Lack of good musicals upcoming...

Am I the only one who thinks the upcoming line-up of musicals to hit Broadway seem lackluster and are generating no buzz or interest?



Any insight into this?

Not even excited about Edwin Drood?

is Edwin Drood a musical? I love Dickens...but have not read much about this one.

just saw Annie in Singapore--straight from the West End and now on the way to Broadway. Was ok...

Rebecca may grow on me and Matilda is family fare with a bit of potential. Cyndi Lauper's efforts in Kinky Boots deserve a look too--but I guess the excitement will build closer to previews? Hope so! :)

How do you know there's no good musicals if you haven't seen any of them yet?

Edwin Drood is a revival of a musical previously featuring Betty Buckley. The audience gets to choose certain things during the show, like ultimately who killed Edwin. Chita Rivera is in this revival


At the 1986 Tony's

If audience participation involves getting selected to go onstage and do a dance with Chita Rivera-- charleston, tango, tap, whatever-- I'm there.

Haha...she would put us all to shame!

At Godspell last year I was pulled up to play charades with Hunter Parrish! Was so excited and nervous all at the same time...was a blast! I wanted a picture! :)

Great--does anyone have any more info on this upcoming production of Drood?

If you don't know about Drood you should definitely investigate it more! It's a fantastic musical, one of my faves in fact.

It's a musical within a musical, meaning that the cast are playing music hall performers who are presenting their version of "Drood".

There's tons of stuff you'll find about it, but as a Dickens fan you probably know it was his last (and unfinished) novel.

So the audience gets to vote every performance how they think the show should end (meaning who the murderer is). The cast then proceeds with the ending accordingly.

It's great fun.

Otherwise I'm not really excited about the line up either. I'm curious about Rebecca. And Chaplin looks like it may be much better than I anticipated (based on the comments from the first preview posters).

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Matilda is the biggest thing to hit the West End in years. I cannot imagine it not being as good on Broadway.

I couldn't get even a single seat when I was there in June. In terms of popularity it is like Wicked multiplied by Book Of Mormon.

The reviews from critics and the public alike have been nothing but down right stellar and glowing.

Plus don't be put of by it being 'family fare', if it is even a smidgeon like any of Dahl's works, including its own source material, there is plenty of wicked dark adult humour to boot. :)

Plus the book is my second favourite Roald Dahl book, only after 'The Twits'. What is not to like? :)

Updated On: 8/22/12 at 08:30 AM

Am I the only one who thinks the upcoming line-up of musicals to hit Broadway seem lackluster and are generating no buzz or interest?

I'm pretty sure you're not. We hear that at least half a dozen times every season.

Rebecca may grow on me and Matilda is family fare with a bit of potential.

Matilda is not your typical "family fare".

NONE of these upcoming new musicals have scores that are by actual musical theater writers that have established themselves as talented and worthy.

First of all, so what? We've had a lot of new successful scores from the first outing on Broadway (Urinetown, The Producers, Avenue Q, The Secret Garden, In the Heights, The Full Monty, Spamalot, Grey Gardens, Book of Mormon, Les Miserables, Godspell, etc). Do you feel they need your validation first? What do you consider "worthy" and who are "actual musical theatre writers" other than people who are writing a score for a musical in a theatre?

Secondly, Matilda has already been earning accolades in the UK and Rebecca's music is from Levay, composer of one of the most successful European musicals ever written, Elisabeth (as well as Mozart! and Marie Antoinette).

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Exactly, Matt. Plus, it should be pointed out that Drood was the first major musical by someone seen as a pop composer until then (and had some cynicism attached to it because Papp seemed so desperate to do a similar in style follow up to his successful mounting of Piratzes of Penzance--down to re-hiring much of the team and some of the cast), so I find the argument that none of these shows are done by established theatre writing teams neither here nor there.