Are There More New Musicals Coming? — Page 4

It just opened last week with rave reviews, could the Off-Broadway revival of Putnam County Spelling Bee” transfer to Broadway this spring? It’s only on sale until April currently…

But you haven't seen them or any of the others apparently. And I am hearing people excited about both and others. No one was raving about the shows you praise (Outsiders, Happy) so it makes me wonder what your agenda is in tearing shows down. One person saw your point and that is probably your burner account. Later.

Kad said: "EnsembleXX: I have no idea what bee is in your bonnet but I’m not engaging with you on this topic any further. Others here seem perfectly able to get what I’ve been trying to say.


And yeah, I do think shows like Galileo and Pussycat will struggle were they to come in. Hardly an outlier prediction given the unenthusiastic reception they’ve had."

Updated On: 11/28/25 at 07:36 PM

benign..."None of the shows kicking around is even an on-paper decent bet, the out of town tryouts are either uninspiring or have faceplanted, there isn’t even a prestige piece waiting in the wings."

Exaggerate or misrepresent..I quoted him!!! lol later haters.

SteveSanders said: "Kad's relatively benign criticism hardly qualifies as "tearing shows down" despite the best efforts of EnsembleRandomNumberString's attempts to exaggerate and/or misrepresent it."

brdwybound04 said: "It just opened last week with rave reviews, could the Off-Broadway revival of Putnam County Spelling Bee” transfer to Broadway this spring? It’s only on sale until April currently…"

Not everything needs to transfer. From what I had read about Spelling Bee they weren't ever eyeing coming to Broadway. Its just the sort of show that could settle into a long run off Broadway and do well like Little Shop of Horrors.

Anyone have any info on Millions since their out of town run? I know it had rough word of mouth, but any Adam Guettel musical has my interest.

Millions in Atlanta was sadly not strong. It was a last minute replacement in their season - just before the season announcement - and while they probably benefited from the run and learned a lot, it’s not likely to be in NYC without another developmental run.

ugh. Totally agree. And oft times now theater owners are committing to shows after table reads and promising theaters on a time table that make it less of a motivation to really fix the material. Purple Rain, Smash, Boop, Dolly Parton, Lost Boys, all were promised specific theaters and timing and then the theaters had filler programing to kill time. Dolly doesn't have to make big changes because they already have the theater. Theater owners need to get better at identifying strong creative and budgets that make shows financially viable not just stars or producer relationships.

Kad said: "violetsandroses said: "I kinda think we need a come-to-Jesus moment about producers and investors producing the wrong things. As frustrating as Versailles is - how on EARTH did it make it past the first reading/workshop? It seems that development these days is too insular, and perhaps there are just too many "yes" people in these rooms. SMASH is another one that appeared to be the victim of too much yes-anding and creative confusion."

I think it’s less about producing/investing in the wrong things- people have done both since Broadway began- and more about addressing how costly and frequentlyineffectual development has become. It’s one thing to just mount a bad show on Broadway, it’s quite another to spend time doing readings, workshops, labs, and productions with a show and wind up having just pushed problems around rather than ever fix them. There is a lack of skilled development leadership in the industry."

I think after reading the past couple of pages, what Ensemble is trying to get at is that sometimes word-of-mouth pre-Broadway does not have any indication of how well a show will do on Broadway.

I distinctly remember how harsh this board was to The Outsiders at La Jolla and everyone thought it was insane at how fast it was transferring in. However, despite word of mouth on this board specifically, it has become a success on Broadway.

I also don’t think there’s a lack of quality shows waiting to transfer in- rather a lack of producers willing to take a risk on new shows.

Come Fall in Love, Regency Girls, 42 Balloons, Knoxville, and Becoming Nancy all had more positive than negative reviews in their out of towns. However, none of those have commercial IP attached, making them riskier choices for producers/investors. And those are just the ones off the top of my head. I’m sure there’s plenty PLENTY more.

I know that the new version of Damn Yankees that ran in DC over the fall got great reviews, and after seeing it, I couldn't agree more. The updated script works fantastically, and Sergio Trujillo's choreography and direction is amazing. I think Ana Villafane has an excellent shot at another Tony. Buzz is it's due fall of 2026, theater TBA.