Musicals that will never be revived on Broadway

I feel we will never see revivals for:

spiderman turn off the dark

something rotten

almost famous

ghost

bad Cinderella

addams family

beautiful noise

cher show

beautiful

Several Best Musical winners are too of their time to be commercially successful today. Fiorello. Two Gentlemen of Verona. The Will Rogers Follies. Arguably Bye Bye Birdie. Folks remember Elvis but knowledge of Ed Sullivan and the Shriners has decreased.

Others were tailored to specific stars. I don't see much point in Redhead without Gwen Verdon or Hallelujah, Baby! without Leslie Uggams. Some people think Applause is relievable, but the affection is for All About Eve and Lauren Bacall. Not for songs like "Hurry Back" and "Fasten Your Seatbelts."

Still others traffic in stereotypes that audiences no longer tolerate. The King and I and Kismet premiered two years apart. But King and I usually gets a pass while Kismet offends critics today. Thoroughly Modern Millie tried to clean up the Chinese stereotypes of the film but modern audiences don't care for it.

I've a fondness for City of Angels. But the show is expensive, and the second act is weak.

I've little fondness for the stereotypes in Kiss of the Spider Woman but it lets a diva strut so they're trying it.

Mame's greatest weakness, imo, is the character of Patrick. "My Best Girl" is supposed to be the emotional heart of the score. It's reprised twice. But Patrick's personality change in act two is given no context. The show doesn't consider him very important. It's more interested in Mame's relationship with the audience.

The son in La Cage Aux Folles is similarly underdeveloped. But there the relationship between Albin and George provides the throughline.

I feel like with the trend of Encores productions transferring these days nothing is off the table.

MrsSallyAdams said: "Mame's greatest weakness, imo, is the character of Patrick. "My Best Girl" is supposed to be the emotional heart of the score. It's reprised twice. But Patrick's personality change in act two is given no context. The show doesn't consider him very important. It's more interested in Mame's relationship with the audience."

Yeah, MAME would need a proper rewrite for a revival. Act 1 almost works (there are some fixable problems mainly related to race) because Mame and Young Patrick have the strongest interpersonal relationship of the show.

Act 2 is a mess: too episodic, jumps ahead in time, it's hard for the audience to focus on a character who is adrift (Mame), Beau is killed in montage for convenience (after barely being introduced), Mame's mourning feels superficial, we hear about Mame and Vera being close but don't see it, there's one too many Upson party scenes, there are too many secondary characters, who tf cares about Pegeen Ryan, and then it jumps forward AGAIN at the end of the show.

I think it could still do well with the right leading lady (Hannah Waddingham?) but it would need someone like Harvey Fierstein or David Lindsay-Abaire to rewrite.

I think there are actually quite a few shows in OP's list that I could see revivals for many years later. I agree that some shows are maybe too problematic (in a structural way, not a cultural way) to be a viable revival as is, but a lot of revisal efforts I'm sure will be made.

Lempicka for example, I feel like someone down the line will try to "make it work" and if it succeeds they'll just talk about how it was too ahead of the times for its original Broadway run. Of course, that's a big "if" but that's never stopped people before.

I think with very small tweaks, Mame could be queer or lesbian, which is probably a more interesting character. Whether that means changing the Beau character to be a woman, or making it a marriage of convenience to put a father figure in Patrick's life. Maybe Vera is her on-again, off-again partner. I'm not a writer!

I suppose Patrick's sexuality could be made questionable too. Him rushing to get married at, like, 19 is incredibly old-fashioned for 2024 audiences.

The character of Auntie Mame has always lived and died by its leading lady. The Lawrence & Lee play and musical book aren't brilliant pieces of writing (it has a good idea and a pleasant lead character), and the Comden & Green screenplay for the Russell film doesn't improve much. The musical at least has some wonderful songs.

As with some other shows, crafting a new show around a similar idea might be better than trying to resurrect an old one.

LADY IN THE DARK, which happens to be one of my favorite shows, is dated and would be so expensive to produce with a full orchestra.

The 2022 licensing edition cuts the whole "Chinamen" plot from top to bottom. First, Ching and Chong/Luke and John are replaced by Spit and Dippy, two scrappy little kids from Boy's Town. Second, Evelyn loses his virginity to an actress who was filming scenes on his estate. Finally, the disguise sequence at the end involves Billy and Moonface disguised as movie producers, with Reno as their pregnant leading lady.

Are the rewrites good? Not really, but at least they've rendered the show less racially dated.

Its quality notwithstanding, I can imagine the thorny legal issues surrounding Paradise Square would affect its chances at a revival, to say nothing of licensing.

Ballroom which starred Dorothy Louden and Vincent Gardenia. Also, Legs Diamond, The Act, Got tu go disco, The Boy from Oz.

Updated On: 5/20/24 at 03:49 PM

wiggum2 said: "I'm drawing a blank, what antics did CZJ do while she was in ALNM?"

An erratic onstage performance and missed perfs.

Maybe she'd be fine in a play, but another musical seems out of her league, especially one that requires a LOT more singing.

I saw CZJ in "Little Night Music" and thought she was wonderful.

Would love to see a revival of "Me & My Girl." Saw the 2018 City Center revival of it. Rob McClure would make a wonderful Bill Snibson.