| re: Thoughts on why playwrights like NEIL SIMON have become irrelevant on Broadway? | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 11:00 am EST 11/30/17 | |
| In reply to: Thoughts on why playwrights like NEIL SIMON have become irrelevant on Broadway? - NJGUY 10:39 am EST 11/30/17 | |
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| It was a different time, when 35-45 new plays opened each season, and 7 or 8 musicals. They were sitcoms. Plays like MARY,MARY; CACTUS FLOWER; the Simon Ouevre etc were everywhere. Now new plays are mostly done by MTC, the Vineyard, the Public, et al, and Broadway does musicals and plays from London. One of the many reasons that VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE was such a huge hit on Broadway (it could have run another 6 months at least, should have, that's another story for another time) was it was actually a comedy, and a good one! We had seen so few in recent years. In the decade prior to and including the year of VSMS, only 35 'comedies' opened on Broadway. But if we look for actual comedies, and not plays like Dividing the Estate and VElocity of Autumn which show up on IBDB as comedies - real comedies - plays whose purpose is in large part to be happy funny - we find only 4 plays that ran 150 or more performances in that decade - and only one American play - VSMS. The others were GOD OF CARNAGE (london by way of paris), 39 Steps (London), and ONE MAN TWO GUVNORS (london). Lets keep in mind that back when plays were important to Broadway, the runs were longer. LIFE WITH FATHER (3,224); TOBACCO ROAD 3,182; ABIES IRSIH ROSE 2,327; GEMINI 1,819; DEATHTRAP 1,793; HARVEY 1,775; BORN YESTERDAY 1,642; MARY MARY 1,572; VOICE OF THE TURTLE 1,557; SAME TIME NEXT YEAR 1,453; ARSENIC AND OLD LACE 1,444; BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS 1,299; ANGEL STREET 1,295; CACTUS FLOWER 1,234; SLEUTH 1,222; TORCH SONG TRILOGY 1,222; EQUUS 1,209; AMADEUS 1,181. I don't know that we will ever see a play top 1,000 performances ever again - or even get to 800 performances if truth be told. Certainly the record of longest running play in Broadway history, held by LIFE WITH FATHER, will never be topped. |
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| Previous: | re: life was difficult back then - jeffef 03:21 pm EST 12/01/17 |
| Next: | re: Thoughts on why playwrights like NEIL SIMON have become irrelevant on Broadway? - keikekaze 04:22 pm EST 11/30/17 |
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