Musicals that will never be revived on Broadway

[Theatrefanboy1]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 8:39am

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

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 9:31am

I don't see a world in which Lempicka is revived. 

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 9:51am

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. 

[inception]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 10:03am

Side Show flopped twice. 

Did its creatives give final speeches cursing out the rest of the world?

Unlikely to ever return.

Most of the Jerry Herman musicals will likely only ever be seen off of the Great White Way:

Dear World

Mack & Mabel

The Grand Tour

and yes... even Mame

 

 

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 10:11am

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.  

[Wick3]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 10:11am

For the longest time people said Merrily We Roll Along would never be revived on Broadway yet here we are! 

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 10:44am

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

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 10:47am

KISMET was the first that came to mind. I love the score, and maybe could work with a cast and director of Iraqi/Arab descent and a heavy rewrite. But at that point might be better to start fresh with a new show.

VICTOR VICTORIA is another: a star vehicle, a weak piece of writing, and its hyper-binary view of gender just feels out of touch today.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 11:02am

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.

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 11:35am

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

Others were tailored to specific stars. I don't see much point in Redhead without Gwen Verdon orHallelujah, 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 Iusually gets a pass while Kismet offends critics today.Thoroughly Modern Millietried to clean up the Chinese stereotypes of the film but modern audiences don't care for it.

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

I've little fondness for the stereotypes inKiss of the Spider Womanbut it lets a diva strut so they're trying it."

 

 

This is one of the most insightful comments I have read on here in a long time.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 12:09pm

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.

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 12:10pm

I sort of wonder if Mame is still as "necessary" as it once felt. I hope this doesn't come across as pandering or condescending, but I always suspected that Mame is a product of its time as a dual gay wish fulfillment show: the warm, accepting and encouraging parental figure to a "sensitive little boy," and also the grand flamboyant diva so many men (then and now) wished to be.

In an age of gay rights, gay liberation and gay visibility, does Mame stand on its own feet as a show and a story, without being the panacea for a closeted minority? As a straight Millennial, I don't have a dog in the fight, but I love the novels of Patrick Dennis and I wish Mame had more of the novels' satiric bite and dark edges. I enjoy his Mame, a morally ambivalent, impulsive and self-destructive MILF of the Julie Bowen/Kristen Bell/Christina Ricci variety. Maybe a rewrite would make Mame a little less cuddly and grandmotherly, a litlte more horny and chaotic. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 12:21pm

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.

[spicemonkey]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 12:23pm

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy_(1982_musical) 

IMO, it will never be produced again.

[Tenor8674]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 12:23pm

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. 

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 12:34pm

I disagree about Something Rotten. It’s a fun, well structured show with a massively showy supporting role. Given enough time it could run again. 
 

I will, however, add Anything Goes to the list. No matter how many times it’s been rewritten, it still hinges on the (typically white) principal characters masquerading as Chinese. Also “The Gypsy in Me”, which is now largely considered a slur. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:04pm

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.

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:29pm

Will "Mame" ever be revived?  Jerry Herman said many times that he thought Catherine Zeta-Jones would be great in the part.  

[Hey, Zelda!]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:52pm

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.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 1:56pm

nealb1 said: "Will "Mame" ever be revived? Jerry Herman said many times that he thought Catherine Zeta-Jones would be great in the part."

She's awfully cold for Mame. Don't think she means much nowadays in a commercial revival, and considering her antics the last time she was on Broadway I doubt we'll see her in another musical.

[Dom P]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 3:49pm

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]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 4:55pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "nealb1 said: "Will "Mame" ever be revived? Jerry Herman said many times that he thought Catherine Zeta-Jones would be great in the part."

She's awfully cold for Mame. Don't think she means much nowadays in a commercial revival, and considering her antics the last time she was on Broadway I doubt we'll see her in another musical."

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

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 5:02pm

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.

[JoeW4]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 5:18pm

Given the number of Broadway musical revivals vs. the number of new musicals that come out each year (especially with how many of them flop, with little cultural impression) it feels like the answer to the OP's question is: the vast majority of them!

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/20/24 at 5:20pm

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.