Broadway musical revivals. When did this start?- Page 2
Broadway musical revivals. When did this start?
#25Broadway musical revivals. When did this start?
Posted: 1/8/10 at 4:08pm
Yes in 1940/41 PAL JOEY's 374 performances made it a hit. (The urban myth is that the show flopped the first time around. It didn't. Most of the hit Rodgers and Hart shows of the 1930s had similar runs of around 300 performances...that was all you needed to pay off then.)
Revivals were once considered the domain of City Center where limited run revivals could be economically produced for 5 week runs and turn a profit. The main theatres were kept booked with a steady supply of new plays and musicals.
There were fewere commercial revivals then. (City center shows were non-commercial.)
Interesting, over the years the hit/flop ratio has remained fairly constant:
1945/46
New musicals - Hits (4) Flops (12)
Revival musicals - Hits (2) Flops (O)
73% flops
1955/56 (season included MY FAIR LADY and MOST HAPPY FELLA)
New musicals: Hits (2) Flops (5)
Revivals - none
82% flops
1965/66
New musicals: Hits (5) Flops (9)
Revivals - none
69 % flops
1975/76
New musicals: Hits (2) Flops (9)
Revivals: Hits (1) Flops (1)
79% flops
1985/86
New musicals: Hits (1) Flops (9)
Revivals: Hits (0) Flops (1)
93% flops
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks."
Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
#26Broadway musical revivals. When did this start?
Posted: 1/8/10 at 5:17pm
If we're going to have a discussion about revivals, we really have to focus on dear old Harry Rigby, who pioneered the genre in the 70s with "No No Nanette" and when that was stolen from him by his producing partner, had sweet revenge by producing another big hit, "Irene" with Debbie Renolds and then his biggest hit "Sugar Babies" with The Mick and Ann Miller which wasn't strictly a revival of a show but rayher a revival of a genre - vaudeville.
Read the great book about the Making of No No Nanette which can be picked up in used bookstores or online. It's a great read, like an investigation of a train wreck that still managed to play for about 900 performances which was a good run back then.
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