With the Tony Awards this weekend, and looking at the state of the past few Broadway seasons, it's just movie adaptation, after movie adaptation. Jukebox musical after jukebox musical. And I know it's not a new phenomena, but it does feel few and far between that we get a musical that wasn't based on a popular movie or singer. It's just got me asking where are all of the original musicals?
I know the theater is still recovering after COVID. I know how expensive it is to stage a show on Broadway right now. The New York Times published an article about it last year. (Though one thing they left out was the rent of the theaters. That could be something to look at.) You can see it in the number of productions opening each season being fewer and fewer. And that it's harder to get audience members in. But I think going for the popular movie-to-stage adaptation is the lazy way of dealing with it.
Now, I said popular for a reason. Not all adaptations are the same. There are some musicals that you wouldn't even know were adapted from a source material. Hamilton is an adaptation of the Ron Chernow biography. Sweeney Todd is an adaptation of a play. If you go all of the way back to the beginnings of the book musical with Show Boat, there have been adaptations made for the musical stage. Books, other plays, and eventually motion pictures. It's just the glut of them recently, and that most of them are not successful. And I don't just mean financially, though that too. It's all just what Intellectual Property they have, and how they can make money with it.
To be clear, I'm not saying that these movie adaptations or jukebox musicals can't be good, or fun. Everyone loves Mamma Mia. I had a blast at Moulin Rouge. Was a good portion of that because I finally got to see Aaron Tveit on stage? Maybe. But it was fun. It also had the advantage of coming in as a musical in structure, only needing minor story changes and some song updates to include more recent songs. Most adaptations are at a disadvantage, because they are trying to add songs into an already completed and established story that people know and love as it originally was.
The adaptations that are more interesting to me are the ones that are not obvious choices. I sometimes like to looks at the Upcoming Shows page on Playbill, and there are adaptations in development that are interesting choices. Sara Bareilles is developing an adaptation of a Meg Wolitzer novel, The Interestings. There are also shows premiering off-Broadway this season that are intriguing to me. At PAC NYC, Jennifer Nettle's Giulia: The Poison Queen of Palermo, which she wrote and is starring in, is inspired by a true story in history. And this fall at The Shed, Lynn Nottage and John Legend are adapting Imitation of Life at The Shed this fall, the 1933 Fannie Hurst novel that had been adapted into films in 1934, starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers, and in 1959, directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Lana Turner and Juanita Moore. Two different adaptations of the same work. None of these are titles or stories that are well known by the general public, so it doesn't feel the same as something like Back to the Future or The Lost Boys. These shows would be the first time these stories are being told for them, there's nothing for the to compare it to or love first.
I just want to see more original musicals. Stories that I haven't seen before. Stories where there are discoveries when you go to the theater. Not waiting to see how they translate the story I already know. I know a part of that is the out of town tryout and figuring out what's going on with the regional theater, and developmental workshops, make sure that those avenues are properly funded. And we have to provide support to the artists so that they can make the new musical. Theater can't just survive on movies, jukeboxes, and revivals, it's not sustainable for the future of Broadway, and the future of the art form. We need to find a way for costs to come down, without sacrificing paying those who work on these shows a livable and deserved wage. Again, theater rent is something to look at. But what we really need is robust public and private funding for the arts. Not just theater, but all of the arts. So many artists are able to survive while they're starting out is because they are able to access grants or other avenues of funding and resources. That is what we need to battle the glut of intellectual property taking over Broadway and everywhere else.
Honestly, I blame all this thinking on rewatching the PBS docuseries, Broadway: The American Musical from 2004. It's all on YouTube, and it's really worth a watch. You can really learn about Broadway history and how we got to this point. Though the documentary ends with Wicked preparing to open, it really does lay out where we are now. It traces the beginnings of Broadway, from vaudeville to musical revues, the introduction of the book musical, through to the blockbuster musicals of the 80s, and when