Excitedly seconding Applause, though the script's kinda moth-eaten and could use a rewrite. I'd love to see someone give it a bit of a bite, if just to take it away from being a musicalized All About Eve. The possibility's definitely there (see also Gena Rowlands in Cassavetes's OPENING NIGHT).
Odd, I would think for Applause to work the script would need to have a hell of a lot more of All About Eve's wit, snap, crackle, pop and above all, sophistication - not less. Also having difficulty understanding how any version of Applause could be estranged from All About Eve - if it's not that story, what is it? Opening Night is a great movie but I don't see it as suggesting musicalization (maybe, though I doubt it, as an avant-garde opera, but that would hardly work with Applause's score as a foundation) let alone as a model for rewriting Applause.
And speaking of show biz musicals, agree with those who suggested City of Angels, a great funny show very much due for a revival. And if 20th Century is a success - hopeful! - then it may be very likely to happen.
I'm of two minds about Lil' Abner. I know the score is great, but my issue is twofold.
1. The musical is a tie-in to a cultural mixed-media phenomenon that we don't have today. If you were to revise the musical's book, you'd have to assume no familiarity or affection for Abner and his fellow residents of Dogpatch- they're just not in the cultural conversation anymore the way Charlie Brown is, for one. It would have to be approached as an original work, not as a "based on the characters you know and love" style the way the original book was.
2. There's little getting around the fact that the whole concept is of uneducated hillbillies/po'whites in Appalachia. This is problematic, because not only is that not exactly poitically correct today, but we don't really HAVE that trope in the cultural conversation anymore either. Our idea of hillbillies has changed, as the advances of technology and slow cultural creep have more or less eviscerated the "hillbilly" idea to be replaced with its sister tropes, the "redneck" and "trailer park" character sets.
I actually recently did Applause...it would really need reworked. The story is interesting, and the music *screams* seventies. I like it, but I don't think a revival would do very well...
Sally Dear World My Fair Lady Hello, Dolly! La Strada The Gay Life (The High Life) Show Boat Carnival The Student Gypsy Good News No, No, Nanette Of Thee I Sing I Married an Angel By Jeeves
Plays: Camino Real Perfect Analysis Given By a Parrot The Moon is Blue Mary, Mary Summer and Smoke The Grass Harp Summer and Smoke
It's been a while since the last Oklahoma revival, I'd love to see that on Broadway again. Preferably directed by Molly Smith, who did such a phenomenal job with the show at Arena Stage in DC a few years back.
I think it'd have to have a Hollywood name brand star, but I'd love to see She Loves Me.
And as much as I'd lovelovelove a Merrily We Roll Along revival, I think it'd be better suited for an off-Broadway run in a smaller house.
I want N2N, saw it in Pittsburgh of all places cause I wanted my sister to see it, Alice was bad. I prefer it not be redone now and Stephanie J. Block will get to play it some day
I would love to see Stephanie J Block play Diana. Maybe even Julia Murney. I dont know, but I'd love for it to come back in a couple years. Alice's voice wouldn't have the capacity to do it again though...in that tour she sounded pretty sad.
- Into the Woods with Audra as The Baker's Wife. I still think Sherie Renee Scott would be fascinating as The Witch. - Caroline or Change with E. Faye Butler - LaChiusa Wild Party - Dreamgirls - Sunday in the Park with George - Aida with Adrienne Warren - Passion with Laura Benanti and Kelli O'Hara, as previously stated.