making theatre "mainstream"...

Theatre is more expensive on average for the individual punter than many of the other art forms you talk about because it is so hand made. Everything is made uniquely even the performance and it costs a lot to do. We also have some other problems. Film particlualrly Hollywood is becoming increasingly predictable and therefore safe and good theatre isn't. "Pop" music is becoming more and more bland and even the rappers are starting to look mainstream. For similar reasons music theatre is the most acceptable theatrical medium because you can watch a lot of bright young things having fun and go home humming the tunes. Their are honorable exceptions to that rule but not many and only Rent immediately comes to mind.

You will note that I used the term good theatre above. Unfortunately a lot of local amateur and comunity groups can lack something and one bad experience can scare off audiences for life. I've seen some real professional shockers too. And there are always the companys who keep recycling the same comparatively short list of safe plays sometimes with the same casts over and over again.

So why isn't theatre mainstream? Well I could be incredibly elitist and suggest that it's because theatre requires involvement intellectually from the audience and that why people don't bother.

This has actually been a problem in the Englsh speaking world since the restoration of the monarchy in the late 1600's. After 40 odd years in the UK without theatre the returning Stuarts made it an elitist art form only for the rich and we've never really recovered.