the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

#1

the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 3:13pm

???????????

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Current Avatar:The sensational Aaron Tveit in the soon to be hit production of Catch Me If You Can.

#2

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:04pm

Caroline or Change
Urintown
Angels in America
August Osage County
Sweeney Todd Revival
Sunday in the Park...Revival
Macbeth Revival
In The Heights
Spring Awakening
Avenue Q

#3

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:06pm

Wasn't Angels in America in the 20th century?

Anyhoo, Spring Awakening and Passing Strange.

#4

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:08pm

What exactly was innovative about PASSING STRANGE?

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"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/

#5

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:17pm

They wrote a musical that was unabashedly intelligent and funny and didn't care what people thought, among other reasons.

#6

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:34pm

isn't that what almost every musical is set out to do?

#7

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:39pm

LEGALLY BLONDE, THE LITTLE MERMAID, and crap of that ilk don't.


I'd add anything by the Wooster Group.

Ivo Van Hove's revivals.

Charles Mee's productions.

Its a big list but Broadway really isn't the place to look for "innovative".

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"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#8

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:45pm

Caroline or Change (For the score. But loved everything about the show!)

Stuff Happens (I like that the script was based on what might have been said behind closed doors)

Adding Machine (Have only heard it, so for it's score)

Fuerzabruta (For the whole production)

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Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

Updated On: 7/25/08 at 04:45 PM

#9

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:46pm

bare?

#10

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:49pm

METAMORPHOSES

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"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#11

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 4:49pm

BARE crossed my mind, but I don't know that I found it to be "innovative". I loved it though.

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Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#12

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 5:04pm

We're only 8 years in. lol

Honestly, the only ones that are REALLY innovative would be Avenue Q, Urinetown, and Spring Awakening.

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"It's the little things; the details, that distinguish the Barbra Streisands from the Rosalyn Kinds."~Gilmore Girls~

#13

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 5:16pm

I meant to include Urinetown. I had to see it twice. Excellent show.

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Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#14

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 5:18pm

I second Metamorphoses.

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"Oh look at the time, three more intelligent plays just closed and THE ADDAMS FAMILY made another million dollars" -Jackie Hoffman, Broadway.com Audience Awards

#15

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 5:18pm

This is a very broad topic...innovative in terms of what? Topic? Production? Writing? Technical aspects? Performances?

#16

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 5:21pm

Urinetown
The Light In The Piazza

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"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop

#17

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 5:24pm

I guess you could say Sweeney Todd revival. I know some people didn't like it, but you have to admit that what John Doyle did WAS innovative.

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"It's the little things; the details, that distinguish the Barbra Streisands from the Rosalyn Kinds."~Gilmore Girls~

#18

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 5:27pm

WICkED, I agree, that's why I specified things for each show I listed in my 1st post.

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Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#19

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 7:04pm

"...and there were 94 years to go!"

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Other than that, did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?

#20

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 7:22pm

hahah neverandy.

#21

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 7:32pm

NEVERANDY, I WAS GOING TO SAY THE SAME THING!!!!!!

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Some people paint, some people sew, I meddle.

#22

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 8:32pm

I happen to believe that Woman in White is #1.

First show to rely solely on projections, and paved the way for shows that actually got great reviews for them such as Sunday... .

#23

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 9:20pm

Obviously it depends on how one classes innovation...as people have said, there are a list of different categories.

In The Heights is the first of its kind to reach the critical + commercial success that it has.

Wicked in terms of spectacle, is pretty innovative. You could argue that the fact the story revolves around two women is pretty uncommon, if not...the only.

Spring Awakening, Avenue Q and Bare are contenders too i'd say.

#24

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 9:52pm

What was so innovative about Doyle's sweeney? Unless by "innovative" you mean completely unintelligible.

#25

re: the 10 Most Innovative Shows of the 21st Century

Posted: 7/25/08 at 10:50pm

Doyle's Sweeney Todd for sure. It was a completely new concept for Broadway.

Also you have to admit, Wicked started the trend of shows painting their actors green

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Upcoming Shows: Quilters, A Bronx Tale, August: Osage County, Wicked, Spring Awakening, Little House on the Prairie

Updated On: 7/25/08 at 10:50 PM