【Watch Married Woman Who Can’t Say No Online】

A new Broadway show is Watch Married Woman Who Can’t Say No Onlineattempting to smash down the barriers between reality and fiction by using technology.

Dear Evan Hansen, a Broadway show by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Steven Levenson, is one of the first major musicals to incorporate social media on and off stage. During the show, the IRL audience is overwhelmed with social media feeds, Microsoft documents, email exchanges, Kickstarter petitions and this immersive push continues off stage with livestreams on Periscope.

The integration of social media into this particular Broadway show makes a lot of sense. Not only does it help tap into a younger audience demographic, it also matches the underlying themes in Dear Evan Hansen, such as isolation in the internet age and the dangers of anonymity online.

The lead character, Evan Hansen, is a 17-year-old high school student struggling with loneliness and anguish at a time when social media use has infected every element of daily life. The streams of Twitter, Facebook and websites rolling on screens around the stage make Hansen's sweaty-palmed anxiety palpable. While, the solid soundtrack heightens the feeling that you have just stepped deep into the internet where the boundaries between reality and fiction have most definitely blurred.

On the surface, the teenager creates a new persona in his struggle to handle a classmate's death. As the show continues, Evan grapples with issues connected to who he wants to be, who he really is and who you can be online. The performance by Ben Platt is emotionally stirring as it holds a mirror up to the ugly reality of how entrenched the internet has become in our lives.

The real Evan Hansen

In a bizarre coincidence, Evan Hansen is also the name of the editor in chief of streaming platform Periscope. The connection was so uncanny the real life Hansen decided to partner with the show to bring elements of Dear Evan Hansen to life. On Monday night, Periscope shared interviews with the cast before the preview show, released an exclusive track ("Only Us") and got up close and personal with the actors at the stage door.

"It's just kind of a funny coincidence," real life Hansen told Mashable. "Not only that, the themes of the show dovetail from social media and what it means for someone to be living life in public in the modern digital age and Periscope is one of the vehicles where people are experimenting with this kind of thing."

Periscope, which was bought by Twitter in 2015 and has 10 million users at last count, allows viewers to watch livestreams while interacting with what they are watching via comments or emojis. It was one of the first players in the space, before Facebook barged its way into live broadcasting.

How Periscope benefits

In a crowded market, Periscope needs to differentiate itself and appears to be doing so by playing into fields with obsessive fanbases. Periscope and Broadway have found a partnership in each other due to the shared desire to break down the boundaries between a live event and reality.

LIVE on #Periscope: The #OnlyUs music video premieres at the same time @benSPLATT & @lauradreyfuss perform the song… https://t.co/SKBwGBacQ0

— Dear Evan Hansen (@DearEvanHansen) November 15, 2016

Damian Bazadona from Situation, the digital marketing company behind Dear Evan Hansen, said the show hoped to connect with a smaller group of fans, more intimately, while creating a rich experience that organically fits into the show's themes.

"We are a show about connection, so we are trying to be on platforms where people can connect with us. That is what is interesting with Periscope, it makes natural sense for live events and Broadway," he said.

"It is all done in a very personal and connected way. Digital often goes to a cold place, I think what Dear Evan Hansendid is very warm and there is something very powerful about that."

The show, which officially opens on Dec. 4, didn't go as far as bringing the characters to life on social media, and it is doubtful the niche social audience brought in a ton of ticket sales, but the initial push into social media on Broadway looks promising.

LIVE on #Periscope: Interviews with #DearEvanHansen creators before our first #Broadway performance! https://t.co/v73AHGMe2b

— Dear Evan Hansen (@DearEvanHansen) November 15, 2016

This isn't the first time Periscope has worked with Broadway stars. The technology has been used fora show by Broadway theater owner Jordan Roth, called Making Mondays,which gives viewers a peek behind the creative process of a Broadway show. While, Broadway star Brandon Uranowitz broadcast the happenings backstage of the opening night of An American in Paris in 2015.

The award-winning show Hamiltonhas also been hugely successful in using social media to push theater to new places in the online space. Hamiltoncreator Lin-Manuel Miranda is a sensation on Twitter, goes live on Periscope and has drummed up a huge amount of hype online for the show.

"Lin-Manuel Miranda has broadcast from Hamilton in the dressing room, so we are definitely on the radar of the Broadway community," Hansen said. "This is definitely raising the ante in the type of content we are doing and the ways that we are working together with a production to make sure it is reaching the right audience."

How Broadway benefits

Hansen pointed to the access the platform gives to its audience as a main reason for Broadway's embrace of Periscope, using Miranda as an example of a unique moment for fans.

"We talk about Periscope as this teleportation device, which lets you drop into a scenario that you might otherwise never be able to be in, say in Lin-Manuel Miranda's dressing room, right before he goes on stage in Hamilton or right after, that's an insane opportunity," Hansen explained. "That's an unprecedented kind of access that I don't think people have had before."

These platforms are helping to take Broadway productions beyond the stage and introduce a new, young audience to theater. In the future, we may even see a Broadway show broadcast in its entirety on Periscope.

"I think we haven't even begun to scratch the surface. Now that the technology is ubiquitous, anyone can go live at any time at almost no cost, I think we are going to see some really interesting experiments with that and theater is live, so it feels like such a natural affinity," Hansen said.

So if you are a die-hard Broadway fan but can't make it to New York City, finally there is a way to engage with live theater while sitting on your couch eating popcorn. In the near future, we can only hope it will be the entire Broadway show.

LIVE on #Periscope: #DearEvanHansen's first #Broadway bow, then an exclusive visit to the #StageDoor! https://t.co/mPcj64RHI0

— Dear Evan Hansen (@DearEvanHansen) November 15, 2016

Disclosure: Mashable's Chief Operating Officer, Mike Kriak, is a producer for Dear Evan Hansen.