Broadway “opera house”

[Cheesecake2]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 3:08pm

Would a theater on Broadway rotating beloved productions ever work?  If they did a season of iconic productions like Marianne Elliot’s Company, and then Maria Friedman’s Merrily, Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Blvd, Michael Arden’s Parade.  What happened to all the scenery and costumes?

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 3:12pm

She escaped again, your honor.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 3:14pm

The Beaumont was created as a rep house. That's one of the reasons why it's so big backstage.

I'd like someone to try doing shows in rep, commercially or nonprofit, since it's been attempted so rarely in modern history. But the finances are tricky. It's also not really an appropriate model for bringing back so-called "beloved" productions.

[John Adams]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 4:00pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "The Beaumont was created as a rep house. That's one of the reasons why it's so big backstage.

I'd like someone to try doing shows in rep, commercially or nonprofit, since it's been attempted so rarely in modern history. But the finances are tricky. It's also not really an appropriate model for bringing back so-called "beloved" productions."

In my very, very limited knowledge about financing Broadway shows, I would think that if the idea were financially lucrative, it would have been implemented already.

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 4:26pm

While not a designated rep theatre, was the 2002 Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration the last major repertory effort?

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 4:28pm

Cheesecake2 said: "Would a theater on Broadway rotating beloved productions ever work? If they did a season of iconic productions like Marianne Elliot’s Company, and then Maria Friedman’s Merrily, Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Blvd, Michael Arden’s Parade. What happened to all the scenery and costumes?"

Your idea of "iconic productions" clearly tells us that you're 10 years old.

[Cheesecake2]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 5:11pm

I tried to keep it more recent.  I also could have said Kathleen Marshall’s Anything goes, Sam Mendes’ Cabaret, Bart Sher’s South Pacific, Randy Skinner’s 42nd Street, Diane Paulus’ Pippin, Jerry Zacks’ Hello Dolly.  What are your example’s of iconic productions?

Updated On: 11/9/25 at 05:11 PM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 5:22pm

Broadway isn’t Netflix.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 5:48pm

Does any theater in the world do that? I would think it would be a logistically nightmare Especially if you're wanting to do it on that level. Summer Stock very much still exists. 

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 10:21pm

RippedMan said: "Does any theater in the world do that? I would think it would be a logistically nightmare Especially if you're wanting to do it on that level. Summer Stock very much still exists."

Munich’s Bavarian State Opera rotates something like 15 productions during its summer festival but then they're Germans. 

Updated On: 11/10/25 at 10:21 PM

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 11:12pm

I think the closest we got was Is This a Room and Dana H playing in rep, though that was because they were both extremely small and simple set-wise

[dan94]

Posted: 11/9/25 at 11:59pm

RippedMan said: "Does any theater in the world do that? I would think it would be a logistically nightmare Especially if you're wanting to do it on that level. Summer Stock very much still exists."

Staatsoperette Dresden does a season of musicals and operettas. About 4 new productions each season along with 10 existing productions from their repertoire. The productions are pretty large and look terribly interesting. On the musical side this season they have Evita, Cabaret, My Fair Lady, Pippin, and Show Boat. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:51am

chrishuyen said: "I think the closest we got was Is This a Room and Dana H playing in rep, though that was because they were both extremely small and simple set-wise"

It was also that post-Covid moment when people were throwing anything at the wall and seeing if it would stick.

The Mark Rylance Shakespeare rep season was an exciting experiment which recouped, but TWELFTH NIGHT sold better than RICHARD III. They probably would have made more money had they only transferred TWELFTH NIGHT.

In the 90s-early 2000s, Tony Randall's National Actors Theatre attempted both rep and being "in residence" in a Broadway theatre for multiple short runs per season. But it was a passion project (ego project?) with a spotty track record and stayed afloat because Randall and Laura Pels poured money into it.

[Cheesecake2]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:57am

The last revival of waiting for godot played in rep with no man’s land 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 11:47am

TotallyEffed said: "She escaped again, your honor."

This made me laugh but I actually think it is a fine question.

I've often myself wondered, as we get further and further from the golden age musicals, if for example Lincoln Center's best revivals could ever have a home where they play in rep the way the opera productions do. It's kind of wonderful that I got to go on a date to see the same production of La Boheme I grew up seeing in Moonstruck. 

Not happening in this landscape, obviously. 

[Kad]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:01pm

The logistics of doing something like an opera rep make it impossible in a Broadway house. These theaters just don't have the space to accommodate or store the tech elements of multiple huge productions, which means there would need to be a full-scale load out and load in and tech run every time productions switched over. For instance, just this week at the Met, there are four entirely different productions running, including two different productions on the same day. Even a far less demanding version- a different production a month, say- would be a massive and costly undertaking. 

There's a reason why the repertory productions that have played Broadway have been either very small or simple in scale (Rylance's Shakespeare productions were both performed on the same unit set, Is This a Room and Dana H were both minimalist) or have been multiple parts of one cohesive whole (Coast of Utopia, Norman Conquests).

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 12:24pm

Scarywarhol said: "TotallyEffed said: "She escaped again, your honor."

This made me laugh but I actually think it is a fine question.

I've often myself wondered, as we get further and further from the golden age musicals, if for example Lincoln Center's best revivals could ever have a home where they play in rep the way the opera productions do. It's kind of wonderful that I got to go on a date to see the same production of La Boheme I grew up seeing in Moonstruck.

Not happening in this landscape, obviously."


I’m glad to make you laugh but I’m afraid I also have to be the bearer of bad news: the production of La Boheme featured in Moonstruck is not the famous Zeffirelli production that has played for decades at The Met.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 1:40pm

Oh, my heart! It's been a long time since I watched but when the set with the snow came it looked just like my memory. 

[Little Nub]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 2:17pm

It would be nice to see Bart Sher’s South Pacific, The King and I, and My Fair Lady playing in rep.  It would probably make bank during the holidays just like Nutcracker at the ballet or The Magic Flute at the opera 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 2:34pm

Little Nub said: "It would be nice to see Bart Sher’s South Pacific, The King and I, and My Fair Lady playing in rep. It would probably make bank during the holidays just like Nutcracker at the ballet or The Magic Flute at the opera"

 

Thanks, Flash! 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 4:06pm

Given the thrust of most of the replies to this thread, it seems like the only way this would work would be if you picked the biggest successes of the Encores! series (like Chicago's level of production values) and ran those, because a concert setting with some light dressing (set or otherwise) is probably the easiest way to pull off an idea like this.

[dan94]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 4:52pm

I do think an idea like this has merit. The challenges are just too great for it to ever be feasible. You would have to....

• build a new house specifically for this purpose
• convince unions you need a new type of contract that covers your purpose
• create new licensing agreements with various estates. You wouldn't be able to build a production and only run it one season. You would need to have a rights agreement that covered 5-10 years.
• build relationships to share production costs in co productions with Lyric Opera of Chicago or Theatre Du Chatalet or Opera Australia etc

With some of the insurmountable being covered, an organization like this would have to be a non profit, and would almost definitely have to exist outside of the Broadway/Tony Awards atmosphere. And I think it's worth someone with money at least trying to mount some of the insurmountable challenges. Something like this would be about the only way we get full scale musical revivals of classic works in the future.

Audra Gypsy can't recoup. 9 actresses sharing the role for limited runs over a decade, with initial production costs split between 3 different companies...the calculus would look a lot different. The original A Chorus Line could come back every other year for 40 or so performances. There is never a shortage of actresses who would make a great Dolly.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 5:23pm

Kad said: "The logistics of doing something like an opera rep make it impossible in a Broadway house. These theaters just don't have the space to accommodate or store the tech elements of multiple huge productions, which means there would need to be a full-scale load out and load in and tech run every time productions switched over. For instance, just this week at the Met, there are four entirely different productions running, including two different productions on the same day. Even a far less demanding version- a different production a month, say- would be a massive and costly undertaking.

There's a reason why the repertory productions that have played Broadway have been either very small or simple in scale (Rylance's Shakespeare productions were both performed on the same unit set, Is This a Room and Dana H were both minimalist)or have been multiple parts of one cohesive whole (Coast of Utopia, Norman Conquests)."

Or never finished opening at all due to the financial challenges, like Brighton Beach Memoirs/Broadway Bound some years back. That was the last time I can recall this being attempted with some ostensibly commercial-minded material. 

 

[Kad]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 5:47pm

Wow, I forgot all about that flop Brighton Beach/Broadway Bound! A weird case- it was well-reviewed, well-cast, and a recognizable title, yet closed in about a week after it formally opened. But that was also the 09-10 season, arguably the season most affected by the Great Recession (aka the year of Memphis). 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/10/25 at 6:22pm

IIRC Broadway Bound never performed at all!