West End taking away all the great revival musicals

[Shrek3]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 7:47pm

Funny Girl and now Dreamgirls? Come on Broadway step it up. The Brits are getting to revive all the awesome musicals while we're here on our 1000th Fiddler revival. Ugh. 

Updated On: 2/4/16 at 07:47 PM

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 7:50pm

i could see this west end dreamgirls revival with amber Riley turn into fox's next live show.

[mistermanifesto]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 7:52pm

Same for Gypsy. I love these shows dearly but can we do something new? I swear if I hear there is another Gypsy revival (with someone probably like Sutton Foster) I will consider gouging my eyes out. There are plenty of shows that could be reinvented like Diane Paulus did with the forgotten show, Pippin.

 

At least, Hello, Dolly! is coming to Broadway. 

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 7:55pm

To be fair, this is gonna be the first West End production of dreamgirls ever and gypsy has been revived in London for the first time in 40 years...

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 7:56pm

How are they "taking away" something we don't have?

[Shrek3]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 7:59pm

There was even talk about Imelda's Gypsy coming to Broadway. I'm sure she is great but please for the love of god: no more Gypsy! 

[mistermanifesto]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 8:01pm

I believe it was a poor choice of words. (S)he meant that West End is doing less performed Classic shows. 

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 9:26pm

To be fair, the West End hasn't produced a brilliant NEW musical in years, whereas Broadway does 1-3 a year. 

Updated On: 2/4/16 at 09:26 PM

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 9:43pm

I don't know how much work it takes to maintain the West End Message Board...but maybe it needs to be retired. Seems the Brits aren't posting and anything relevant ends up here.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 9:49pm

aaaaaa15 said: "To be fair, the West End hasn't produced a brilliant NEW musical in years, whereas Broadway does 1-3 a year. "

 

I wouldn't say Broadway produces 1-3 brilliant musicals a year, but it's definitely more often than the West End.

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 9:50pm

aaaaaa15 said: "To be fair, the West End hasn't produced a brilliant NEW musical in years, whereas Broadway does 1-3 a year. "

Well, let's see:  what's recent?  Bend It Like Beckham, Sunny Afternoon, Made in Dagenham, I Can't Sing, The Light Princess, Stephen Ward, From Here to Eternity, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.   They weren't all rubbish.  

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 9:52pm

MichelleCraig said: "I don't know how much work it takes to maintain the West End Message Board...but maybe it needs to be retired. Seems the Brits aren't posting and anything relevant ends up here."

The Yanks on this board don't seem to realize there is a West End board so they post here.  And unless the admins move things from the main board to West End board - the discussions stay here.

But, the UK has its own now locally owned and operated theatre message board.... 

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 9:59pm

ggersten said: "aaaaaa15 said: "To be fair, the West End hasn't produced a brilliant NEW musical in years, whereas Broadway does 1-3 a year. "

 

Well, let's see:  what's recent?  Bend It Like Beckham, Sunny Afternoon, Made in Dagenham, I Can't Sing, The Light Princess, Stephen Ward, From Here to Eternity, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.   They weren't all rubbish.  

 

"

 

None were brilliant though. And in comparison to what Broadway has produced in recent years...

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 10:11pm

aaaaaa15 said: "ggersten said: "aaaaaa15 said: "To be fair, the West End hasn't produced a brilliant NEW musical in years, whereas Broadway does 1-3 a year. "

Well, let's see:  what's recent?  Bend It Like Beckham, Sunny Afternoon, Made in Dagenham, I Can't Sing, The Light Princess, Stephen Ward, From Here to Eternity, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.   They weren't all rubbish.  "

None were brilliant though. And in comparison to what Broadway has produced in recent years..".

Well, we thought The Light Princess was brilliant.  And we had a heck of a good time at Sunny Afternoon (before the transfer) - but in general, you are correct.  

 

[Broadway_Boy]

Posted: 2/4/16 at 10:39pm

If you want to get affordable flights to London from JFK, check out Norwegian Airlines. 

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 12:14am

I guess we can add to the non-brilliant list of musicals that started in the West End - Sister Act, Ghost and The Bodyguard. 

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 12:15am

I couldn't possibly care less about Dream Funny Girls.

 

 

[Shrek3]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 12:22am

The  fact is:  West End has made Broadway ALOT of money. Thank God for west end shows like Les Mis, Phantom, Cats and Miss Saigon. To say the west end only produces crappy musicals is hilarious as it used to be that Broadway only produced crappy musicals in the 80's and 90's. 

[gypsy101]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 12:22am

ggersten said: "I guess we can add to the non-brilliant list of musicals that started in the West End - Sister Act, Ghost and The Bodyguard. "

 

Right, all three were not very good.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 12:23am

Broadway_Boy said: "If you want to get affordable flights to London from JFK, check out Norwegian Airlines. "

It's actually Norwegian shuttle.

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 4:29am

The last successful west end musical was Matilda. On the other hand, most of the best plays come from London to Broadway, new plays and revivals.

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 5:15am

Shrek3 said: "The  fact is:  West End has made Broadway ALOT of money. Thank God for west end shows like Les Mis, Phantom, Cats and Miss Saigon. To say the west end only produces crappy musicals is hilarious as it used to be that Broadway only produced crappy musicals in the 80's and 90's. "

 

I never said that. I said that it hadn't produced a brilliant musical in years. As the person above said, the last one to truly do really well was Matilda, which was 5 years ago. To find the last brilliant musical Broadway produced, you only have to go back less than a year and then a few months back again and you can find another one. West End musicals were definitely thriving in the 80s but now they are absolutely not. 

 

Plays on the other hand are.

Updated On: 2/5/16 at 05:15 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 6:59am

Taking them away? Are they like a library book that if one professional org "takes it out" no one else can produce it?   If there were producers here that were willing to fund either of those titles, "we'd" have it.

 

Would I like to see a revival of both of those shows?  You bet, but I can amuse myself with what we do have.  I'll be pretty busy with:

The Crucible, Shuffle Along, Bright Star, Fiddler, Hamilton, American Psycho, The King and I, Tuck Everlasting, The Color Purple and Dear Evan Hansen -- just to name the shows I currently hold tickets for in the next few months.

 

[tazber]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 8:05am

Lol. What a ridiculous thread.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 2/5/16 at 8:38am

I agree.  Both sides of the Atlantic there are good and bad and occasionally exceptional shows.

 

Billy Elliot was amazing, but so is Hamilton.

 

Ghost was yikes, but so was Spiderman.

 

Both have shows to be jealous of.  Both have their shames.