With spring approaching, the truth that finest sums up this weird Broadway season?
There are three new musical comedies about corpses: “Dead Outlaw,” “Operation Mincemeat” and “Death Becomes Her.”
Not far off, the romantic leads of essentially the most acclaimed present of the previous a number of months, “Maybe Happy Ending,” are singing robots.
Of the extra conventional fare, the 2 jukebox bio-musicals that characteristic beloved previous songbooks don’t rejoice enviornment phenoms like Michael Jackson or Tina Turner.
No, the respective focuses of “A Wonderful World” (closing Feb. 23) and “Just In Time” are Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin, each of whom died within the early Seventies and performed the Copa.
Welcome to the 12 months of the Underdog.
Each season has a number of scrappy tuners that reduce by Broadway’s confetti canons with grit and coronary heart. Assume Greatest Musical winners “Avenue Q,” “Spring Awakening” and the more moderen “Kimberly Akimbo.”
However the 2024-2025 crop has no Goliath for them to overcome. It’s a crowded pack of artsy Davids clutching rocks, able to hurl ‘em at each other. But they can’t all come out celebrated, or unscathed.
Worryingly, many of the 14 new musicals — far too many as soon as once more — require a prolonged clarification for ticket-buyers as to what they really are. There’s solely sufficient time for the elevator pitch if the elevator breaks down.
That’s even true of the comparatively massive ones. For instance, the backstage farce “Smash” is the primary Broadway present I’m conscious of to be primarily based on a drama that NBC canceled after two seasons 12 years in the past. Not precisely “The Producers.”
Flashy “Death Becomes Her” is hilarious, and is promoting nicely to this point. However realistically how a lot gasoline does that campy previous Robert Zemeckis film have left within the tank?
And there’s “Boop!,” a likable present through which the Nineteen Thirties cartoon character Betty Boop involves life in modern-day New York. Says everybody below 30: “Who the hell is Betty Boop?!”
After all, you’re in all probability saying, “Shouldn’t creativity and cleverness be encouraged?” Completely.
“Maybe Happy Ending,” starring Darren Criss as a flirty android, is classy and unique. It began out in South Korea.
And I’ve already seen lots of the upcoming musicals off-Broadway or in different cities. “Dead Outlaw,” with Coen brothers-style path from David Cromer and an angsty country-rock rating, is the perfect of these.
However I assure you that these unusual and quirky productions, many focusing on the identical area of interest viewers, will begin to cannibalize one another. Tickets are costly; punters will choose.
Only one will win the Tony Award for Greatest Musical in June. None being juggernauts, all might want to.
Up to now, everyone is boasting about how critically acclaimed they’re.
Olivier Award winner “Operation Mincemeat,” the story of how a useless physique turned the tides of World Battle II, has been overplaying the Little Engine the May card. Its producers have been shouting “We have 74 five-star reviews in London!” for months (No one right here cares.)
“Outlaw,” about an actual legal who died and have become a carnival mummy, fires again, “We won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award!” (I’m within the Circle, and I don’t even care.)
These two should take care of the feel-good story of the season — “Maybe Happy Ending.” The manufacturing was having cash woes even earlier than opening within the fall, however after rapturous critiques and glowing phrase of mouth it’s now grossing as a lot as $900,000 per week and taking part in to 99% capability.
That’s not nothing. Today, a struggling musical turning issues round is about as widespread as waking as much as discover you abruptly appear to be Brad Pitt.
However the corpse exhibits are coming for it.
Three letters “Dead Outlaw,” “Operation Mincemeat” and “Death Becomes Her” undoubtedly don’t need to turn out to be acquainted with too quickly are R.I.P.
