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EVERYTHING NEW IS OLD AGAIN
(continued)
In the 1950s shows like "Paint Your Wagon" (1951), "Plain and Fancy" (1955), and "Destry Rides Again" (1959) ran a few hundred performances and managed a small profit or a slight loss. They were not classics or blockbusters, but they were high-quality entertainments put together by talented professionals, and Broadway was all the better because of them. Today, such shows have to find a home Off Broadway and, when they do move up, as in the case of "James Joyce's The Dead" (2000) or "A Class Act" (2001), they turn from modest efforts to expensive Broadway flops. Sometimes even the hits have trouble. "Sunset Boulevard" (1994) and "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (2002) each won the Tony Award for the best musical of its season and each ran for years on Broadway; yet both closed in the red. It seems there is no room for just success on Broadway; only megahits survive.
The costs of producing musicals are at the root of many of the problems, from the price of tickets to the inability of big musicals to break even, even after a long run. However, for most theatergoers, the joy of the Broadway musical is not something that can be measured in dollars. There is more variety on the Great White Way now than perhaps at any other time in its history. In the 1920s and 1930s, all the musicals were similar. The shows from that period that we revive, such as "Show Boat" (1927) and "Anything Goes" (1934), stand out as unique, but few of the many other offerings were as distinctive or different from the usual. Not so today. Variety seems to be the consistent feature of modern Broadway. The audiences attending "42nd Street" and "Fiddler on the Roof" may not be the same people seeing "Movin' Out" and "Avenue Q" -- and there's no reason they should be.
Just as there is no one kind of Broadway musical today, so too there is no typical theatergoer. When such dissimilar shows such as "Rent," "The Producers," and "The Lion King" are all hits, Broadway is not only healthy but also more diverse and flexible. "Caroline, or Change" and "The Phantom of the Opera" should both be options for Broadway patrons. One musical might make much more money than the other, but together they give Broadway the richness and diversity that makes the American theater so vital.
So maybe everything new on Broadway is not so old after all.
Top banner photos: Tony Award® (photo courtesy Steve and Anita Shevett); cast of "Les Misérables" (Photofest); Gwen Verdon, Jerry Orbach, and Chita Rivera from "Chicago" (Photofest). |
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Jerry Orbach originated the roles of Billy Flynn in "Chicago" and Julian Marsh in "42nd Street." |
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Bebe Neuwirth is starring in "Here Lies Jenny," an Off Broadway revue that runs through September 2004. |
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This program is available on DVD. |
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