Is the Broadway Musical dead? (Kind of a Poll)

I dont think the musical is dead per say I just think its evoluted from what it use to be into a more commerical and less popular form of art which is said because there is so much more to Broadway that has to be offered and yet it still makes millions of dollars and is still quite popular and I mean with the popularity of Wicked with kids my age and younger aiming it towards kids and families is a good plan because if you aim it towards them it will increase people coming to shows like Wicked and Beauty and The Beast. Broadway Musicals have just become more family entertainment than more of an adult type thing. But still... it does well... its not dead just weakend

I don't think the musical is deat at all - every year, the number of new musicals goes up - look at Broadway right now, there isn't one empty theatre. So no, the Broadway musical is anything but dead. However, the quality standards are going down and the tolerance of the audience is going way up. Luckily, there's usually a pretty good balance of shows on Broadway (good and bad) to keep things looking alright. A month ago, I would have sounded less optomistic...but now, it's definitely apparant that spring is coming on Broadway.

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EVERY decade this question comes up. A weak season, a string of flops and the old refrain comes up again. Then a couple of big blockbuster hits come along and we get "there's life in the old form yet."

It will never truly die, but it will change. Look how much it has changed in the post 9/11 age.

More shows now seem to poke fun at the art form, which to be truthful sometimes does get taken a little too seriously.

Since shows like THE WIZARD OF OZ and BABES IN TOYLAND (both 1903) Broadway audiences have always loved big specatcles. We still have those (BEAUTY & BEAST, LION KING, WICKED)

From the eary years (1900-25) Broadway loved romantic operettas, (THE DESERT SONG, THE STUDENT PRINCE) and we still have those (PHANTOM OF THE OPERA,)

In the 1930s satires became big business (OF THEE I SING, AS THOUSANDS CHEER) and we still have shows that poke fun at love, life and politics (AVE Q, PRODUCERS, SPAMATLOT, DRS)

Traditional book muscals in the OKLAHOMA! style remain popular in revivals (FIDDLER) and new productions (LITTLE WOMEN)

In the 1930s there were revues and shows that tried to incorporate current pop music or at least music in that style (like say, THE SWING MIKADO) althogh "songbook" anthologies like MAMMA MIA and MOVIN' OUT are a relatively recent concoction.

What is missing from the mix right now are serious story-driven musicals where the songs serve plot and character. The last really good one in this vein was probably RAGTIME (1998-2000) but no doubt others in this style will be along.

If any one thing is hurting the creativity of Broadway writers it is audiences who just want to be "entertained" and do not want to waste time thinking about the ideas that theatre can explore when it is at its best. Nor do audiences seem to want to get too emotionally involved. Again this is post 9/11 fall-out: People were hurt very badly and don't want to leave themselves vulnerable.

But when everything is in balance, when all the theatres are booked up, when there are shows to satisfy every taste...then Broadway will survive.

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Jason Robert Brown has some interesting thoughts that you could use in your paper, from here: http://www.manhattanusersguide.com/archives_content.php?contentID=042204&category=arts

"What's the future of musical theatre? Is there one?

Sure. There's too much money to be made for there to be no future in musical theatre. I don't think the conditions of the so-called Golden Age of the 40's and 50's can ever be replicated, but I think there will be new musicals and every couple of years one of them will permeate the cultural consciousness and bring more people in to the party. The tragedy is that when musical theatre was the center of popular culture, it could afford to take risks and go interesting places, knowing that there would be an audience willing to experiment. Now that musical theatre is such a marginal piece of the entertainment world, there are no guarantees that an audience will be there if you go out on a limb, so the necessary strategy for a big Broadway musical is to go backward, do the safer thing, draw the audience in with the easy stuff, make them comfortable. I think it's possible that if we get them comfortable enough, we might be able to take some risks again. Or we might get them so comfortable that they fall asleep. Interesting fork in the road; I'm wondering which way things will go, same way everyone else is. Meanwhile, I just keep writing the things that are interesting to me, and hopefully people will come see them."