Musical Comedy - Success of the Genre

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 4/4/23 at 7:59pm

There's a discussion in the Shucked thread about the audience preference for musical dramas over comedies in recent years. I decided to pull together some data to see if I could spot any comedy trends.

Here's a list of "Best Musical" nominees from the past 10 years that I would qualify as comedies. Sorted by the number of performances listed on ibdb.com.

3106 and counting - Disney's Aladdin
2505 - Kinky Boots
1554 - Matilda the Musical
1309 - School of Rock
905 - A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
825 - Disney's Frozen
804 - Mean Girls
708 - Something Rotten! (The first original libretto on this list)
678 - Beetlejuice (combining both runs)
478 - Nice Work if you can Get It 
327 - SpongeBob Square Pants
309 - The Prom (the second original libretto on this list)
293 - Tootsie
176 - Groundhog Day (though the show was surprisingly dour)
171 - Bring it On
116 - Mr. Saturday Night
51 - A Christmas Story

So, comedies still run if they're based on a movie or cartoon. Modern librettos not based on films tend to be dramas: (examples: A Strange Loop, Daer Evan Hansen, Fun Home, Great Comet, Hadestown)

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 4/5/23 at 2:17pm

To be fair, I'm not sure how much the film had to do with the audience for Kinky Boots, as I don't think it was all that popular?  Though they (along with Gentleman's Guide) probably got a good bump from the Tony.

As far as audience preference, I think people do still like a good musical comedy, but a lot of the demographic that goes would probably be families and it helps to have an established property (like the Disney shows) to take kids to since they'd already know some of the songs/characters.  That and (as evidenced by Shucked), people have very different styles of humor they prefer, so if the show is based off an existing property, it's probably easier for someone to decide if that's a style they'd like to see.

[bdn223]

Posted: 4/5/23 at 3:08pm

I think nearly everything gets labeled a musical comedy now a days that the has basically just become synonymous with a musical that isn't a downer. If we are talking about musicals that are comedies with comedy being the shows primary objective from your list I would only include the following:

• A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder 
• Something Rotten 
• Tootsie

I am on the fence about adding either Nice Work If You Can Get It or Beetlejuice to the list as the first thing that comes to mind about them is not the comedy, but its the technical aspects of Beetlejuice and the jukebox score of Nice Work.  Especially when we compare Nice Work If You Can Get It, when you compare it to the previous Gershwin Jukebox Crazy for You, which I would consider a comedy. I could be convinced to add Beetlejuice the list though. 

 

As the saying goes, "Dying is easy, comedy is hard.", so in my opinion the issue with a I guess what I would call Comedy Musicals is that comedy is extremely subjective based on ones personal tastes, especially when compared to other elements a musical may highlight such as dance, technical effects, philosophical questions, music. While those mentioned are also subjective, its much harder to deny when a production succeeds in those areas. Look no further than the notices for Shucked, which I would also define as a comedy, even the critics who were on the fence saying the comedy might not of been their taste, besides Jesse Green, were sure to point out that there were people howling sitting next to them. Thus it can create an expectations game that a show often can never live up to or if the comedy isn't to ones tastes can create a grueling 2.5hrs of theater.