Give Your Audience Permission to Accept Your Position

Sometimes your message isn’t as clear as it should be. You might need to give your audience “permission” to get it. What do I mean?

You might know that my wife is a music teacher and my kids have been in a bunch of incredible musical theater productions over the years. I’ve been in precisely one in the past 35 years – photo evidence below – where I butchered the role of Elle’s father in Legally Blonde. 

I heard a great musical theater anecdote from Broadway guru Seth Rudetsky (thanks for the Cameo – my wife loved it). He related a story about Stephen Sondheim’s 1962 musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”. This hilarious comedy set in Roman Imperial times wasn’t generating as many laughs as it should have. Audiences had tepid reactions to great material. What was going on?

The opening song was “Love is in the AIr”, a jaunty piece, but hardly hilarious. The audience now had their expectations set: this was a fun, but not funny show. And the lack of laughter proved it. Despite joke after joke, and bit after bit, (and a hint in the title of the show) the audience was not responding to the humor. 

After experimenting on the road in the preview sessions, the producers sought out advice. Another experienced Broadway director, Jerome Robbins, watched the show and realized that the audience needed to be given permission to laugh. How? By explicitly telling them that this was a comedy. 

Sondheim wrote a new opening song. Out went “Love”, in came the now famous “Comedy Tonight”. The result? An incredible success. The audience was firmly cued into the fact that they had a comedy on the stage. And the laughs, and ticket sales, kept coming. Right through multiple revivals. 

Take a look at your message. Is it as clear as you think about what you’re trying to communicate? Are you trying to emphasize ease of use in your product but you’re over-complicating the onboarding message and flow? Are you aiming for an iconoclastic offer but using corporate-speak in your copy?

Give your audience permission to join you in your mission by making sure your early signals to them about what to expect are clear and consistent.