Diane Paulus and new musicals....

Interesting thought. I enjoyed her 3 recent revivals a lot. I enjoyed the recent new shows too, but I agree that the direction wasn't as good as in her revivals.

I've actually had this conversation many times with theatre friends. I hate to sound limiting, but I honestly wish she would stick to revivals. Pippin and Hair are some of the greatest things I've ever seen. She has a magical touch with revival work.

She's not the only theatre director who doesn't have a great track record when it comes to new works (John Doyle and Bartlett Sher also come to mind). If we ever get to see her tackle a revival again, which show should she do?

Most new musicals are not very good.

Oh please

It's harder to direct a new musical than to reimagine an old one.

Much, MUCH harder.

Diane is not a bad director, we know that because of her revivals of Hair and Pippin. She just isn't a dramaturge so that makes developing new musicals harder for her. Bart Sher is on record as saying he doesn't like to be anywhere near the writers room because of how hard it is.

HogansHero is right, most new musicals are not that great...watch clips of George C. Wolfe and Maury Yeston talk about how hateful the musical form can be. Yeston compares starting to write a musical like starting to take a voyage across an ocean when you already know the ship has a leak, lol. How many musicals do you hear about that never make it here....

I know a bit about about what happened during The Invisible Thread (major problems between Diane and the Writers), but also that show had almost no form. They didn't set anything up for the audience...have way through the show I had no idea what I was watching and why I was watching it. Besides some interesting music none of the songs had a journey we could follow and learn something new from. This unfortunately is an example of a bad show.

Finding Neverland again was just all spearheaded by Weinstein and not by anyone who was actually passionate about telling that story. It's clear that that was just a paying gig for most people who worked on it. The elements do not gel together at all...the music is not telling the story in terms of sound, the book has no mechanism or take on now to tell the story, the set is far too literal and often times bloated and unnecessary. Harvey was the diretor of that show not Diane. Remember a whole creative team was hired and they wrote the show and in one of Harvey's hollywood fit's they were all fired....including the guy who wrote the original screenplay. And if you really look at that story....it doesn't sing. It's whimsical, not musical.

Waitress is definitely the best of the three here. I saw it in both Boston and NYC and I have to say they did lots of great work on it in between to make it what you can see now. So much better. Is it a perfect show, no...but it works and manages to move you. She's getting better at dramaturgy but she's no Jack O'Brien.

That being said, I don't think it's fair to call her a bad director...Hair and Pippin were wonderful.

well they aren't.


We forget bad shows, absolutely. This is why good shows from the Golden Age live on, and bad ones die off. The same will happen in modern times.

Updated On: 5/24/16 at 07:55 PM

No, please re-read.

What I am saying is exactly what I said, that "most new musicals are not good."

Most new musicals (whether mounted in the golden age, now or at any other time), are bad, and most fail. Most of them never make it to Broadway. If you look at the number of musicals (or plays, for that matter) that do make it, most slink away with no afterlife. Count the number of new musicals that have appeared on Broadway in the last hundred years. Now count the number of discrete musicals that have been revived. This should help you understand my point, and also the point made in this thread that it is harder to put on a new show than a revival because a revival comes with its parts in working order.

Most of the shows this season will never be revived, just as most of the shows from 50, 60, 70 years ago are never revived. Some seasons there may be 2-3 shows that will survive; this year, we have one.

It has always been thus. Do you think there were only 10 playwrights in the 16th Century and that 99% of the plays written were by the same author? The cream rises to the top and things like Finding Neverland are fed to the swine.

Hogans 100% correct. Where is Sher relies on his usual bag of tricks (I've seen a white wall in a few productions), I think she at least has a multitude of tricks/ideas. I don't think she has the best eye for aesthetics - that goes to Alex Timbers - but I think she manages to get good performances out of people.

Call_me_jorge said: "She directed the greatest scene of any show in Broadway history. Sylvia's death is just SO perfect."

And even that was ripped off from Cirque

I find a lot of good directors have the problems with new works. I felt that Mr Shea can also be uneven with new works . I have found unless they a Casey who while no god can do a load of good with okay material. But even he is no perfect person no one else. Unless they a Michael Mayer who directs almost anything well. Except that strange revival. I think he is very good though.

Hogan - are you sure none of the new musicals from this season will ever be revived 50 years from now? I really think shows Hamilton, Shuffle Along, School Of Rock all have a very decent chance at being revived. Shuffle probably less than the other two.