Musicals are a funny thing. Some people consider them to high culture entertainment others, the tacky trash of stage medium. Yes, there are a great many varying opinions on the quality of entertainment found on the Great White Way, I find it is best judged on a case by case basis. Or, at least broken down into smaller groups so we can easily determine what should be celebrated and what should be stopped at all costs.
Big Boy's Game?
For about a decade now the popular wisdom regarding Broadway shows is that you need to have name attached at some level in order to be a success. Whether it is a proven star, producer, or writer if you're trying to put on a show with a bunch of nobodies you might as well schedule the closing date at the same time you do your opening night.
There are certainly plenty of examples to back this wisdom up. But, shows that received critical acclaim and were awarded with early closes are nothing new. The same goes for shows that find success thanks in no small part to having a big name attached or popular source material.
Going back decades, The King and I, West Side Story, My Fair Lady are all based on pre-existing material. Sure it is tough to get smaller productions onto Broadway and onto Broadway for a long time, but that has always been rare.
Money, Money, Money!
Well, its been 2 years, time for another revival of Les Miserables.
The two things that have truly changed about Broadway in the last 10-15 years are extra-long running productions and the revival. The latter is pretty obviously going to become more common as years go by. The more big shows there are, the more revivals there are going to be down the line.
When it comes to the Broadway mega-show that lasts and lasts (ala, Lion King, Wicked, and Phantom of the Opera) these productions are the only truly new thing about Broadway. Of the 10 longest running Broadway productions only ONE closed before 1990 (Oh, Calcutta) and four are still running. Breaking 1,000 performances on Broadway used to mean your show was a smash hit, now if you don't reach 1,000 many would consider it a failure.
The longest running Rogers and Hammerstein show of all time, Oklahoma!'s 2,212 performances is only good enough for #29 on the all-time list.
This new reality ultimately means less theaters for shows to play if they are tied up in longer engagements. In spite of this, however, the number of new shows released onto Broadway every year hasn't tailed off much. This means slightly higher turnover between shows. This turnover gives the appearance of a lower success rate, but in fact, the exact opposite is true with shows running longer and making more money than ever.
I, for one, have never been a fan of the big "Disney" productions like Wicked or Mamma Mia but just because they're watered down and safe doesn't mean they're destroying Broadway.
Broadway is at its best when it is doing something you can't see someplace else. This, of course, is a big reason why the returns are so greatly diminished when a classic Broadway show is transposed to another medium (cough*The Producers*cough).
Theater has always been a medium for intimacyy and that intimacy is lost when you pack a theater with 3,000 people to watch Idina Menzel fly around in green makeup.
Adele Dazeem filling in for Idina Menzel.
But you know what, maybe, MAYBE the success of big shows like Wicked help producers make the money to put out the lesser known shows that sometimes turn into greats like Avenue Q (which actually beat out Wicked for the Best Musical Tony). Maybe, without one we couldn't have the other.
It's not always what we want, but it might just be what we need. Don't worry about Broadway, it's doing just fine.
Actually, nevermind, screw Wicked.
K.H. MacLean | 
