Fintech Firm Ramp Takes Its 'Bill Pay' Platform to Broadway—for 1 Night Only

The effort enlists Billy Porter, Billy Zane and Jessica Vosk to unfold the drama—and the laughs

If you consider that paying bills creates a fair amount of drama, then it makes perfect sense that Ramp is using that insight as the basis for a musical. 

The fintech company will debut a one-night only Broadway show, Bill Pay, on Sept. 25 at The Broadhurst Theatre. It stars Emmy, Tony and Grammy winner Billy Porter, Hollywood actor Billy Zane and Broadway performer Jessica Vosk. (Plus Billiam Shakespeare!)

Along with trumpeting Ramp’s bill pay platform, the. brand hopes to create a greater emotional connection to the public at scale.

Bill Pay will feature original songs, full choreography and an orchestra, all inside a real Broadway theater.

“Industrial musicals were once how major companies introduced products and told their stories,” says Kendall Hope Tucker, Ramp’s director of creative experimentation. “They were ambitious, strange and endlessly entertaining. We loved the idea of reviving that tradition for the AI era, especially for a category as seemingly unglamorous as accounts payable. The ‘Bills’ concept took on its own life from there: a show about Bills, by Bills, starring Bills.”

The one night only catch is very much by design.

“That is part of what makes the idea special and allows us to treat the evening like a genuine Broadway opening,” adds Hope Tucker. That said, the experience will live on, as Ramp is filming the performance. From there, the company will create clips, music, photography and behind-the-scenes material to potentially showcase it to a larger audience.

To spread the word, the company is working with the entertainment, business and theater press and leveraging OOH, direct mail, creator outreach and more.

“Experiential works when the event is not the end product,” Hope Tucker says. “The event creates a real-world moment, but it also gives you relationships, press, social content and distribution. That is especially important for a software company because software is hard to make emotional. Nobody is normally gathering outside a theater to celebrate accounts payable.”

“We are not simply doing weird things. Experiential gives us a way to make an invisible product pain tangible. The show turns the pain of paying bills into something people can see, feel and laugh about.” 

Ramp created the idea for the musical, and has remained deeply involved in the concept, script, product story, content and distribution. Broadway and Beyond serves as executive producer. Super Awesome Friends handles Broadway and social marketing, and Night is working with creators and influencers to support the effort.

Hope Tucker notes that making something genuinely entertaining where people understand why Ramp created it is challenging. But, the reward has been watching Broadway professionals take the idea seriously. 

“This started as a pun on bills—now it’s a full scale musical.”

Related: Ramp, Brian Baumgartner Are All About Multiplication