I don't think it's fair to categorise peoples' desire to see/hear less popular musicals in the Encores! season as "unrealistic expectations". That was the original mission of Encores! and except for a few debatable selections they presented rarely-heard shows with scores that may have exceeded their books. It was a mishmash of fairly well-known classics (Pal Joey, The Boys from Syracuse, Wonderful Town) and some genuinely obscure titles (Allegro, Out of This World, Tenderloin). But then Chicago- twenty years after its roughly year-and-a-half long run in 1975- proved to be a huge hit and began a now- 25 year (?) run on Broadway and around the world.
After that it seemed that every Encores! concert production was mooted as the next Chicago and more and more tried-and-true titles that had had either long runs or were established succes d'estimes were being included in the programming. Shows that were well up the Broadway Long Run List like Promises, Promises, 1776, Me and My Girl and Into the Woods were getting included and the whole enterprise seemed changed and many of us missed the opportunity to see something like Love Life.
I'm looking forward to seeing Ruthie Ann Miles in Light in the Piazza, too, but I wish it was being done as a "modern classic" like LuPone's Gypsy was and not as part of the regular programming.
Oliver! is, of course, even more unnecessary, although in terms of original run or revival run, it has never been a megahit on Broadway as it was in London in several iterations. |
