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Wednesday, October 25, 2017
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The end of this article asks, "What Broadway musical are you most excited for?" So I want to take a moment to answer that. I would have to say that my favorites revolt somewhere between Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Once on this Island. I want to see Once on this Island because the show always has room for vastly different and innovative designs for any production of it, a production that I'm sure will have a go-bo marathon throughout. In addition, this is the perfect for Lea Salonga's style of storytelling and her voice, this proaction is sure to be a hot for the entire family. What makes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child so pleasing is that the current advertisements stray away from selling it as a magical experience, rather its very delicately marketed as a drama that relies on its plot line and nostalgia rather than take the magic show route. I'm excited for the differences in style that's happening on broadway and I can't wait to check it out.
Well, I guess I’m not quite a theatre nerd since I only knew 8 out of the 10 upcoming shows. This is a nice idea to post something like this every so often because not everyone keeps up with the latest news for Broadway shows. This article is also refreshing because it is only lists shows that are confirmed, have a theatre booked, and have a date attached to the project. I’ve seen other theatre news sites post lists like this before but they often list projects that writers have said that they are interested in or are starting to explore, nothing confirmed. Some of these shows I have known about for a long time or even know people that have worked on them, such as Frozen, Junk, and Once on this Island. I was not aware of the My Fair Lady revival but it feels very much in the same spirit of My Fair Lady. I do wish that this article would give a few more details so such as producers or theatres attached to the project.
It interesting to see that most of the new shows that are on Broadway are either movie adaptations of revivals of classic broadway shows. This seems to be a common themes in the entertainment industry currently, if you look at TV there are multiple new shows that are based off a earlier movie such as Leathol Weapon, Rush Hour, Minority Report, and Macgyver. With the TV example I understand why this tends to happen because it feels like less of a risk to use a set of characters and plot that has already proven to have a fan base and has received good reactions. I'm curious however if that same mentality is going into the thought of why there are more and more adaptations of movies finding their way to the Broadway Stages. If it is so what type of benefit does one reap if they are working with movie adaptations? Cause it seems to me that it would be a fairly difficult to transfer movies to stage well.
I think it’s always fun to see which shows are coming around this year. This provides an impressive list and looks at some of the shows coming to us this year. I am both impressed and surprised by some of the items on this list. Looking at the SpongeBob show, I have done some other research into it, and I’m pleasantly surprised at the look of the costumes and set for the show. I also heard great things about the overall tech process that frozen is going through at this time. For some of these other shows that it is not the first time they will be seen on stage, it will be interesting to see what new interpretations and refreshing looks are brought to the shows such as my fair lady and once on this island.
Not gonna lie I'm pretty excited about almost all of these musicals except for My Fair Lady. I feel like it's just trying to ride off the coat tails of the success of the recent Hello Dolly revival and might not really bring anything new to the table. The Jimmy Buffet musical seems a little silly but maybe it will be a fun show I do like that this season there is a good mix of musicals that appeal to a wide range of audiences. There are musicals for kids like Frozen and Spongebob (not that I don't also want to see them) and musicals for older crowds as well. Perhaps that will help make the upcoming Broadway season more appealing to everyone. The show that I'm the most excited for is Once on this Island. I LOVE this musical and I have ever since my cringey middle school theatre kid days, and this love is only amplified by the fact that Lea Salonga is playing Erzulie.
Out of the top ten line up of upcoming Broadway shows I think the ones I’m most excited about is Mean Girls, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Once this Island. While I am excited about the prospects as a musical mean girl, my only skepticisms is that will will be a mean version of legally blonde. But i have high hopes. I expect it to be even more sassy and bitchy that the movie. As a theater designer I am really interested to see the new SpongeBob musical because its in my esthetic. I love shows that are not based in reality as we know it! I really how there are some really good cartoons to be transferred to the stage when its my turn to design a broadway show. And finally I’m excited to see Once on this Island because it was my first show to ever design back in high school. Back then I did the JR. version so the storyline is a little veg for me but its even more exciting to see such a notable black broadway show come back to broadway.
It is so interesting to read this article as half of them have already started performing and the others are about too. One of the best things is that Junk has opened and closed on Broadway since this article has been published. Once on this island to me was the biggest plot twist of the season. I thought with them opening in December and not running that long in the original run would have the show closed. I was wrong, with such great direction and the shows elements working really well the show is doing extremely well. Frozen looks great and just started previews and the set and costume design look great. I am excited to see how Mean Girls does. The show did its out of town tryout and many friends said it was not that great. The songs were not that great and they just copied scenes from the movie. Hopefully with some time off the show will get even better!
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