Modern musical choices for Encores!

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 2:26pm

Now that Encores! has begun producing more recent musicals like Piazza and Titantic next season, what other musicals from the last 25 years would you like to see at Encores?

My ultimate choices would be:

LaChiusa’s The Wild Party (I know they already did Lippa’s)

The Full Monty

Grey Gardens 

Women on the Verge (still too soon, but I can see it in about 5 years, but we need the ORIGINAL version, not the inferior London revision)

The Bridges of Madison County (again, too soon, but it’s an inevitable choice for Encores! eventually)

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 2:28pm

YES to Women on the Verge and Bridges!

[binau]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 2:48pm

The Visit with one or all of Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Donna Murphy. 

[steve.sometime]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 2:56pm

ljay889 said: "Now that Encores! has begun producing more recent musicals like Piazza and Titantic next season, what other musicals from the last 25 years would you like to see at Encores?

My ultimate choices would be:

LaChiusa’s The Wild Party (I know they already did Lippa’s)

The Full Monty

Grey Gardens

Women on the Verge (still too soon, but I can see it in about 5 years, but we need the ORIGINAL version, not the inferior London revision)

The Bridges of Madison County (again, too soon, but it’s an inevitable choice for Encores! eventually)"

YES PLEASE to all 5 of these!

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 2:58pm

I feel like The Scottsboro Boys would be a good one. 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:02pm

binau said: "The Visit with one or all of Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, Donna Murphy."

 

THE RINK with any (or all) of the above ladies and Lena Hall or Bonnie Milligan as Angel.

CITY OF ANGELS with Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds (switching back and forth on alternating perfs as Stone/Stine)!

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:05pm

I believe the authors of WOMEN ON THE VERGE prefer what they did in London.

Yes to GREY GARDENS (Jennifer Simard?) and MJL's WILD PARTY

CITY OF ANGELS has already been discussed as a goal for Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

post-1980 suggestions:

Steel Pier
Big
My Favorite Year
Will Rogers Follies
Song & Dance
Baby
A Doll's Life
Nick & Nora
Woman of the Year
Blood Brothers
Barnum
Sweet Smell of Success
Urinetown (this really just needs a proper revival)
Passion
State Fair
Rags (that Goodspeed/London revisal seems dead)
The Goodbye Girl
The Rink
Curtains
A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine
Sugar Babies
Drowsy Chaperone (or what would be even better: an Actors Fund anniversary concert with the original cast)

Some pre-1980 suggestions:

Darling of the Day
Mame
The Grand Tour
Milk & Honey
Sherry
Golden Rainbow
Sweet Charity
Hallelujah, Baby!
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Ballroom
They're Playing Our Song
Whorehouse (if that planned revival is dead)
Carmelina
Eubie!
Raisin
Over Here
Seesaw
I Do! I Do!
Half a Sixpence
Golden Boy (again)
is The Act worth producing?
Stop the World... and Roar of the Greasepaint...

Updated On: 6/26/23 at 03:05 PM

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:05pm

Steel Pier! Ideally with a revised book.

[OuttaTowner]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:06pm

Yes, to Full Monty. 
If I can’t have a full-fledged revival, I’ll take an Encores production. 


And while I’m asking, can someone ring up Jake Gyllenhaal to star?

Thanks.
Here’s all my money now. 

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:18pm

OuttaTowner said: "Yes, to Full Monty.
If I can’t have a full-fledged revival, I’ll take an Encores production.


And while I’m asking, can someone ring up Jake Gyllenhaal to star?

Thanks.
Here’s all my money now."

Oh, wow. Jake in TFM is a brilliant idea. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:29pm

FULL MONTY would be a real waste of Gyllenhaal.

[Kimbo]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:33pm

This is a great list. I’m still surprised Barnum has never received a full-scale Broadway revival - Neil Patrick Harris 10 years ago or so would have been a completely different but equal sort of triumph as Hedwig was for him

Of this list the ones that would be great choices for Encores, in their original versions and orchestrations, are:

Rags, The Rink, My Favorite Year and The Grand Tour.
 (Baby could also be worthwhile but they’ve just issued a new cast album of the revised version.)

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I believe the authors of WOMEN ON THE VERGE prefer what they did in London.

Yes to GREY GARDENS (Jennifer Simard?) and MJL's WILD PARTY

CITY OF ANGELS has already been discussed as a goal for Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

post-1980 suggestions:

Steel Pier
Big
My Favorite Year
Will Rogers Follies
Song & Dance
Baby
A Doll's Life
Nick & Nora
Woman of the Year
Blood Brothers
Barnum
Sweet Smell of Success
Urinetown (this really just needs a proper revival)
Passion
State Fair
Rags (that Goodspeed/London revisal seems dead)
The Goodbye Girl
The Rink
Curtains
A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine
Sugar Babies
Drowsy Chaperone (or what would be even better: an Actors Fund anniversary concert with the original cast)

Some pre-1980 suggestions:

Darling of the Day
Mame
The Grand Tour
Milk & Honey
Sherry
Golden Rainbow
Sweet Charity
Hallelujah, Baby!
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Ballroom
They're Playing Our Song
Whorehouse (if that planned revival is dead)
Carmelina
Eubie!
Raisin
Over Here
Seesaw
I Do! I Do!
Half a Sixpence
Golden Boy (again)
is The Act worth producing?
Stop the World... and Roar of the Greasepaint..."

 

[barcelona20]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:35pm

Passing Strange.  15 years ago already since it debuted. Deserved a much more lengthy run.

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:44pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "FULL MONTY would be a real waste of Gyllenhaal."

How? Jerry is a Tony nominated role and maybe Jake would be interested in doing something lighter on stage.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:46pm

Still some time off, but let me repeat that I’d love to see Caroline Innerbichler play Alice in Bright Star.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 3:59pm

Maybe the best way to get a damn “Dreamgirls” revival to actually happen would be for City Center to stage a great production of it. 

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:01pm

Definitely Grey Gardens. Maybe starring our reigning Best Actress in a Musical winner?

 

I also think Cry Baby would be a perfect show. Short-lived, fun score, lots of fun casting opportunities. Plus it would be a great way to remember the gone-too-soon Adam Schlesinger

Updated On: 6/26/23 at 04:01 PM

[jagman1062]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:13pm

Grand Hotel

Nine

Marie Christine

110 in the Shade

Yes, to Women on the Verge...

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:14pm

Whatever the version of Women on the Verge, concede this: it'd gain a lot from turning Mambo-Loving Taxi Driver into a comic lead/narrator/Greek chorus type by letting him also play the smaller, one-scene-only male roles (i.e., the judge, the police officer, the matador, etc.). This would probably be best experimented with Encores-style, it wouldn't alter anything textually, but the show would feel more cohesive to an audience that likes Almodovar-type material onstage if it's more unified, whether as written or because it feels that way.

Also... if they're gonna mount a chamber version of Rebecca in the off-West End, maybe it's time to take a second look at the score of Dance of the Vampires. But in the interest of fairness to the rights holders, who will never let the NY version see the light of day again, you do a faithful translation of the German version and you tweak some of the casting, direction, and design for both an American audience and a 2023 audience. (...I have a "show bible." Don't judge me.)

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:21pm

110 in the Shade would be great to hear with the full original orchestration (which we didn't get in the Audra revival), and there are many fine ladies who could play that role well.

[B212323]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:21pm

They can't book City of Angels soon enough. I've been waiting for decades! 

[Dylan Smith4]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:28pm

Jordan Catalano said: "Maybe the best way to get a damn “Dreamgirls” revival to actually happen would be for City Center to stage a great production of it."

I absolutely second this!

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:29pm

jagman1062 said: "Grand Hotel

Nine

Marie Christine

110 in the Shade

Yes, to Women on the Verge..."

Wasn't Grand Hotel done a few years ago?

[PublicHorizons]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:33pm

Mr. Wormwood said: "jagman1062 said: "Grand Hotel

Nine

Marie Christine

110 in the Shade

Yes, to Women on the Verge..."

Wasn't Grand Hotel done a few years ago?"

Yes 2018 with John Dossett, it was ok but nothing special imo

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/26/23 at 4:37pm

I’m still hoping to see the Yeston Phantom in New York someday and since it’ll never be on Broadway I feel like Encores! is the only place for it.