Shows You've Discovered (or Rediscovered) While in Quarantine

Since there is no place to really go at the moment and most of us are stuck in our homes, only leaving for essential items or essential jobs, I can't be the only one taking the time to explore musicals some new musicals as well as revisit old ones, right?


SO! Share! What shows we have you found for the first time? Or is there a show you have known but having revisited now, have you fallen in love again or perhaps see it in a new light? Who knows, maybe you'll find something new to explore in the comments as well.




For me, I have heard about "& Juliet" before but I never really looked into it. When someone told me that 'oh yeah it's pop songs from the late 90s and early to mid 00s' and my interest grew. THEN I found out how many Backstreet Boys songs were in it and yeah that pulled me ALL the way in. OG BSB fan for life. I usually tend to shy away from jukebox musicals because either it's an artist whose music just doesn't appeal to me or the artist appeals to me but they go the route of telling the artists life story. I much rather using the songs to tell an original story. So to have 1.) music from my childhood and teenage years that I LOVED 2.) an original plot AND 3.) flipping a story we already know on it's head.... this is like targeted RIGHT at me. I don't know how well this show would do if they ever thought to try and bring it to Broadway from West End though. I'd LOVE the chance to see it live but it might not survive.

Sutton Ross said: "I think it's still supposed to premiere in North America next February in Toronto. I could be wrong though. Is there a cast recording?"

Yeah that's how I found it. It's on Spotify. Someone started talking about it on a BSB facebook group I started following last year and linked it. That's exciting to hear that it might hit Toronto but with everything going on, I will not get my hopes up. I am sure LOTS of plans for shows are going to change because of everything going on.

I've gotten back into Sunset Boulevard. I re-ripped all the various cast recordings and singles from this and I put 'em on random and just listen for hours. So fun to hear the different takes on the same material.

I've been listening to Tarrytown, a contemporary retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The show's been workshopped for a few years, but they released a fully orchestrated cast recording to benefit The Actor's Fund, and it sounds gorgeous. Everyone should give it a listen.

Sometimes I shuffle through my entire digital collection of cast albums, and I stumbled upon this 1982 Off-Broadway revue of Alec Wilder's works called Clues to A Life. It's surprisingly charming and delightful. I have probably listened to Unbelievable/Give Me Time about 20 times since then. The song also reminds me of Tabu/Taking Care of the Ladies from LaChiusa Wild Party.

Updated On: 5/19/20 at 05:16 PM

Significant Other.

I didn't get to watch it when it was on Broadway at the time but am glad they did the actors fundraiser and did a livestream for it.

While TDF offered a free month of the Broadway HD, I've discovered Falsettos. I had a chance to see it during the revival but somehow wasted that opportunity thinking I won't appreciate it. Well, not seeing this musical is now one of my biggest regrets...

Just for fun and grading/cleaning accompaniment, I've gotten into Heathers. But since Brian Stokes Mitchell's brilliant performance of The Flag Song during Sondheim's birthday concert, I've rekindled my love for Assassins. I think, when it comes to it, it's my favorite Sondheim. (His too, I think? I seem to remember him saying something in "Sondheim on Sondheim" along the lines of, "My most perfect show is Assassins..."

Really hoping the CSC production comes to fruition.

i've been into Sondheim hard basically the last few weeks since his birthday concert. it's been probably five years since i've listened to all of his shows.

Show Boat.

Regem10 said: "Hallelujah Baby! Leslie Uggams singing Being Good Isn’t Good Enough is perfect. Also Woman of The Year. There isn’t anything pleasant about about Bacall’s voice but the album captures her star power. I’m sure she was great to see live."

I saw HB twice (I guess I was 17) and loved it. I loved Being Good, but my favorite number is She Sure Didn't Get It From Me, one of the great showstoppers in the last 60 years. Also love the non-traditional orchestration for Now's the Time, which was a great production number. And the title song. IMO this was a greatly underappreciated musical, the only musical that I can recall in the last 60 years that was closed before getting the Tony for Best Musical, Actress, Supporting Actress, and music.

You didn't miss much missing Woman of the Year. The only terrific number in the show was The Grass Is Always Greener, because of Marilyn Cooper's deadpan. MC was also in HB, as a Communist, if memory serves. Bacall had charisma in spades, but the show just wasn't very good.

I have found myself limiting my listening to 4 or 5 shows: Rags (always wishing that I could see a production some time): The Great Comet, which I have newly re-discovered, not having listened to it for at least 6 - 8 months; it has been made more interesting from having seen, if you can believe this, a decent mini-series of W&P on HULU; the Donna Murphy TKAI, triggered by recently watching the Bartlett Sher production on TV (IMO Murphy was better than O'Hara); and Bandstand, triggered by seeing a touring production in Sarasota in mid-February, before all hell broke loose. IMO Bandstand is really under-appreciated. The production was solid (interestingly, Corey Cott was in the audience with his wife in the row in front of me...I talked to him during intermission...he was really a nice guy, seemed genuinely appreciative who I mentioned that I thought he was terrific on Broadway).