The pitiful state of the broadway musical: the parade — Page 3

please remember... Dance of the Vampires seems like it would be a great show on paper.. but when it came together........


and as has been said, these shows are just in rehearsals and haven't begun performances... and douing ona number on the parade, you are in BAD conditions.

well for that matter.... one number in a parade can be misleadingly good as well

I know that it will be totally changed in Chicago and again by the time it gets to Broadway...But what They started with up at Goodspeed ... was fine with me.I and my family totally enjoyed it... So not quite saying all this based on just one # in a parade.

I am amused by the post opining that today's parade provided satisfying proof that broadway has "variety" for discerning audiences to choose from. By all means, detail, with examples, evidence of same in today's preview of coming attractions. If anyone saw evidence of the depth and breadth of the creative process out there shaping future broadway musical theater, explain away. I'm all ears (yawn). Better you should do some overude homework, and read, watch something that wasn't created since 1999--or 2002. Musical theater predates LION KING, and AIDA, and certainly MAMA MIA. Listening to a gaga fan base so rabidly defend these Juke Box entertainments is in itself depressing. Sondheim wrote, tellingingly, "Children Will Listen." I only wish that were true.

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Except that it has NOTHING to do with theatre. You can get the same results listening to the CD at home. It's just another example of the continuing dumbing-down of our culture.
Once upon a time in the last century, there was a greater kinship between pop music and theater music. However, theater music has ALWAYS had a more elevated, elegant and CRAFTED
quality that distinguishes it from pop songs. That's what makes it theatrical. Take most pop songs, then or now, and stack them up against theater music and the latter will inevitably trump the former in terms of musical and lyrical sophistication and "size.". Just as drama is a heightened and crystallized representation of life, so theater songs must be crafted and stylized to communicate its ideas across the footlights. Which is exactly what pop music in the theatre fails to accomplish.
The basic problem is that the static, repetitive and rhythmically-driven qualities of pop music, not to mention its mostly trite and inherently adolescent sensibilities, don't make it practical for adult characters or narrative or communicating more subtle and sophisticated emotions than the whiny, navel-gazing or parodistic kind. Melody and harmony, the prime vehicles of emotion in musical theater, take a back seat to the "beat," at the expense of expressiveness and variety. To write a Broadway score takes a discipline and craftsmanship that would utterly defeat most pop songwriters.
Why the trend for compilation shows? Three reasons, as I see it:
1) In an increasingly fragmented world where traditional values like love, family, community, etc. have become "deconstructed" or uncertain, the baby boomers are nostalgic for the music of their increasingly remote youth and cynical producers without a brain in their heads are happy to supply them with a pre-sold commodity.
2) Given the abysmal state of pop music and music education in America, there is less recognition and appreciation for a more sophisticated kind of songwriting.
3) New, integrated, dramaturgically sound musicals are damn hard to write.

And the trickle-down result is the sorry, lamentable mess you saw on your tv screens today.

Updated On: 11/25/04 at 11:26 PM

I love the criticism of people "who hate shows they haven't seen" coming from people who love shows they haven't seen.

"We are a community!" Wah, wah, wah.

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I find it interesting that some people think that this is a phase that Broadway is going through. This not new. Shows have been put together from a composers' work, that was written with no intention of it ever being in a Broadway show. We can go back a few years and look at a some examples:

Ain’t Misbehavin’ - The Music of Fats Waller. (Best Musical winner)
Sophisticated Ladies - The Music of Duke Ellington.
Eubie - The Music of Eubie Blake.
Smokey Joe’s Café - The Music of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller.

It did not all start with "Mamma Mia" but I assume that people have latched on to that show because the music is something that they knew and it was not as old as the music of the shows listed above.

Don't expect these shows to stop anytime soon. There are many more of them to come. Some will not make it to Broadway but a number of them will sure try:

We already know that "All Shook Up" and "Good Vibrations" are supposed to get to Broadway sometime soon and they both might make it, but there are a number of other shows waiting in the wings:

Planet Claire! - The Music of The B-52s
The Education of Randy Newman - Of Course, the music is by Randy Newman
Forever Young - The Music of Bob Dylan
Dangling Conversations - The Music of Simon and Garfunkel
Cumberland Blues - The Music of The Grateful Dead
We Will Rock You - The Music of Queen

And there is more.

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Updated On: 11/26/04 at 01:18 AM

I missed the parade today - is there anywhere online you can view the clips?

The only performance I didn't hear anyone really comment about was BOMBAY DREAMS. I work there and I don't even know what they did for the parade. I know they did SHAKALAKA BABY, but did they record Tamyra singing it and have her dance as well? I always used to see her rehearsing the dance in the lobbey and wondered why, so that would make sense. I hope someone can tell me, thanks!

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Musicman, I fear your post will go over most of the heads around here but I appreciated it as I'm sure a few other good eggs will too.

"unless there is hard-and-fast rule that no show in previews can be considered"

No, because then Good Vibrations and All Shook Up! wouldn't have been able to perform.

Littlefish, Producers was on the CBS telecast. As much as I adore the show, I have to agree that the song is overdone for TV productions, however, I was happy to see Hunter's take on it because I probably won't make it in time to see him in the role.

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Hi guys and gals...I've been lurking on this board for some time now and never really felt the urge to post...but after watching the parade yesterday and reading this thread I decided to jump in to the fray.

Those of us who do not live in NYC use "advertisements" such as the parade and the Tony awards to attempt to help make decisions as to which shows to see when we make our pilgrimages to Broadway. (I also read this board and others to try to get a pulse on the buzz) Today's featured shows on the parade did not make me want to run to the computer and plunk down several hundred dollars for tickets, airfare and hotel...as a matter of fact, they made me want to hurl (sorry for the graphic imagery there!). I am not attempting to disparage shows that have not opened and that I have not seen, but I am telling you as a consumer that not a penny of my hard-earned bucks will go toward any of the shows featured on the parade. Hopefully, some of the yet-to-open shows scheduled for the Spring will change my mind and I will find a reason to visit NYC and Broadway.

Broadway has always been about business as well as show. It is a commercial art form and it has changed with the times accordingly. Broadway has to adapt to public taste in order to survive. If you want to see a relic, go to the opera. Broadway is not about the past, it's about the present and future.

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