Is "gentle" theater gone forever?

I went to the theater today. I saw Just Another Day at Theatre 555 on 42nd and 11th

It was written by Dan Luria, of The Wonder Years fame.  It was a two hander, and also starred Patty MacCormick, who was the little girl in the movie of The Bad Seed. I have to say The Bad Seed is one of my favorite movies. She was brilliant in the movie. She also played the role on Broadway.  She was nominated for an Oscar for the movie.

It was a sweet, gentle piece of theater and I enjoyed it very much. Was it groundbreaking, brilliant theater? No, it wasn't. But it was a perfectly valid play that I would be proud to have written.  The two performances were wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. As good as I have seen on Broadway anytime.

One of the last shows I saw was Tuesdays with Morrie starring Len Cariou.  It was the best performance I have seen in years. It was sublime.  Yes, the play is a little corny. But so what?  It's also very well written and another play I'd be proud to say I wrote.

Neither of these shows is on anyone's radar. Did anyone see either of these shows?  There is no room for these shows on Broadway. They are considered Old fashioned. 

Are these type of shows over?  I hope not, because they are better than anything I have seen on Broadway lately. Everything is loud and over amplified. The shows are geared towards the lowest common denominator. I could go on and on with detail.  It's not the first time it's been discussed here.

Who ruined Broadway?   Because it is ruined. In many, many ways. I have been going since the 70's.
Ill tell you one thing that ruined Broadway... tictock and other social media.  I'm not looking for snarky comments like "then don't go"... yeah, I can do that.  But Broadway is a mess whether you want to believe it or not.

 

Updated On: 5/20/24 at 05:41 PM

“Everything is loud and over amplified”
 

although I do agree that things have changed in 40 years (why wouldn’t they?)

 

I could still find some broadway shows that are not loud not over amplified. For example: The Sound Inside (MLP’s performance specifically, subtly amazing) , A Doll’s House (Jessica Chastain, similarly). Even in this season, Mary Jane (Rachel McAdams just reminded me of MLP), etc.

 

not everything can or should go to Broadway. I’m not eligible to speak about the 70s, but I guess back then not every show was similar to the example you provided.

"Gentle theater" IS trying to appeal to a low common denominator: populist, middlebrow plays, sometimes nostalgic, with the aim of appealing to middle-aged-and-older people (usually white) who say "oh that's nice". Sometimes written to make idiots feel smart, sometimes not, but rarely written to be provocative or with the aim of winning awards.

One could argue that STEREOPHONIC fits the above description! And that's a great play that's about to win a bunch of Tonys and propel some great young actors to stardom.

I would classify all of the following Broadway plays from the past decade as such:

1. Pictures From Home (flop)
2. Goodnight Oscar (financial performance unknown but did better than most of these)
3. The Shark is Broken (flop)
4. I Need That (nonprofit)
5. Grand Horizons (nonprofit)
6. Plaza Suite (recouped)
7. Jaja's African Hair Braiding (nonprofit)
8. Fat Ham (flop)
9. Chicken & Biscuits (flop)
10. Significant Other (flop)
11. Birthday Candles (nonprofit)
12. Clyde's (nonprofit)
13. Lifespan of a Fact (recouped)
14. POTUS (flop)
15. The Country House (nonprofit)
16. Our Mother's Brief Affair (nonprofit)
17. Linda Vista (nonprofit)
18. The Nap (nonprofit)
19. Mothers & Sons (flop)
20. Sylvia (flop)
21. Living On Love (flop)
22. Outside Mullingar (nonprofit)
23. Love Letters (flop)
24. a number of Best Play winners from the 2000s to 2010s
25. Left on Tenth (coming soon and I smell a flop)

These type of plays have always been –– and will always be –– a staple of nonprofit regionals, community and educational theaters. On Golden Pond, The Gin Game, a lot of Neil Simon and A.R. Gurney plays, etc. There will always be a place for plays like that, as there will always be Woody Allen-style films, but Broadway might not be the place for most of them.

I disagree that Broadway is ruined forever. In regard to "gentle plays," I'm not quite sure what you mean with that description, but this season had a slew of good plays that were mostly well-received that I don't consider "brutish." Good theater is good theater regardless of where it plays. There is a niche for every style of production, and I don't find a dearth of Broadway shows to attend, also having attended theater since the 70s. Further, in those 50 years of theater-going, I can think of a number of commercially-produced plays that I saw over the years that may qualify under your "gentle plays" description, but were not necessarily well-received, nor did they last long. Off the top of my head:

Broken Glass

The Young Man From Atlanta

Mixed Emotions

The Twilight of the Golds

Any Given Day

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

Rose with Glenda Jackson and Jessica Tandy

Is He Dead?

Rose with Olympia Dukakis (different show, same title)

Sacrilege

Match

Honour

Impressionism

The Herbal Garden

I know there are many others, so the appeal of "gentle plays" has not necessarily diminished as there is a history of "gentle plays" that demonstrates many of them did not meet with much success on Broadway.

Updated On: 5/19/24 at 08:18 PM

If I’m paying out the ass to see a show on Broadway, I want something more than an amiable little diversion to twiddle my thumbs at.

Curtains, can you give me a synopsis of the play with Dan Lauria?

I do agree that Broadway and NYC have both been ruined lately.  I have faith that some good shows will come up eventually. Both Harmony and Lempicka were the only non movies/non jukebox shows and people didn't buy tickets to see them. Not saying they were the best shows ever, but they both deserved a longer run in my point of view. The shows and the casting choices are really bad lately. Awful.

I'm not going to claim that Broadway is ruined, but I do think it's a fair point to note that the trend has been toward bigger, flashier, higher-stakes affairs. I think that "pretty good" is not good enough to justify the price of a Broadway ticket for most audiences, so everything must be the biggest, the best, the loudest, the fastest, etc., and for those of us who make it a priority to see a lot of work, that can get exhausting, and pieces (usually found off-Broadway or regionally) which only try to give audiences a pleasant time can feel like a relief. I've seen a lot of shows recently that seem to be doing everything they can to hold onto the audience's attention at every moment--every song involves the leading lady belting in the stratosphere, the lights don't stay in one cue longer than 10-15 seconds, video projections running behind the actors the entire time, and the book forces in a punchline every 30 seconds like clockwork. I have enjoyed some of these bombastic shows immensely, but I also want to see Broadway be a home for pieces which put a little more trust in their audience and find value in small, beautiful moments.

Neil Simon used to be the champion of commercially successful domestic comedy (and dramedy) playwrights. I'm not sure his level of economic success could exist again in this environment. I suspect gentle playwrights today usually go to regional theaters or write for streaming sitcoms.  

Oh fun - the conversation that has been happening since Day One of Broadway.  For every gentle show, for every hit, for every megahit...each season there are tons of flops that have been forgotten (since the beginning of Broadway).  Each decade brings about its own trends and people bitching about them.  I remember when I moved to the city and everyone was complaining that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh had ruined Broadway.  Now its Tik Tok. Come back in 10 years and I'm sure it will be something else.  Video killed the radio star...

 

In every era of the American theatre, there will always be those who claim it was better in the past.

In every era of the American theatre, there will always be dreck. The jukebox musical of today is the lowbrow sex farce of prior years.

In every era of the American theatre, there will always be under-the-radar, low-profile productions. Obviously, it was a deliberate choice by the producers to (a) open the show at the busiest time of year, (b) not engage a more powerful press agent to get more critics to attend, and (c) not to whip up attendance from the various awards bodies.

There's also nothing wrong with a critic saying "I don't want to see that" (for any reason), especially for something that's not being produced on Broadway or at a major Off-Bway company. Most of them are paid for a certain number of reviews per year, they have limited time, they have their own interests, and they owe nothing to artists or readers.

If Broadway or Off-Broadway shows aren't being produced in a way that you enjoy, then don't go. Find other hobbies and stop complaining about something that you have no control over. It's nobody's job to appeal to your narrow interests. You sound like a MAGA Republican right now!

Updated On: 5/20/24 at 02:53 PM

This post reminds of those two older ladies who refused to stand up after a performance of My Fair Lady, because they felt “it’s gonna take a while, just let us chat a bit” - while half the row is standing and waiting. 

Mother Play is a hit- so is Mary Jane. The play about Putin's rise to power is still playing- and so is Appropriate. There is plenty of quality theater around.