It used to be that you could go a Broadway theater to see a play. Oh, you can still go to Broadway, but finding a play to see has become like looking for a turntable for your stereo system. According to the Connecticut Post, this is what's currently playing:
AVENUE Q: Love blossoms among the twentysomething set -- a group that includes puppets -- in this very funny, adult musical...
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: ['nuff said]
CHICAGO: An entertaining revival of the Bob Fosse musical...
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG: The hit London musical...
DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS: John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz star in a musical...
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF: A lavish, loving revival of the classic Bock-Harnick and Robbins musical...
HAIRSPRAY: The cult John Waters movie set in 1960s Baltimore has been turned into a hilarious, tuneful musical...
IN MY LIFE: He's a musician with Tourette's syndrome; she's a journalist with obsessive compulsive disorder. Then they fall in love. A new musical...
MAMMA MIA!: The London musical...
MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT: A musical...
MOVIN' OUT: Songs by Billy Joel. Choreography by Twyla Tharp. A dance musical...
RENT: Jonathan Larson's touching and now nostalgic look at struggling artists in New York's East Village. Lossely based on Puccini's opera "La Boheme".
[I have no idea if Rent is a musical or a play. But it's based on an opera, which makes me nervous. Bueller?]
SWEET CHARITY: Christina Applegate stars as the taxi dancer with a heart of gold in a revival of the Cy Coleman - Dorothy Fields - Neil Simon musical...
THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE: A sweet-tempered, often hilarious new musical...
THE LION KING: ['nuff said.]
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA: The one with the chandelier. The Andrew Lloyd Weber musical...
THE PRODUCERS: A riotous stage version of the Mel Brooks movie. The musical...
WICKED: An ambitious if problematic new musical...
The most interesting one to reproduce in full is the Monty Python's Spamalot piece:
A musical inspired by that dememnted film comedy, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." The cast includes David Hyde Pierce, Tim Curry and Alan Tudyk. Winner of three 2005 Tony Awards, including best musical. Shubert. Telecharge. Difficult.
So, there ya have it. Plays just aren't en vogue on Broadway. You could see the writing on the wall when 42nd Street took over and then A Chorus Line ran a thousand years. Then Annie, Evita and later Cats and then Phantom of the Opera and the list goes on and on. Maybe there's just not enough money to be made in putting on a play anymore.
I guess the play-form is best suited to film nowadays. I mean, when's the last time a musical was a hit at the movies? The film versions of Annie and Evita tanked. And don't get me started on how much The Birdcage sucked, no matter how many people seemed to think it was good. Face it -- the thing had no story to tell. It was just an excuse for Robin Williams and Nathan Lane to camp it up ad absurdum. I walked out half-way through. (Well, I didn't pay for a ticket. It was on A&E last Christmas and it was about time to be heading home anyway.)
Let's get some actual plays back on Broadway, huh?!
Well --- there's always New Haven...
