Why so few new Broadway plays this season?

[buddharich]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 8:43am

I've noticed that there will be lots of REVIVALS this year: "Accent On Youth", "All My Sons", "The American Plan", "A Man For All Seasons", "American Buffalo", "Equus", "Hedda Gabler", "Mary Stuart", "The Seagull" - I'm sure there will be more by next June.

But plays? The off-broadway transfer of "Dividing The Estate", "To Be Or Not To Be" (from England), and "reasons to be pretty" are the only "new" plays I have heard will get broadway productions this year. It really is getting to be musicals and revivals only on Broadway!!

What other plays are going to be produced this season??

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 9:07am

The number of new plays has become decreasing for a long time. Something like August: Osage County is becoming a rarity, if not a downright fluke. Revivals are safer, as at least the product is a known quanity.

As a friend pointed out to me many years ago, the majority of theatregoers -- particularly since the end of WWII and the influx tourists -- go to the theatre to be entertained, not to think.

Updated On: 10/6/08 at 09:07 AM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 9:09am

Were any of us around in 1935 to see the original production of ACCENT?

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 10:30am

Accent on Youth probably had some kind of life in summer stock into the 1950's. I think the concern is that Broadway, for whatever reasons, no longer provides a venue for new works of untested value. For example, even in the late 1940's through 1960's, Broadway would countenance a Camino Real for every Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Broadway was friendlier to new playwrights and was willing to give them a second chance -- think Arthur Miller, who started with Man Who Had All the Luck, then gave Broadway All My Sons and Death of a Salesman. And forget about the sort of thing that was going on in the 1920's, when Eugene O'Neill had a big flop (both commercially and artistically) for every hit and producers continued to back him.

I feel that, with the influx of the tourist trade and more ready access to the Broadway stage, there has been a dumbing down to satisfy the broadest audience possible. Taking a chance on a new playwright no longer seems to be a viable option.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 10:41am

Are there writers who are willing to write for Broadway knowing that one screenplay for Hollywood could bring them more success?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 10:44am

It's shocking to me that a company like MTC would chose to give Richard Greenberg's AMERICAN PLAN a 3rd revival as opposed to a newly commissioned play by NY favorites Adam Rapp or Sarah Ruhl. I was talking to longtime MTC subscribers who saw their first two productions of AMERICAN PLAN who can't figure it out, either.

It's good that they've championed up-and-comers Itamar Moses, Adam Bock, Liz Flahive, and even Lynn Nottage this season, and I'd rather see THE RECEPTIONIST or FROM UP HERE at the Biltmore than AMERICAN PLAN.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/6/08 at 10:50am

It's the Starbucks-ing of people's minds and tastes. Why go to something new when you have the brand name ready-to-serve?