Thursday, February 21, 2008
B'WAY'S 'STRANGE' MINDS
New York Post: "THERE'S something of a generational and cultural disconnect backstage at 'Passing Strange,' the hip new musical in previews at the Belasco Theatre."
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3 comments:
It seems like more and more musical theatre is moving in a totally different direction. I'm not sure where it started, maybe Avenue Q, but it's like this upward trend to make things unexpected and against the audience's expectations. I'm not sure how I feel about this new trend. I think it produces great shows and bad shows. At least the greats will hopefully always be the greats.
I think this new direction for musical theatre really dates back 40 years now, to Hair, and more recently with Rent 12 years ago. I think that come Tony time in a few months, we may see some of the lesser known musicals of the past season, such as this and In The Heights, be the big contenders rather than the big money, but critically panned, musicals like Mermaid and Young Frankenstein. I had been curious about what would fill this void that was left by such disappointing musicals this past year, but I think the big musicals of this season have just been released, or are still yet to be released.
From what I understand, this new direction in musical theatre seems to not just be the insane spectacles of the movie-remake genre, but seems to be a series of separate branches from a core of spectacle as well as something "fresh" and new. The revival genre will probably never die, but will it grow too old for the newer generations?
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