| re: have there ever been this many major musical revivals competing for Tonys in 1 season?! | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 08:15 pm EST 01/21/23 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:11 pm EST 01/21/23 | |
| In reply to: re: have there ever been this many major musical revivals competing for Tonys in 1 season?! - keikekaze 06:28 pm EST 01/21/23 | |
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| There was the commercial transfer for the 1960 City Center Finian's Rainbow. Admittedly, the plan was to run it through the summer and then tour but I presume had it been doing well, it would have continued. Business, however, was dismal. It is said that the 1960 Equity strike killed it, but business was just awful. But there was also talk of moving that same season's King and I to a commercial Broadway run, but the strike killed that (perhaps along with the poor business for Finian's Rainbow). I think one reason why there were no other commercial revivals between 1954 and 1970 was because it was in 1954 that the City Center Light Opera Company started producing three or four musical revivals every year, admittedly for limited runs of two or three weeks, with occasional extensions or returns later the same season. City Opera in the same venue (and sometimes sharing productions with the Light Opera Company) also produced works like Porgy and Bess, Street Scene, Lost in the Stars and Regina, as well as operettas in English that had been on Broadway, such as Fledermaus and Merry Widow, works that had substantial crossover audience at that time. And between 1964 and 1969, there were the lavish Music Theater of Lincoln Center summer revivals, first with two each summer, and then for the last three years with one each summer. The Annie Get Your Gun, after touring (all the productions for the first few years toured), moved to a regular Broadway house for a limited run (which did not do especially well at the box office, although the summer run had been a smash). Off-Broadway also saw commercially produced open-ended musical revivals, at least two of which were quite successful, and one was moderately successful, while some others flopped. Finally, there was summer stock, some of it barely outside New York City. While Westbury Music Fair generally concentrated on recent Broadway shows, sometimes older ones got summer tours. And there were the big Jones Beach summer musicals, some of which, admittedly, were new shows that were extravaganzas, but others were revivals that could be produced to take advantage of the particulars of that space. And there was more than Westbury and Jones Beach in the New York area. Meanwhile, tourists often had summer stock theatres in or near their home cities and so they got a steady diet each summer. Again, often the newer shows, but sometimes older ones, especially at the big outdoor venues. I think it's not so coincidental that after the deaths of the City Center Light Opera Company and the Music Theater of Lincoln Center, coinciding with the more gradual death of summer stock, we started getting commercially produced musical revivals on Broadway. There was always an audience for musical revivals, but much of that was being satisfied with City Center, Music Theater of Lincoln Center, Jones Beach, and summer stock generally, both in the New York area and around the country. Granted that a major difference was distinctly limited runs. |
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