Did Oskar Eustis or Andre Bishop run your pet over?
It's simply an indicator of how new musicals are being developed nowadays: 12 shows in the last 20 years have been developed at not-for-profit theaters prior to their commercial runs on Broadway. Musicals are expensive, they take years to develop, they're not easy to get right, and the nurturing environment of a non-profit is a good way to make a show as good as it can be prior to Broadway.
"If commercial theatre actually showed as much effort as non for profit it might actually get the tony for best musical" doesn't make ANY of sense: The last Best Musical winner to be solo-produced by a non-profit was LCT's Contact in 2000. Sure, non-profits have had co-producer credits on other Best Musical winners, but they didn't finance the transfer or call the shots on Broadway. Those were still commercial productions. (Many commercial producers do offer "enhancement money" to non-profits to develop the show, but that's another topic.)
A Chorus Line and Hamilton started at the Public. Rent and Hadestown started at NY Theatre Workshop. Les Mis started at the Royal Shakespeare Co. Evan Hansen started at 2nd Stage. It's just part of the development lifecycle of some shows.
Updated On: 4/18/19 at 08:41 PM
