Broadway Musicals

By -

What Musicals are playing on Broadway this year:

"13" A young man tries to fit in. A new musical with a score by Jason Robert Brown. Bernard B. Jacobs. This was on a limited run of only 105 performances. Closing in January.

"Avenue Q" Love blossoms among the 20-something set — a group that includes puppets — in this very funny, adult musical comedy. Winner of the 2004 Tony Award for best musical.

"Billy Elliot" A young man in Britain's bleak coal country yearns to dance. A musical based on the hit film.

"Chicago" This Kander and Ebb-Bob Fosse creation is Broadway's longest running musical revival and deservedly so.

"Grease" A revival of the venerable musical celebrating 1950s high school and featuring stars chosen during the recent NBC television reality series.

"Gypsy" A powerhouse Patti LuPone stars as the mother of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee in a revival of one of the greatest of all Broadway musicals.

"Hairspray" The cult John Waters movie set in 1960s Baltimore has been turned into a hilarious, tuneful musical. And Harvey Fierstein is now back in the cast. Closing in January.

"In the Heights" The lively off-Broadway musical about Latino residents in an area of upper Manhattan called Washington Heights moves to Broadway. Winner of the 2008 Tony Award for best musical.

"Jersey Boys" The musical story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Winner of four 2006 Tonys including best musical.

"Mamma Mia!" The London musical sensation featuring the pop songs of ABBA makes it to Broadway. Die-hard ABBA fans will like it best.

"Mary Poppins" The world's most famous nanny comes to the stage after her great success as a P.L. Travers book and a Disney movie.

"Monty Python's Spamalot" A musical inspired by that demented film comedy "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Winner of the 2005 Tony Award for best musical. Closing in January

"Pal Joey" Young Chicago hustler meets older female socialite. A Roundabout Theatre Company revival of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical. The cast includes Stockard Channing, Martha Plimpton and, in the title role, Christian Hoff.

"Shrek The Musical" DreamWorks cinematic green ogre makes it to the stage in this show based on the movie and the William Steig book.

"South Pacific" Kelli O'Hara is nurse Nellie Forbush and Paulo Szot is French plantation owner Emile de Becque in a revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based on one of the short stories in James A. Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific."

"Spring Awakening" A striking rock musical based on Frank Wedekind's classic drama about a dozen young people discovering their sexual identities. Music by Duncan Sheik. Book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Winner of four 2007 Tonys including best musical. Closing in January.

"The Lion King" Director Julie Taymor is a modern-day Merlin, creating a stage version of the Disney animated hit that makes you truly believe in the magic of theater.

"The Little Mermaid" Disney's stage version of its popular animated film about a sea maiden who longs to live on land.

"The Phantom of the Opera" The one with the chandelier. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about a deformed composer who haunts the Paris Opera House is the prime, Grade A example of big Brit musical excess. But all the lavishness does have a purpose in Harold Prince's intelligent production, now the longest-running show in Broadway history.

"White Christmas" A stage version of the classic Irving Berlin movie musical.

"Wicked" An ambitious, wildly popular musical about the witches in "The Wizard of Oz" as young women. Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire.

"Young Frankenstein" Mel Brooks transfers his comedic monster mash of a movie from screen to stage — only with more song and dance. Closing in January.

Disney is doing well with 2 musicals (although you could consider "Mary Poppins" a Disney one as well), so Dreamworks joined in the fray and put up "Shrek the Musical." Mel Brooks did well with "The Producers," but his "Young Frankenstein" didn't fair as well. Revivals are also doing well with "Chicago", "Grease", "Gypsy", "Pal Joey", and "South Pacific." And for some reason "Phantom" is still playing strong.

Winning best musical doesn't mean forever. Both the 2005 and 2007 winners of best musical are closing in January, "Monty Python's Spamalot" and "Spring Awakening." Although, "Hairspray", winner in 2003, "Avenue Q", winner in 2004, and "Jersey Boys", winner in 2006, are still going strong. "Lion King" (1999) and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1988) are the only other previous winners still playing.

Comments

Art said…
That's a helpful list. Just an FYI, Christian Hoff, who did a great job when I saw Pal Joey last week, has had to leave the production because of a foot injury.
November 25, 2008 at 9:34 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more