Off-Broadway’s “Blank! The Musical” Opens in Chicago With a New Look From VSA

VSA Partners designed a campaign to welcome the off-Broadway production, “Blank! The Musical,” to Chicago. The musical improv show premieres this month at The Revival on June 29.

At “Blank!”, every night is opening night and closing night of a brand-new musical made up on the spot. “Blank!” is completely improvised, created via audience suggestions. Unlike most live theater performances, “Blank!” encourages audience members to break out their smartphones at the start of the performance, submitting and voting on titles, lyrics, chord progressions and more before enjoying the ensuing live performance created from the winning suggestions.

VSA Partners, which has a strong history of working with Chicago institutions and cultural programs, created a new campaign to celebrate the show’s premiere. The campaign includes out-of-home advertising and branding integrated into the show design itself. The new campaign builds on a previous campaign concept created by Kieran Antill, with photography by Richard Ballard.

“When we designed the logo and expression, we embraced the idea of ‘unscripted creative’ and allowing new ideas to build off previous ones,” said VSA Chief Creative Officer Curt Schreiber. “The elongated ‘L’ allows for the image to interact, and color was deliberately not used in order to convey the idea of a blank canvas. The stark black-and-white compositions are noticeably different from typical entertainment marketing because the show is different.”

“VSA has been an incredible partner,” said The Revival Founder John Stoops. “They’ve worked with so many other amazing Chicago institutions. We were honored that they helped us create buzz around this fantastic show and bring to it the attention it deserves.”

“I’m thrilled VSA and ‘Blank!’ could partner in this way,” said VSA Head of Strategy Michael Girts, who is also one of the show’s creators. “VSAers and the actors in ‘Blank!’ share a lot of the same traits: courage, creativity, versatility and an unwavering belief that a great idea can happen in an instant.”

Show previews begin June 29, 2024. Buy tickets here.

About The Revival

The Revival is a thriving, multipurpose performing arts company that offers live performances, classes and workshops. Founded in 2015, the theater is proud to bring improvisation back to Chicago’s historic South Side. the-revival.com

About “Blank! The Musical”

“Blank! The Musical” is off-Broadway’s first-ever completely unscripted piece of musical theater, created by Michael Girts, T.J. Shanoff and Mike Descoteaux. The New York Times called “Blank!” “witty and likable in refreshingly unaggressive ways” and went on to say “the performers of “Blank!” seem to have genetically coded knowledge of the forms, formulas and cliches that make up the bulk of contemporary musicals.”