is broadway dead?

I was wondering as I was reading the recent posts i.e. Britney in Sweet Charity, and it makes we wonder, what is happening to Broadway. Is this art form dead? Or is it just changing and I can’t adjust to the 'new' Broadway? Where will live theater be in the next 15 years, and who is responsible for the change or is it natural, what do you think?

-Horton (a very sad elephant)

i hope you considered that a retorical question...

but NO!

Broadway has a disease. It's called stunt-casting.

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You got to give Broadway a little hope, folks...

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Ask Michael John LaChiusa.

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I definitely feel that things are terribly wrong in the Broadway musical world. With the high cost now involved in producing a musical, no one is willing to take any chances. This particular season is looking particularly dismal and I, for one, would be in favor not giving out awards for the musicals or at least in favor of trimming the categories. What does a Tony Award mean anymore if a bunch of below standard productions are involved? Honestly...why did they even have Best Revival last year? The thought of the contenders for Best Musical this year make me cringe. Perhaps I am being a little harsh but some of the best stuff I have seen in recent years as been in tiny theatres off-off broadway and in readings. I just wish producers would begin to take chances again and put their money into something that is actually good. Okay...I'm off my soap box..I may get a lot of slack for this, but it is honestly the way I feel.

Updated On: 11/20/05 at 12:09 PM

I think you are signaling the death knell for Broadway based on a rumor(which may in fact be credible) that these particular producers who have a reputation for compromising artistic integrity for their own lucrative purposes are up to their old tricks... Fortunately we have contained these contaminants. I believe Broadway is very healthy.

I am not saying that musical theatre is dead...only that Broadway Musical Theatre is definitely in a major slump. Best12bars: "Drowsy Chaperone" could indeed be wonderful...but it is not on Broadway...here's hoping that it makes it but who knows. CreativeLunatic: My opinion is not based on this current rumor. I live in NYC and make it a point to go out and support the theatre as much as I can and I have just been stupified by the lack of good material in the current Broadway Musical scene. Like I said, musical theatre is not dead because I have seen some great productions in the creation process but they never make it to Broadway and I don't understand why.

I don't think the reason for the difference is that hard to get at; Broadway is a tourist draw. Take, for example a show like See What I Wanna See, a more complex piece than the big, long-running commercial successes on Broadway, right? This all lies in the commercialization of Broadway, which is going to feed people (not particularly theatre buffs) what they want to see, and if that's brainless plots with people dancing like fools, then so be it. What makes money is what stays.

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I think Broadway is doing better than it was doing about ten years ago. RAGTIME -vs- LION KING is the last time I felt two legit shows battled it out for the Tony. Either deserved to win, although I felt LION KING had book issues and won for the sheer fact that it was artistically bold and brilliant. RAGTIME was all-together brilliant in every aspect.

AVE Q was an upset over WICKED, but c'mon. Two spectacles with attempting to keep a book in order. In the case of WICKED, a great storyline existed but they muddy it up with all these special effects and over-the-top songs in some cases. AVE Q was the opposite. It couldn't get a book in order. It was about too many things. But almost each and every song was outstanding and told its own story. But the central story holding the show together could have been told in 20 minutes.

URINETOWN lost to THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE. Both are "cute" shows. URINETOWN original and MILLIE based off the film. While I, again, highly enjoyed both, neither was 100% solid. I hate it when the story is put on hold so that "cute" songs and/or dances can be thrown in. URINETOWN was great already. Why mock other musicals (ie WSS and LES MIS)? It was fun, sure, but the point of the show wasn't to mock musicals. It was the story. And the story was lost in those moments.

Yes, I'm very picky. But think about it. When was the last time we had a show that was 100% to the story and didn't add "fluff" - whether it be out-of-place gags, songs, dances, whatever. Think AIDA's "My Strongest Suit." The fashion show. Nuff said.

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Ground-breaking shows have ALWAYS had to fight battles with commercial backers. We just have to pray that the "money people" take the risks once in a while. Historically, they have as well, but it's a big gamble and it doesn't happen often. That's why we usually have to go to Off-Off-Off Broadway to find the gems.

Can you imagine Gershwin, as popular as he was, trying to sell Porgy & Bess to backers? God! "It's an opera... but I want to do it on Broadway... and cast opera singers... and it's an all-black cast... about poor people."

And Rodgers & Hammerstein (who had NO track record writing together) trying to sell Oklahoma by telling their backers, "I know you're used to seeing a big chorus number at the top of every show, with beautiful girls and costumes... but we want to open this show with an old plain woman, sitting alone on stage, churning butter."

Or how about Michael Bennett selling "A Chorus Line." It's a show with no set, no intermission, no overture, and only one costume change at the very end... oh, yeah, and there are no stars in it, and there never can be."

These battles are worth fighting for, tough as they are. We have to struggle with it and be worried about the state of Broadway and "the next level." That's how we ultimately get there.

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Updated On: 11/20/05 at 12:34 PM

Most of the shows I mentioned were big successes as well as innovative and ground-breaking in their day.

It's possible to attract the tourists, the artists, the regular theatre-goers... all to the same show.

But it's rare, yes.

Keep the faith. There's another bus coming along any time now.

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Urinetown's staging satirized very specific musicals, for the most part, shows about the poor, the victimized and downtrodden, like Les Miserables, Oliver, Threepenny Opera, Fiddler on the Roof, etc. The idea behind it is to point out the irony of "serious musicals" charging an audience good money to illustrate the plight of the poor. The authors in their writing undermine all sorts of linguistic cliches (ie: "What an unexpected surprise!" "Is there any other kind?"), and Rando and Carrafa added the cliches of musicals in general as another layer. I disagree that the story was ever lost in the moments of musical parody in Urinetown. It was all a part of the show's general target of dishonesty in popular culture.

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