Is it a New Golden Age for Broadway? — Page 2

Besides, I don't think it can get much worse than the 90s.

Huh? Falsettos, The Secret Garden, City of Angels, Titanic, Rent, Crazy For You, Miss Saigon, Once on This Island, Will Rogers Follies, Jelly's Last Jam, the Lion King, Ragtime, Blood Brothers, Tommy, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Passion, Sunset Boulevard, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Bring in da Noise/Bring in da Funk, Victor/Victoria, Big, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Parade, Fosse and Marie Christine? That's the worst?

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A new Golden Age? Not even close. Jackson is an expert on this subject why?, because he's certainly not part of it. If All Shook Up and Xanadu (neither have an original score) are part of this so-called "Golden Age"...I want out.

Updated On: 2/20/08 at 03:48 PM

When a musical wins Best Musical by default (no other nominees whatsoever) one year, you're in a pretty bad decade.

What musical was that? There was not a single musical in the 90s (or any other year in the history of the Tonys) that has won the award being the sole nominee.

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I just think that Broadway is entering a new era, I don't know if that necessarily means a "Golden Age."

Until fairly recently, Broadway audiences were mostly made up of middle aged, upper class men and women. Now most of the shows open today are geared towards much younger audiences. Broadway has found a new target audience and I think the majority of shows that open in the next several years are going to try and appeal to the younger masses.

I'm hoping that these productions follow the example set by shows like Spring Awakening and Passing Strange because it sounds like the producers have managed (or are at least trying) to appeal to the new demographic without the huge budget & special effects from shows like Wicked and Legally Blonde (I know there is some substance to these shows, but I think it just gets lost beneath all of the hocus pocus going on on stage).

There is more art, than commercial in these productions. I just hope it sticks, and that these teenage audiences realize theater is more than just cherry pickers and cute dance routines and that some shows contain a story and characters of substance that they can relate to, as opposed to a green girl screaming her individuality really loudly while hovering twenty feet above the stage.

But that's just my opinion...

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when i hear people going "i am into musical theatre! i saw wicked! i love broadway! i want to be elphaba on broadway! i want to be mimi in rent!!" and its like okay, so what about the all the shows that are REALLY TRULY good????? not just (getting back on topic) all the big shows on broadway today?

Two things:

1) "Good" is subjective. It's good to keep that in mind.

2) Every person's love of musical theatre starts somewhere. There was probably a time when you fell in love with musicals and didn't know everything. Personally, I applaud their enthusiasm.

I've said this so many times before, but I'll say it again. Musical theatre is an art form. Art forms evolve and style trends fade in and out. Add that to the evolution of the Broadway audience demographic (largely influenced by the increase of foreign tourism and advances in technology) and to expect producers not to adjust to these changes accordingly is to wish death upon Broadway. If one truly don't want Broadway to change, then they better be prepared to watch primarily Vaudeville acts, melodramas and operettas because that is how far back they'll have to go.

I just hope it sticks, and that these teenage audiences realize theater is more than just cherry pickers and cute dance routines and that some shows contain a story and characters of substance that they can relate to, as opposed to a green girl screaming her individuality really loudly while hovering twenty feet above the stage.

So you believe teens dying of abortions and committing suicide automatically contains more substance? Why? Because it is faux-Bohemian and has a moody score? Or perhaps it is just becuase you personally liked the show better. I'm thinking the latter. While I know Spring Awakening is the show teens and twentysomethings are supposed to prefer, this thirtysomething found the story to be nothing deeper than an afterschool special. The addition of earnest performances of melancholy songs didn't really make it that much more "artistic" in my mind. To me, it was basically theatrical lily-guilding. BUT...I do not criticize or put down those who prefer it. If young girls feel emotionally connected to Wicked, why is that such a tragic thing? Why demand that they shouldn't identify with the ostracized central character? Simply because someone believes the production is artistically inferior to their own choice? That is nothing more than mere snobbery.

Remember: Show Boat, Oklahoma and Carousel were actually the "spectacles" of their eras.

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