Arielle Jacobs to lead HERE LIES LOVE On Broadway - News & Discussion Thread — Page 2

Word on the street is that Ruthie is playing Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd in the spring, then doing Piazza in June, followed up Here Lies Love in the summer (indeed at the Broadway - they can't do spring as they still need to start renovations). Could be a huge year for Ruthie Ann Miles!

Maybe this is moot, if SweatyOracle is to be believed, but I just wanted to chime in to say:

There seems to be no demand for the Broadway theatre, on the tenant side, presumably because it's simply too big to reliably fill. So if the Shuberts are desperate for a tenant, I could imagine them wanting to switch things up by bringing in an unconventional show, and giving them a sweet deal on rent. Better than letting it sit empty.

I loved the show but is there really an audience for this to warrant a 15 million dollar plus staging on Broadway? More if they are truly planning to gut the Broadway theatre?

The Sweeny casting makes sense, but Here Lies Love on Broadway 6 years after its last try in Seattle (according to Wikipedia: "with the intention of recreating the immersive elements in a proscenium theater" - with a summer opening no less - seems far fetched.

Maybe David Byrne has money to burn.

Is Back to the Future rumored for the Winter Garden? I thought I read at one time it was for the Broadway?

In a time of ever increasing economic uncertainty and costs, who would be willing to put up a show like this on Broadway in one of its largest theaters? This show, imo, does not work without a substantial immersive element, which will require removal of a lot of seats and who knows what other renovations in a conventional proscenium space. The show has also lost its window to transfer to keep momentum. The concept is also a tough sell to general Broadway audience.


The only space in the theatre district this could work is Sony Hall, with its mixture of proscenium stage and very large, flexible audience area. But I doubt the venue’s owners would give it up for any length of time.

With a couple of long runners closing, I think Broadway is ready for another buzzy new show and this might be. It's such a fun experience.

Judging off the Seattle pictures, it looks pretty close to the Public version, so I'm not sure how it would look on the Broadway given it's a much larger space.

https://playbill.com/article/first-look-at-revamped-here-lies-love-at-seattle-rep

That was 10 years ago? Damn. Time flies. I'd put money on this being a new musical.

I think it would depend on who's producing it, and who's on the creative team. If it's produced by people who have been attached to the project for a long time, and have just been waiting for the opportunity, then it wouldn't really be accurate to call it a revival; because in that case, it's just that they had to wait a long time for the show to transfer (not unlike The Visit, which was considered a new musical despite having kicked around for 15+ years). Similarly, if it's the same people on creative team, that makes it easier to call it a transfer, rather than a revival (though there are exceptions to this on both sides: revivals with the same creative team, and "new" shows that replace the creatvie team).

But if a totally unaffiliated producer just woke up one day and said "it's been 10 years, and I'm gonna buy the rights to bring back Here Lies Love, this time on Broadway!" then it's more like a revival, especially if it's a brand new production, with a different creative team.

It's also worth considering that, while Here Lies Love is well-regarded, it hasn't established a firm place in the widespread theatrical canon, in a way that shows are theoretically supposed to with the "classics" rule. Again, there are some exceptions to this on both sides, but with a show that's right on the fence, these factors will mean more.

And when in doubt, you kind of just have look at the context, and trust your gut as to whether it feels like a revival, or whether it feels like a show that took a long time to transfer.

For my money, I expect it would be considered a new musical if it came to Broadway.

Updated On: 9/24/22 at 02:25 PM

It would almost certainly be considered new. Rights were never released for the show, so it has never become a “classic” by virtue of being widely produced over time.

What is the point of doing this show if it's not immersive? I guess I said the same thing about Great Comet and that worked, but Here Lies Love at The Public was much more immersive than Comet was in the tent. Comet everyone had a seat and stayed there, while Here Lies Love featured a mostly standing (and moving!) audience, moving platforms, and audience "wranglers" to make sure everyone was safe and in the correct places. Incorporating those elements into a Broadway show seems impossible (I know they cut pretty much all immersive elements from Kpop, which makes me wonder what's even left outside of a concert). Asking a Broadway audience to stand and move around would never work, as half of the target audience has hip issues. And if you isolate half of your audience then you don't have enough people buying tickets. I don't see how it could financially work if it's immersive on Broadway. And if you move it to mostly proscenium it would really destroy so much of the magic of the original.

This is one of my favorite theatrical experiences ever. I love the score. I loved the staging. I saw it twice and wished I'd seen it ten more times. But I'm just skeptical of the economics of this on Broadway without damaging the integrity of the piece.

RippedMan said: "Timbers did move half the audience for Rocky. So it could be done.

I saw it from the upstairs so I didn't move around and I still had a blast."

Timbers moved about 100 audience members (in a 1500-seat house) from one seat to another seat, where they remained for the rest of the performance. I didn’t see Here Lies Love, but from the description above, it doesn’t seem comparable. The comparison to K-POP strikes me as more apt - in which case, I guess we’ll find out soon whether it works out for them.

EvanHansen said: "Word on the street is that Ruthie is playing Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd in the spring, then doing Piazza in June, followed up Here Lies Love in the summer (indeed at the Broadway - they can't do spring as they still need to start renovations). Could be a huge year for Ruthie Ann Miles!"

Iiiiiiinteresting. Any further confirmation here?

The Encores situation is interesting because in the Viertel era, they simply would have re-cast it. Which they did when Chenoweth dropped out of Call Me Madam, among other casting switcheroos over the years.

As for the new vs revival matter for HLL, I think they could successfully argue that the show was still in development surrounding its previous nonprofit runs. Which is different than, say, BLACKBIRD, which had a nonprofit production and then was dormant for years until it was revived.

pethian said: "JBroadway said: "For my money, I expect it would be considered a new musical if it came to Broadway."



What about the score--would it be eligible given that this was first a concept album not written for the stage?

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I believe it would be eligible, as Hadestown was also a concept album prior to it coming to stage.