What do we have to look forward to in the aftermath of Spring Awakening?

[kyleorlando]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:33pm

This is just a thought I had. Please forgive me if it seems a little random or rambling. I'm a little worried about the next few years of Broadway after Spring Awakening's Tony win.

It seems to me that there is usually a backlash after a rock musical is successful and/or wins the Tony.

Case in point:

"Bye Bye Birdie" is one of the first (if not THE first) Broadway show with a rock and roll score. Granted it was steeped in the Broadway tradition bookwise, but the rock was there. This show was then followed up in next few years by "How to Succeed...", "Forum", "Dolly" and "Fiddler". Each great shows, but the musical style didn't advance.

"Hair" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona" both had the rock and roll scores, but the other shows that followed were "Company", "1776", "Follies", and "Applause".

The 80's had the British Invasion and a new pop sound, but the rock and roll offerings were dismal at the best, with such shows as "Leader of the Pack" and "Rock and Roll: the first 5000 years".

Then came "Rent" which was followed up by "Titanic", "Steel Pier", "The Life", and "The Producers".

After "Spring Awakening" what should we expect in the next few years? More musical versions of films? More shows that harken back to the old-fashioned golden age of Broadway? Disney's The Black Cauldron: The Musical Extravaganza?

Again, just putting the thought out there. Wanted to see if I was the only person that had thought of this?

Updated On: 6/11/07 at 05:33 PM

[americanboy99]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:35pm

WHAT?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:39pm

Nothing but whining. Lots and lots and LOTS of whining.

And Raul.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:44pm

To be bluntly honest, if the musical performances from the nominated shows are any indication, Broadway looks like it's floundering to find an audience. I mean, c'mon, the number from CURTAINS was about as trite as you can get, both musically and visually. SA is... well, SA, something packaged remarkably well but nothing more than packaging. Of those not shown on the broadcast, LEGALLY BLONDE? Cute and mindless and alwayts very aware of being cute and mindless. XANADU? God help us if the "cheap injoke musical" trend goes one more foot beyond this. Between these and all the revivals scheduled for next year, I keep wondering who's gonna step up as the next Sondheim. So far, the choices are pretty slim.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:51pm

I would say that in Jason Robert Brown and Adam Guettel, the future of composition rich theatre will have a place in the future of Broadway.

[jam_man]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:55pm

kyleorlando, are wondering what we have to look foreward to as far as rock musicals? Because in all of your examples (other than maybe the 80s) had shows that followed that were nothing like the rock shows you mentioned, but were VERY good shows, some of them great shows. I think you may be on to a semi-valid point, but I'm not sure 100% of what you're saying.

[LittleFish8386]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 5:58pm

I'm really confused. So after the aftermath of Jersey Boys no one was worried?

[kyleorlando]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 6:19pm

kyleorlando, are wondering what we have to look foreward to as far as rock musicals? Because in all of your examples (other than maybe the 80s) had shows that followed that were nothing like the rock shows you mentioned, but were VERY good shows, some of them great shows. I think you may be on to a semi-valid point, but I'm not sure 100% of what you're saying.

I think what I'm getting at is every few years a rock musical comes along, but there doesn't seem to be a follow through in the medium. So once a decade or so, there is a Hair, Rent or SA that gets hailed as a great new sound, but nothing really follows in the next few years.

I'm not really counting the jukebox musicals in this equation. With a couple of exceptions, they really are just glorified concerts with a weak book.

Updated On: 6/11/07 at 06:19 PM

[jv92]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 7:38pm

We have tons of little obsessive fans called "Springies" to look forward too.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 7:45pm

Who the hell says "Springies?"

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 7:48pm

You forgot JCS and Evita...

Anyway, that's why I'm praaaying that Adam Guettel starts a new project soon.

[jv92]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 7:48pm

"Who the hell says "Springies?""

Can you think of a better name? I can't really.

[Jellylorum]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 8:14pm

I'm part of the target audience for SA, and I'm not looking forward to listening to SA being blasted throughout the dorms in addition to Rent and Wicked.

I hope that the members of the SA cast go on to do shows that usually don't appeal to the fangirl crowd, so as to expose people to more types of shows. For instance, some people I know who normally wouldn't like You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown listen to the album because Anthony Rapp is in it.

Updated On: 6/11/07 at 08:14 PM

[jam_man]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 8:21pm

Well, I thought they were called The Guilty Ones?

[theaterfan194]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 8:25pm

I would just like to say to everyone on this board...
THE TONY"S ARE JUST AN AWARD SHOW PRESENTED BY PRODUCERS TO AWARD SHOWS WITH a "HONOR" (look at wicked 100% capacity no tony) and to gain national exposure...

can we all just calm down. spring awakening is not the death of broadway.

Broadway is alive and well.. there are many hard working men and women who will make sure that excellent shows will always grace the boards..

So the incessant whining on the BWW board has just got to stop...

i am at work all day reading post after post

"grey gardens was robbed in a way only comprable world genocide"

"congratulations to spring awakening the worlds greatest musical and to anyone who doesent think so... NANANANAHHHHHH!!!!! (WE WON BETCHES)"

"spring awakening is the anti-christ that will both destroy broadway and the inner trenches of my soul"

"raul losing is a sign of the death of my first born child... i am now planning a ninja assault of DHP"

The people on this board have honestly proven themselves to be more dramatic than the actors..

sorry i just had to rant!!
Updated On: 6/11/07 at 08:25 PM

[kyleorlando]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 8:43pm

Jeez. People let it go.

I was hoping to stimulate a conversation about a pattern that I noticed regarding rock musicals on Broadway. Not turn this into a thread with fanboys/girls making snarky comments and then other people bitching about the fanboys/girls.

Thanks for the posters who actually posted with something to say about this topic. I appreaciate it.

Otherwise, I'm sorry I even brought the whole thing up.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 8:44pm

Did no one listen to Jack O'Brien on the Tonys?

"Now let's not have anymore nonsense on the state of the theater".

[jv92]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 8:47pm

We're not complaining about the state of the American theatre. There's plently of great stuff.

[Rotel1026]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 10:07pm

How are you taking the Tony winners for best musical as a sign of some sort of backlash. To me, a backlash would be something like a great rock musical having been written any of those years between the other rock musicals you mentioned and that show either not being nominated even though everyone felt it deserved it, or got nominated and lost to a musical that wasn't worthy of the prize. Or something along the lines of a great rock musical being produced and people staying away from it because rock musicals are so last year. But just because a rock musical didn't get produced/awarded doesn't mean it's a backlash, just means no one wrote it and it they did, it wasn't good enough to be produced/nominated.

And anyone else think Rent and Spring Awakening sound much more like pop than rock?

[Dirty_Rotten_Guy]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 10:15pm

Yeah, I don't consider either true "rock" musicals.

And thats a pretty interesting trend you saw, kyleorlando. I don't see it as a deliberate or you might say 'influential' trend, but still interesting.
Basically, I don't see more "rock" musicals being made, or less "rock" musicals being made after SPRING. I just see it as one show, not any 'revolutionary' work.

if that made sense.

[kyleorlando]

Posted: 6/11/07 at 10:22pm

I just noticed a pattern. I think some great rock musicals have been created that will never see the light of day on Broadway (The Grail for one, and a rock version of Homer's Odyssey the was produced in Atlanta about a decade ago).

IT just seems to me that after a show with a real rock and roll score hits the New York boards, then we have a few more years of either pop Broadway or old-fashioned musical comedy that are the hits. Jukebox musicals have been in fashion now for some time. And don't get me wrong, I've loved some of them. Some of them were tripe, though.

It's like the producers don't trust the audience when it comes to a rock and roll sound. Look how many producers Spring Awakening had. It took a village to get this show to New York.

And it's not just Broadway. One of the recent long running shows in Boston was "Respect: A Musical Journey". I enjoyed it, I really did. But frankly, I'd seen it before in "Beehive".