Why didn't Honk! make it to Broadway?

It's a pretty slight show. Nice for Theatre For Young Audience groups and middle schools, but I can't imagine it would have had a much better run than A Year With Frog & Toad (under 100 performances).

Still sort of baffling that it won the Olivier, but the Oliviers are known for doing weird things like that. But perhaps the English preferred its quaintness over the larger-than-life Lion King and Mamma Mia.

It's a show for a younger audience and those just don't have the best track record on Broadway. I don't know the specifics on why Honk didn't transfer, but it did run in London around the same time Seussical ran on Broadway. That was a family friendly show with a name that failed to find an audience. I can't imagine the ugly duckling musical seemed like a great investment if the Seuss name couldn't sell tickets to families.

I quite like Honk's score, but I think it's one of the few shows that was actually improved by releasing a Jr version. The revised lyrics clearly make it a tya show and it mostly feels in tact with all the cuts. It winds up being a sweet little show about a mother and her child trying to find out where the child actually fits into the world.

I was in that show in a community production back in middle school, and I agree - it needs more appreciation! That said, I do have to say that the British accents on the cast recording I used really do add a lot. Also, it seems to me to be more popular as a show for community youth/school theatre, but who knows...

Awwww, I love HONK. I did it twice. It's just so much fun to do.

As much as I would love to see it on Broadway, I don't think there is a real audience for it. It's "The Ugly Duckling" on Broadway, not a worldwide appeal or a brand name like Disney, Shrek, or even Seussical and YWTAF. The time to hype it up with "HONK beat Lion King & Mamma Mia for Best Musical" has pass. It had its chance to be successful on Broadway in the early 2000s, but now it's too late.

It is having a good life with schools and community theater. Just keep it there for now.



EDIT: Oh. Turns out producers did offer Broadway, but Drewe and Stiles said no.

"We've turned down two Broadway offers. We don't rule it out as a possibility, we just don't want it to spoil what, at the moment, is happening and which we're rather enjoying, which is seeing all these productions around the world now — some at schools, some at community theatres and some at big professional theatres. There are dozens."

http://www.playbill.com/article/musical-honk-continues-its-web-footed-path-across-globe-with-chicago-preem-jan-23-com-103545

Updated On: 9/8/19 at 05:11 PM

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "EDIT: Oh. Turns out producers did offer Broadway, but Drewe and Stiles said no.

http://www.playbill.com/article/musical-honk-continues-its-web-footed-path-across-globe-with-chicago-preem-jan-23-com-103545"

Thanks for tracking down that article! That pretty much explains what happened.