the New York Times)

What makes good theater? According to a recent New York Times article, focus groups using Dialsmith’s Perception Analyzer dials might soon be playing more of a lead role in helping answer that question.

The article profiles a project run by Perception Analyzer system owner and research consultant Douglas Connett for Broadway producer Ken Davenport whose musical “Somewhere in Time” is being tested during the show’s world premiere in Portland, Oregon.

(Davenport, Connett and collegues analyzing the real-time data coming in through the Perception Analyzer report system. Image courtesy of the New York Times)

Davenport is using the dial focus groups to help identify specific moments where audiences responded most positively and negatively. Davenport will use the feedback to help revise and improve segments of the performance before taking the musical to New York.

Per the Times article, “Over three performances of dial-testing, no single song bombed, but parts of songs and scenes caused consistent dips in the fever line; Mr. Davenport said those moments would be assessed by the creative team and perhaps be changed.”