Your Favorite "Lost" Musicals?

[Kad]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 10:22am

The thread about Secret Life of Bees got me wondering- what are some of your favorite musicals that are, for lack of a better term, "lost"- shows that debuted somewhere but never transferred to Broadway or had larger productions, shows that were never recorded, shows that almost never are produced and have been largely forgotten?

I'm very partial to the score of César Alvarez's Futurity, which was done at Ars Nova in 2015 but subsequently has never really been seen again despite winning several Lortels and garnering positive notices.

[valebal7]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 10:34am

"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" - it premiered at La Jolla Playhouse and never made it to Broadway.  Real shame!

[gibsons2]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 10:42am

Sing Street immediately came to mind. At least I still can listen to the cast recording. I really loved that show at NYTW.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 10:50am

Prometheus Bound.

[nativenewyorker2]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 10:53am

ABC’s Gepetto the musical lol

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 11:48am

The Verona Project, a Fanciful, a queer, folk-rock actor-musician adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona that I saw at California Shakespeare Theatre a decade ago and seems to have never been done again. A shame, it was lovely.

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 12:10pm

Rebecca, truly

Before LOTR came back, the lushness of that original three act production

Am I wrong for missing Millie? I know it's just back in limbo, but I hope we'll see it again one day.

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 12:18pm

GottaGetAGimmick420 said: "Am I wrong for missing Millie? I know it's just back in limbo, but I hope we'll see it again one day."

This is a conversation about shows that played out of town but never made it to Broadway. While MILLIE licensing may be restricted currently, it's by no means a "lost" musical and had 15 years of robust licensing.

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 12:24pm

“Rebecca, truly

Before LOTR came back, the lushness of that original three act production

Am I wrong for missing Millie? I know it's just back in limbo, but I hope we'll see it again one day.”

 

Lost? All of these have cast recordings and produced often. 

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 12:47pm

It’s not my favorite , because I’ve barely heard it, but I really want to familiarize myself with The Dead.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 1:02pm

Funny, I was going to say “The Dead”, too. It’s in my top 5 favorite musicals and whenever I mention it to almost anyone, they have no clue what I’m talking about. So I guess maybe it is a “lost” musical. I just can’t believe it hasn’t been done in almost 25 years now. Every christmas, I wish someone would decide to do a limited run. I said in another thread recently how I’d love for Colin Firth to play Gabriel so maybe if I keep saying it, it’ll happen. 

And I also need Mary Beth Peil as Aunt Julia. 

Updated On: 10/3/24 at 01:02 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 1:29pm

The Dead is high on my list too.

I also loved Happiness, Michael Korie and Scott Frankel's follow-up to Grey Gardens, which played at Lincoln Center in 2009. I was told by someone involved in that production that a recording was made, but it's never been released, and the script was only published for licensing last year.

Updated On: 10/3/24 at 01:29 PM

[raddersons]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 1:49pm

Rags Parkland Sings Songs of the Future, at Ars Nova in 2018. There was a commercial run planned at some point but it was cancelled .

[Jarethan]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 2:11pm

Not sure i knw what a lost musical is, but I would say that two old, quick flops which I thought were great were Drat! The Cat! in about 1965 (She Touched Me was the most famous song in a delightful score) and Darling of the Day in around 1968.  It has a score by Jules Styne and Yip Harburg that was delightful, won Patricia Routledge a Tony, and ran for 32 performances.  Neither should have disappeared.  

Updated On: 10/3/24 at 02:11 PM

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 2:16pm

Oh wow, I forgot about The Dead! Such an interesting piece, and the desolate nature of the Belasco at the time fit it perfectly. 
 

I throughly enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees and wished it had a greater life. 

[MCfan2]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 2:18pm

Little Dancer.

[darquegk]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 2:52pm

Smile: as far as I know, the Hamilsch/Ashman musical has never had a major AAA production of its "finished" version. I think even Encores presented the original Broadway version, not the rewritten one with the synthesizer-based reference recording.

Pokemon- Gotta Catch 'Em Live: the score is incredibly catchy but the book is BAAAAAAD. If this one had a spruced up book (what I wouldn't give for that job), it would do SpongeBob numbers in licensing.

A Fine and Private Place: a sweet little chamber musical about the space between life and death. Unfortunately it wound up in a legal battle with the state of novelist Peter S. Beagle, so I doubt we'll be seeing this one ever again.

Bohemia!: in the early days of internet file sharing and torrenting, I had an audio bootleg of this satirical revue from Florida. I don't know if it was an official Disney Cast Members theatre company or just something staged in their community, but the concept seemed to be "songs from 'adult' musicals, winkingly cleaned up and Disneyfied." It was downloaded from a torrent on Demonoid, then a fairly popular site. By the time I remembered this show and looked it up, I could find nothing about it, and the torrent itself was long gone. This would have been somewhere between 2000 and 2008, no later. Updated On: 10/3/24 at 02:52 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 3:38pm

There is a recording of A Fine and Private Place (a show I also like quite a lot)

https://www.amazon.com/Fine-Private-Place-Premiere-Recording/dp/B0002D5XZC

[Julie Yard]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 3:51pm

Thank you for reminding me about A Fine and Quiet Place. I loved this and think I had a CD? Is that possible? 

And at LCT3 there was In the Green. It has some beautiful music. 

[TheSassySam]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 4:15pm

I would love to see Smile someday. 

I've always been fascinated by the musical Merlin, but Doug Henning's estate would never allow for a revival.  

I was lucky to see a regional production of LaChiusa's Little Fish a few years ago. I loved it!

[ChiDoc]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 6:17pm

In addition to the Smile answers above, even though neither of my following choices technically fits the prompt: I really enjoy both the novel and film Giant, so even though I've only ever heard one song from the score, it's a show I would be very interested in.  And I would love a full-fledged Golden Apple revival, because that score!

[WindyNewYorker]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 8:28pm

“The Blue Flower” (2011 Second Stage Theatre)

“Soft Power” (2019, Public Theater)

 

Updated On: 10/3/24 at 08:28 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 8:55pm

I loved “The Blue Flower”! That’s a show I really wish a cast recording existed. 

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 9:36pm

I don’t know if they’re still working on the Bedwetter, but I remember when I saw it being eager for a recording so I could sit with the score. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 9:44pm

Not a lost “show” so much as a lost variant, but during that same file-sharing era I was given a audio bootleg of a Pippin revival that was labeled as East West but wasn’t. It featured an upbeat EDM and dance based orchestration. Maybe an Alex Lacamoire?

Anyway, it was very cool and I wish it had a proper cast recording.