2018-2019 Season - Original Musicals
Today's selection are original musicals that were not adapted from movies and opened this year (and are still running - I won't bore you with the flops that opened and closed within a month). And the word on all three of these shows is positive - there is just more consensus at the top of the list than at the bottom.
The Prom
At the heart of
The Prom is a ripped-from-the-headlines story of a lesbian high school girl who wants to take her girlfriend to her prom, but the school threatens to cancel the event. But because this is written by bookwriters Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin and composer Matthew Sklar (who all wrote
The Drowsy Chaperone) that is the B story. The main plot involves a pair of self-absorbed Broadway stars who, trying to rehabilitate their image after a big flop, scroll through Twitter to find the story of the young girl from Indiana and decide that "We're gonna help that little lesbian, whether she likes it or not!"
Yes, there are a few digs at the heartland, but most of the satire is reserved for Broadway elites insisting on "helping" a millennial that really can manage this on her own. The script is howlingly funny and the lyrics are sharp. Everyone gets their star turn and the two girls get a couple of lovely ballads.
The Prom really has it all - except stars and a pre-sold title, which has proved to be a challenge drumming up business in a season chock full of nostalgic pop stars and movies.
Hadestown
In 2010, Anaïs Mitchell, a Vermont-based folk singer-songwriter, released
Hadestown, a concept album based on the ancient Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, narrated by the god Hermes (a flashy and grooving André De Shields, who was the original Wiz in
The Wiz). In the warmth of summertime, songwriter Orpheus (Reeve Carney of
Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark) and his muse Eurydice (Eva Noblezada of
Miss Saigon) are living it up and falling in love. But as winter approaches, reality sets in: these young dreamers can't survive on songs alone. Tempted by the promise of plenty, Eurydice is lured to the depths of industrial Hadestown, which looks like a folk and jazz infused Bourbon Street. On a quest to save her, Orpheus journeys to the underworld where he must face the cool and sinister god Hades (Patrick Paige, who was also Reeve Carney's nemesis in
Spiderman) and the lovers trust in each other is put to a final test.
Critics and audiences loved the jazzy underworld, the direction by Rachel Chavkin (
The Great Comet) and especially the performances of De Shields, Paige, and Amber Grey as Hades wife, Persephone. A few found the two lovers rather bland and noted that the score lacks any real upbeat tempos. But everyone found the first act finale "We Build the Wall" rather shocking in it anticipation of current events (it was, of course, written in 2010).
How does the wall keep us free? The wall keeps out the enemy; And we build the wall to keep us free; That's why we build the wall; We build the wall to keep us free.”
Be More Chill
What if popularity came in a pill? Would you take it, no questions asked? In
Be More Chill, achieving the "perfect life" is now possible thanks to some mysterious new technology - a “Squip” (a Japanese microcomputer installed into his brain). But it comes at a cost that's not as easy to swallow. Blending the contemporary with retro sci-fi, this new musical is
Dear Evan Hansen meets
Little Shop of Horrors.
BMC is the little Joe Iconis show that fans wouldn't let go of until it made it to Broadway. It opened to positive to mixed reviews. The pop score is great as are the performances by Will Roland (
Dear Even Hansen) as our hero, Jeremy and Michael Salazar as his best friend. Jason Tam (
A Chorus Line,
Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert) plays The Squip as a mix of Keanu Reeves in
The Matrix and
Bill and Ted. However, in the five years it took to produce the show the cast and the material has aged out of its demographic a bit. It's still fun, but the satire has softened.
That completes the new musicals that are running and will be competing for Tony nominations tomorrow.