Under Appreciated Off or Off Off Broadway Musicals

I love Broadway flops dearly, but I love the world of Off-Broadway and Off-Off even more. What are some musicals everyone can think of that are either flops (hard to quanitfy that term in the Off Off Broadway or Off Broadway realm, so I'm willing to cast a wide net), have big cult followings or are just under appreciated but haven't been on Broadway yet?

Ones that come to mind that I would say are cult classics but not flop-status are: Children Of Eden, Zanna Don't! Lazarus, Forbidden Broadway, Naked Men Singing, Alter Boys... ones more in the flop category might be Kid Victory and Cleopatra (dear god that was dreadful). Also Tommy Tune's The Club, Mail ...these are among more obscure ones and fall more into the under appreciated realm, as do most musicals on this list. There's a gay themed musical from the 80s that had a scene on the back of a truck I recall but I can't remember the name.

Updated On: 2/1/21 at 03:17 PM

Sadly, many of my favorite underrated Off-Broadway musicals are underrated partly because they never received a cast-album, and therefore never got much attention outside of their initial run. Many (probably most) of them had very flawed books, but enjoyable scores that never got professionally recorded in full. For me, the biggest examples are:

--Brooklynite

--Futurity (luckily there's a concept album with most of the songs)

--Beast in the Jungle (not technically a musical, but falls under a similar umbrella)

--Invisible Thread

--The Lucky Ones

Updated On: 2/1/21 at 03:44 PM

Trixie True Teen Detective.

Alex Kulak2 said: "Murder Ballad is a rock opera from a few years ago that I co-directed at college. It’s one of the few “rock musicals” that doesn’t sacrifice the raw emotive sound of rock music to sound more “musical theatre-y”. It’s a straight-up rock concert with a plot, and I wish it got more attention.

I found out after the fact that several of the songs had been written by the composer back in the 90s, which technically makes it a half-jukebox musical, but it doesn’t sound like it at all. The songs fit perfectly to further the plot and develop character."

I loved Murder Ballad, I went like 5 times. Will Swenson, Caissie Levy, Rebecca Naomi Jones and John Ellison Conlee. Good Lord, that cast. I enjoyed when Will sat on my table multiple times. It was sexy with a great rock score.

These are all really good. Another one that comes to mind is Erin Markey's A Ride On The Irish Cream. Some others that run the gamot to cult classics, flops, under appreciated musicals: Cambodian Rock Band, Scottland, PA, Reanimator: The Musical, It Came From Beyond: The Musical, The Musical About Star Wars, Caligula, White Noise.

I saw Murder Ballad in London in 2016. The cast featured Ramin Karimloo and Kerry Ellis, though I saw Kerry Ellis' understudy. The narrator was played by the incredibly talented Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, who gave another fantastic performance as Kate in The Wild Party later that same season.

I didn't care for the show as much as you guys did. I had a ton of issues with it, though I think a lot of them could be blamed on the direction (it was not the same director as the original NYC production). But even so, there was a lot that liked about it. I remember finding "You Belong to Me" to be a thrilling number. It's an interesting story, and the ending caught me way off guard.

Two Joshua Schmidt scores (Adding Machine and A Minister's Wife), two LaChiusa scores (See What I Wanna See and Giant), and two Ahrens/Flaherty scores (A Man of No Importance and Dessa Rose) are among my favorites of the past 20 years. I also have a fondness for Maury Yeston's Death Takes a Holiday. I understand why each of these shows may be "challenging" for a general audience, but I love them dearly and would travel quite a distance to see good productions of them.

They made the film "Marty" into a musical and it played "Pre Broadway" at the Huntington theater in Boston


Rupert Holmes did the book, John C. Reilly played the title role. We saw it twice and still look forward to it making it to Broadway some day

I recently mentioned this show in another thread. RADIANT BABY the Keith Haring musical.

HogansHero said: "I also loved Murder Ballad. Saw it twice. I'm surprised it hasn't been done more."

I have seen Murder Ballad twice more since the Off Broadway production. Once in Chicago and another time in London.