Best Best Revival of the Decade

[funhamilton_rent]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 8:39pm

This decade has had some amazing revivals! Including OOTI, what do you guys think have been the best and worst revivals of the 2010s?

Here's mine:

1. The Color Purple

2. Once on this Island

3. Pippin

4. Hello Dolly (very very close)

5. Anything Goes

6. Hedwig (very close)

7. The King and I

I haven't seen La Cage or Porgy and Bess so I didn't rank them. What do you guys think?

 

[BwayLB]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 8:40pm

The only winners I have seen this decade are La Cage, Pippin and King & I on their national tours

[BwayLB]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 8:40pm

Accidental double post

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 08:40 PM

[Elegance101]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 8:45pm

Once On This Island, Color Purple, and Hedwig were what I needed at those points in my life. Spent my time at all three crying and they all made me feel like I was soaring after they were over. They get my vote. :)

[JudyDenmark]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:11pm

1. Once On This Island
2. Color Purple
3. Pippin
4. Hello, Dolly
5. Anything Goes
6. King and I
7. La Cage aux Folles

Didn't see Hedwig or Porgy & Bess.

If the Deaf West Spring Awakening was in a different year than Color Purple, that would be my #3. Or tied with Color Purple, honestly.

[willrolandsframes]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:27pm

The interesting thing about Best Revival is that not all revivals are the same. Some are just well-thought out productions, while others are total re-envisions of the material. I find the latter to be much, much more impressive than the former. Casting a great revival or coming up with a cool neat idea for a revival is awesome, but doing what John Doyle and Michael Arden have done with The Color Purple and Once on this Island is beyond awesome.

With that in mind, here are my rankings.

1. Once on this Island

2. The Color Purple

3. Pippin

4. Hedwig and the Angry Inch

5. Porgy and Bess

6. Anything Goes

7. The King and I

8. La Cage aux Folles

9. Hello, Dolly!

Alright, now hit me with your best shot.

[ethan231h]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:30pm

My favorites by far have been, Pippin, Spring Awakening, Hedwig, Once On This Island and Side Show.

[Jessetenny]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:30pm

This is my personal opinion, I saw Bette in Hello, Dolly! and hated it, I saw it with Bernadette and loved it. 

1. The Color Purple
2. Once on This Island
3. Hello, Dolly! (With Bernadette)
4. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
5. Anything Goes
6. Porgy and Bess
7. Pippin
8. La Cage
9. The King and I
10. Hello, Dolly (with Bette)

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 09:30 PM

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:48pm

This award may turn into the "Most Improved" award (thanks for being only ok-to-good the first time around). I think executing a great classic production is underrated and underappreciated because people think it's easy to do when it's quite the opposite.

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 09:48 PM

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:54pm

Jessetenny said: "This is my personal opinion, I saw Bette in Hello, Dolly! and hated it, I saw it with Bernadette and loved it.

1. The Color Purple
2. Once on This Island
3. Hello, Dolly! (With Bernadette)
4. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
5. Anything Goes
6. Porgy and Bess
7. Pippin
8. La Cage
9. The King and I
10. Hello, Dolly (with Bette)"

Did you only see 10 revivals this decade if the one you hated still made the list?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:55pm

1. Hello, Dolly!

2. The Color Purple

3. Hedwig and the Angry Inch

4. The King and I

5. Pippin

6. Anything Goes

7. Once on This Island

8. La Cage aux Folles

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 09:55 PM

[funhamilton_rent]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:57pm

haterobics said: "Jessetenny said: "This is my personal opinion, I saw Bette in Hello, Dolly! and hated it, I saw it with Bernadette and loved it.

1. The Color Purple
2. Once on This Island
3. Hello, Dolly! (With Bernadette)
4. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
5. Anything Goes
6. Porgy and Bess
7. Pippin
8. La Cage
9. The King and I
10. Hello, Dolly (with Bette)"

Did you only see 10 revivals this decade if the one you hated still made the list?"

This isn't based on all revivals this decade, only the ones that won the Best Revival Tony.

 

[funhamilton_rent]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:05pm

There are a lot of revivals that weren't necessarily superior to the winner that year, but were still amazing.

Such as:

She Loves Me (Color Purple was better but this still was phenomenal)

Spring Awakening (Michael Arden gets it perfect every single time. This revival deserved way better)

On the 20th Century (Way better than King and I imo, but then again I'm not the biggest fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein)

Violet (Hedwig was great too but this was such an underrated and nearly perfect revival. The cast could not have been better and it was just done so well.)

Falsettos (I know people think this was overrated, but I just loved it. Anyone remember how the critics felt about this? I don't remember)

[willrolandsframes]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:29pm

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "This award may turn into the "Most Improved" award (thanks for being only ok-to-good the first time around). I think executing a great classic production is underrated and underappreciated because people think it's easy to do when it's quite the opposite."

I do think it is quite difficult to do either. Most of the 9 productions that have received this honor this decade, regardless of whether or not it is a "revival" or a "revisal", are extraordinary and were not easy to put together. With that being said, I tend to be more impressed by the "revisals" because they are so unexpected. While the 2011 production of Anything Goes was magnificent top to bottom and I will argue that it is Roundabout's best production altogether this decade, I don't really think it was as good as the true re-envisioning that we saw with a few productions like The Color Purple and Once on this Island. A lot of my issues with straight up reviving a classic production is that you'll end up with situations like Hello, Dolly!, where the theatre community fangirled to the Nth degree. They had dream-casted Bette in that role for years, and they finally got to live their dream. Everyone was so bewildered by this casting that nobody even stopped to think about whether or not the rest of the production was any good. The production was not re-envisioned in any way. There weren't really any new layers added that we hadn't seen before (although I will give them credit for the way they have used Charlie Stemp in the Bernadette version). Therefore, in my opinion, all revivals are tough, but it's much tougher to completely re-imagine the material than it is to simply bring it back to life.

 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:34pm

Of the winners I liked Pippin the best, but overall my favorite musical revival this decade was On the Town.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:40pm

It's funny how much I disagree with your post willrolandsframes, especially with Hello Dolly! And I saw it with Donna Murphy, not Bette Midler, and it reminded me of exactly what theatre should do and it's been so long since I saw such a perfectly executed and well produced, directed, acted, and choreographed evening. And it was not just a copy and paste job like Cabaret intentionally was when it was brought back for a spell.

The hard part about doing classics is that there are heightened expectations, preconceived notions, AND it's hard to make it fresh for people and not think they were just going to see another of the same production that they already expect. Some of the best classic revivals succeeded despite having all of that against them. Sometimes having those restrictions is much harder to pull off than taking a so-so show with a so-so original response and then being given leeway to go crazy with it. Especially if those so-so shows were recent and fit in with modern audiences' tastes and emotions that the more classic shows do not because they are many decades old and modern audiences don't appreciate those aesthetics.

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 10:40 PM

[SempreLiberal]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:05pm

It didn’t win best revival, but I thought the revival of Drood a few years ago was noteworthy. I love the show, and this cast was excellent. Chita Rivera was not to everyone’s taste, but it was fun to see her hamming it up.

[Soaring29]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:43pm

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 11:43 PM

[Ben_Platt_Out]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:49pm

Porgy and Bess

 

 

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/12/18 at 1:14am

My favorites (in no particular order):

Hello, Dolly!
Once on this Island
Hedwig
The King and I
Porgy and Bess
Pippin
The Color Purple

Favorite revivals that didn't win:
Falsettos
Spring Awakening
She Loves Me
Follies
On the Town
On the Twentieth Century
Sunday in the Park with George

Honestly, we've had some really great revivals. In fact they're usually more interesting than the nominees for Best Musical.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/12/18 at 7:11am

In no particular order...

My Fair Lady

On the Town

The King and I

Anything Goes

Hello, Dolly!

[twbrqr]

Posted: 6/12/18 at 8:28am

Great revivals lately. Many could have won but from the winners I saw:

1. Hedwig

2. Hello Dolly

3. Pippin

4. Once on this Island

5. The Color Purple

6. The King and I

7. Porgy and Bess

 

 

[steven22]

Posted: 6/12/18 at 8:43am

I’m not sure I could decide BUT the Deaf West Spring Awakening revival was gorgeous.

Updated On: 6/12/18 at 08:43 AM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 6/12/18 at 8:51am

Since you didn't specify, and no one else has done this yet: 

 

1. A View From the Bridge

2. Angels in America

3. Death of a Salesman 

4. Jitney

5. The Normal Heart 

6. Skylight

 

Didn't see the rest. 

 

As for musicals, my ranking would be: 

 

1. Hello, Dolly! 

2. The King and I

3. Once on This Island

4. Porgy and Bess

5. Pippin

6. Anything Goes

7. The Color Purple

8. Hedwig

 

Didn't see La Cage. 

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/12/18 at 9:13am

As far as the Tony winners go, these would be my rankings. Musicals:

1. Once on This Island

2. Pippin

3. The Color Purple

4. The King and I

5. Hello Dolly

6. Hedwig and the Angry Inch

7. Porgy and Bess

8. Anything Goes

9. La Cage Aux Folles

Plays:

1. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

2. Jitney

3. A View From the Bridge

4. Fences

5. A Raisin in the Sun

6. The Normal Heart

7. Angels in America

8. Death of a Salesman

9. Skylight

Best among the non-winners: Spring Awakening, Three Tall Women, Golden Boy, Violet, Follies.

Updated On: 6/12/18 at 09:13 AM