Remembered 300 years from now?

I doubt that The Light In The Piazza will be around in three hundred years from now.

POTO, MAMMA MIA and WICKED will all be STILL running in 300 years.

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300 years? That's a bit long for anything. 100 years, maybe, but anything more than that I think might be a gross overexaggeration.

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"POTO, MAMMA MIA and WICKED will all be STILL running in 300 years."

Yeah, but Wicked will be on TKTS all the time by then!

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I always think in terms of 100 years...I think in 300 genres change so much, and so much new stuff will have come along, that very very little musical theatre will still be considered memorable.

I actually think that straight plays fare musch better over time...someone above mentioned Shakespeare...because they enter the literary canon. And though not as old, Shaw, Wilde, Ibsen, etc. are timeless. What muscials from 100 years ago, even, are memorable today?

IN that vain, I have always thought that Angels in America will hold up for ages, because it is good literature.

I agree, I don't think Broadway will survive that long...

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"Broadway" has been around for... what... 100 years? It has faltered and suffered blows but still kept going. I'm sure SOME form of it will be around (if there is still a world in 300 years).

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300 years is interesting. Looking back 300 years suggests that the average audience will have difficulties understanding the theatrical conventions of our time. As a result they'll be less inclined to become lost in the experience of the works.

That being said, the clever Mr. Sondheim and his collaborators have consciously adhered to writing specifically for character concept and purpose. So I bet that audiences in 3 centuries will still be able to parse out and enjoy many of their shows without digging through too much mildew.

The equivalent of G&S aficionados and opera fans today will probably be in love with any number of musical comedies of the past decades. But it will depend upon their understanding of our culture and history, and why the material was significant at the time it was written.

Colloquial culturalism will create lots of obstacles for future audiences. It’s not an oversight that most works written in 1777 are rarely performed today. While the baroque period has a great group of admirers, it probably represents the least performed group of standard repertoire in opera. Among playwrights, Shakespeare is the obvious anomaly, and it’s fun to think of the 20th century writers who will still speak to people in 2307. Eugene O’Neil? Tennessee Williams? David Mamet?

But among the writers of musicals, I would bet on Sondheim, Gershwin and one of the new guys about to take us to the next generation...

"I doubt that The Light In The Piazza will be around in three hundred years from now. "

why not, neddy frank?

i do actually think this one would last.
it is timeless and the music never gets old.
i agree with the original poster. =)

i also second many of the ones said so far.
definitely, west side story, les miserables, the sound of music etc etc.

this is an interesting concept. i guess we'll never know.. no one will be around that long!

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