How many years after hit shows have closed should they consider revivals?

I want Steph to play Diana some day.

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I think the past couple of years proves that there is no right or wrong amount of times between productions; it’s just about whether or not a director has an interesting vision for it. Spring Awakening, The Color Purple, even now with Yiddish Fiddler, I don’t care if I’ve just seen it a few years ago, if a really good production that will take on the material in a different way is ready to come in, I say let’s do it.

I personally don't see a time limit, but these are my criteria:

A good revival must do two things:

1) remain culturally relevant. Either the plot must still be pertinent in today's society, or in the event of period pieces, contain themes that would still gel with audiences.

2) transform the work. The director must have the desire to present the show in a new way, not just put it up so it can be seen, but with focus on new aspects. Some good examples are shows like Chicago, which pared down the cast and staging, Cabaret, which put heavier focus on the insidious rise of fascism, or Spring Awakening, which used ASL to reinterpret the divide between parents and children.

Whenever someone puts up the $$$$. No good revival is too soon, and no bad revival knows it's bad until it's too late.

I remember way back nearly 30 years ago, when Tyne Daly was ready to star in 'Gypsy' revival there was talk that it was 'the right time' to revive it, as 15 years had passed since the Angela Lansbury revival (which was 15 years since the original run). If I'm not mistaken, it was Jule Styne who had said this in an interview during the summer of 1989, indicating 15 years was his 'timeline'.

Sure enough, the next revival was in 2003 (close - 14 years), so the next revival should have been this past year or next year - not 2008 (going by Styne).

As much as I love that as long as a relivant version is created. I like the idea of 10/15, 25, 50, 75 100 anniversaries being more milestone mountings. And then encouraging new original shows to be produced. Instead of every 5-10 years bringing the same thing.

11.8

stoptheworld38 said: "I just want to know how long before we can revive Ragtime again, because I think that especially considering the current political climate, we really need another Ragtime revival. The 2009 one didn't do too well from what I discovered..."

It didn't, which is sad, but I think a couple things were at play. That was the beginning of the crash and no one was willing to spend money on a show (or anything really...) that they didn't already know, but also while Ragtimes' subject matter is still relevant and aways will be until further notice, that was also a time that the subject matter wasn't as near to the forefront of society as it is now. Things come in cycles, and that was a time in the cycle that it wasn't as pertinent. Note that I say "wasn't AS pertinent", not that it wasn't pertinent at all. But I do believe a Ragtime revival would be way more successful now than it was 10 years ago because we're now in a part of the cycle where we're hyper aware of these things, more than at any time in human history. OMG that revival was 10 years ago already, DDAAMMNNNNN!!

I've discovered that art is indicative of the time it's created and Ragtime is one of those pieces. It's cyclical but it comes around again when humans need to learn these things yet again. My best current examples are Won't You Be My Neighbor? and Handmaids' Tale. BTW see WYBMN if you haven't yet....That documentary wouldn't have been nearly as successful 10 or so years ago but it is now because humans are looking for any semblance of hope and human goodness to cling to in this era of uncertainty with the world burning around us. Same with HT, we see rights of certain groups being eroded and HT is as close to a real life example in fiction as we'll get. I know this was a weird tangent, but it ties into how/revival should be done. You bring it back not just because you want to, but you have a reason to. You want to reinterpret the material for a modern audience and/or know that the material is still as relevant as it was when it was first created. I know that was the idea with Carousel, but that fell flat for a few reasons and we all know that.

Tacking on to what Wick3 brings up I also look at something like She Loves Me. Ive not seen the original (or any other version than the latest Roundabout) but I would guess this was quite faithful to it? Much of the lyrics in the songs are dated but did we care? Everything about this latest production was spot on and I LOVED that is was so dated. Throw in some epic performances and glorious set decoration and it was a pleasure to go back in time. Escapism can be wonderful in this day and age. I think Hello Dolly! was that too.