Discussion Topic RE: Broadway in the mid-90s — Page 2

"Floyd Collins," "Violet" and "Songs for a New World" were all great off-Broadway shows of the period, heralding the arrival of new compositional voices. It just took a few years more for their composers to crack the Main Stem.

P.S. I didn't mean that to be some weird metaphor, but I think it's one anyway! lol

And the Corporation-Produced musical didn't start with Beauty and the Beast, but ALSO in 1978 with one of the best (literally, it's in the title!) when Universal invested in "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"

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I didn't mean to imply that "Smoky Joe's Cafe" was the first jukebox musical. And yes, I do think that term refers to shows that turn pre-existing groups of songs into plots. I just meant that "Smoky" was one of the last of the great pure songbook revue shows, and that within a few years of its premiere Broadway was seeing a spate of shows like "Mamma Mia," "Contact," "Movin' Out," "Good Vibrations, "Ring of Fire" and "Jersey Boys." THOSE are jukebox musicals, of several different sub-genres.

A fascinating transitional work actually pre-dates "Smoky:" I am referring to "Buddy," which although short-lived on Broadway was a long-running hit in London, from whence it came. The first act is a plot musical incorporating songs sung by historical figures, like "Jersey Boys." The second act concert owes a lot to shows like "Beatlemania," from the 1970s.

And actually, "Ain't Misbehavin'" owes a lot to two predecessors, the off-Broadway "Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris" from 1968 and the London import, "Side By Side By Sondheim," which I think opened there in 1976 or 7.

Regarding my reference to corporations, I guess I was referring to corporations who own film properties being adapted for the stage, not corporate owners of books or plays being adapted, or corporations who hope to adapt the stage work at hand into other media in the future. One of the first examples of that would be "My Fair Lady," in which Columbia invested so that they could produce the cast album.

Updated On: 2/14/09 at 04:13 PM

Going back to the original post, it seems to me that there has never been a Broadway fourth generation (assuming Sondheim/Herman/K&E/Coleman etc to be the third) and this seems to have left a huge gap.

This gap was both on Broadway and in the West End and was filled at first with the ALW/Cameron McKintosh mega musicals, and then during the 1990s Disney on Broadway and a huge pile of poor quality mega flops in the West End. Those who wanted intelligent or alternative musical theatre in New York went for the would-be fourth generation of Brown, Lippa, LaChiusa, Guettel and Tesori whilst West Enders headed to the Donmar and Bridewell for impure but very welcome re-interpretations of third generation classics.

Updated On: 2/14/09 at 06:38 PM

When I say "would-be" I mean they didn't achieve the same high profile on-Broadway-then-export success that the third generation did. I don't mean that their work is inferior in any way.