Kenrick , Chapter 15 Spectacles and Boardrooms – “As If We Never Said Goodbye”

Kenrick, Chapter 15Spectacles and Boardrooms –

“As If We Never Said Goodbye”

1980-1999

David Merrick and Gower Champion "The Lullaby of Broadway"

The first musical hit of the 1980s was a musical comedy based on a classic Busby Berkeley film.

42nd Street (1980 - 3,486) re-united producer David Merrick and director Gower Champion – both had suffered a string of failures and needed a hit to restore their reputations.

TV spot for 1980 production

The backstage plot about a chorus girl who takes over for the lead actress on opening night ("You're going out there a nobody, but you've got to come back a star!") was left in place, while the film score was augmented with other vintage songs by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin.Champion's seamless, stage-filling sense of spectacle made this the biggest, boldest musical comedy in decades. When the curtain slowly rose to reveal forty pairs of tap-dancing feet, the star-studded opening night audience at the Winter Garden cheered. Jerry Orbach (as the dictatorial director), Tammy Grimes (as the temperamental star) and Lee Roy Reams (as the bright eyed juvenile) added to the dazzling impact of the show. After years of frustration, Champion was back on top. Pictured at right is the opening night curtain speech. Unknown to the audience and the cast, Champion had died the night before. Merrick announced his death from the stage following the bows.

AIDSFor those who worked in the theatre, AIDS brought personal and professional devastation. Friends, lovers and co-workers died in soul-numbing numbers This was the sort of non-stop grief one expects in wartime. The infuriating thing was that most of America refused to know or care about any of it. In May of 1983, theatre people joined in a candlelight march on New York's Federal Building, one of the first major public rallies calling attention to the AIDS crisis. From early on, the theatrical community organized all sorts of fundraisers, including all-star nights at Lincoln Center, Easter Bonnet competitions and "Broadway Bares" strip shows. Actors on the Tony Awards broadcast were the first to give the red AIDS awareness ribbon national exposure. In time, Broadway Cares and Equity Fights AIDS joined forces to help those living with the disease.

New Musicals

The early 1980s saw some exciting new book musicals both on and off-Broadway. In a variety of styles from flashy spectacle to intimate spoof, each was fresh and entertaining. Some were authored by seasoned professionals, some by exciting newcomers – all were reassuring signs that the American musical theatre was thriving. The more memorable success stories of the era include several musicals that are still frequently produced –

Barnum (1980)Barnum (854) was a rousing circus-style bio of the legendary showman. The raucous Cy Coleman- Michael Stewart score and leading man Jim Dale got the raves, and co-star Glenn Close got her first taste of stardom. "The Colors of My Life" and other songs delighted audiences, but the rock-happy pop music world had no interest in anything written for Broadway, and Coleman's finest score never got the attention it deserved.

Woman of the Year (1981)Woman of the Year (770) boasted a fine John Kander- Fred Ebb score and Lauren Bacall in the title role. Marilyn Cooper, whose mousy housewife character stole the comic duet "The Grass is Always Greener" from the glamorous Bacall. Bacall was replaced during the run by Raquel Welch and Debbie Reynolds.

Dreamgirls (1981)OPENING: December 20, 1981CLOSING: August 11, 1985Imperial Theatre (1522 performances)

AUTHORS Tom Eyen [Book & Lyrics] Henry Krieger [Music]

STAFF Michael Bennett [Producer] Bob Avian [Producer] Geffen Records [Producer] Shubert Organization [Producer]

Michael Bennett [Director] Michael Bennett [Choreography]

Robin Wagner [Settings] Theoni V. Aldredge [Costumes] Tharon Musser [Lighting] Otts Munderloh [Sound]

Jennifer Holliday show-stopper

OPENING NIGHT CAST Cheryl Alexander [Charlene] Linda Lloyd [Joanne] Vondie Curtis-Hall [Marty] Ben Harney [Curtis Taylor, Jr.] Sheryl Lee Ralph [Deena Jones] Larry Stewart [M.C./Mr. Morgan] Joe Lynn [Tiny Joe Dixon/Jerry] Obba Babatunde [C.C. White] Loretta Devine [Lorrell Robinson] Jennifer Holliday [Effie Melody White] Cleavant Derricks [James Thunder Early] Sheila Ellis [Edna Burke] Tony Franklin [Wayne] David Thomé [Frank] Deborah Burrell [Michelle Morris]

Little Shop of Horrors (1982)

Little Shop of Horrors (2,209) was a hilarious Off-Broadway sci-fi spoof by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. Based on Roger Corman's low-budget 1960 film about a man-eating plant from outer space, its fresh score and witty script made the show an immediate hit. It toured the country for years and became a standard part of the musical theatre repertory.

Hunter Foster and Kerry Butler sing "Suddenly Seymour" on Broadway on Broadway.

Nine (1982)Nine (732) - Composer/lyricist Maury Yeston won acclaim with this adaptation of Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8 1/2. Tommy Tune's innovative production cast Raul Julia as an eccentric Italian director trying to make a film while facing his mid-life crisis. Nine won all the major Tonys, besting Dreamgirls for best musical.

My One and Only (1983)My One and Only (767) set vintage songs by George and Ira Gershwin in a new plot about a 1920s romance between an aviator and an aquacade star. The show almost sank in Boston, but star Tommy Tune took over the direction with an assist from A Chorus Line alumni Thommie Walsh. After exhaustive revisions and some rocky New York previews, My One And Only opened to surprise raves. Audiences cheered as Tune and Twiggy splashed through a watery barefoot version of "S'Wonderful," and legendary tap star Charles "Honi" Coles won a Tony as the whimsical "Mr Magix." After almost two years on Broadway, it proved even more popular on national tour.

Some notable failures……many book musicals – including new shows and several high profile revivals – failed quick and hard in the early 1980s. Some examples –

Onward Victoria (1980 - 1) told the story of Victoria Woodhull, a feminist who ran for President in the 1800s despite a scandalous private life. Lavish sets and costumes could not make up for a lifeless score and humorless book, and the show closed on opening night.

Oh Brother (1981 - 3) had plenty of laughs, a great cast and a good score, and those who saw it in previews tended to love it. But re-setting the Shakespearean plot used in Rodgers & Hart's Boys From Syracuse in the strife-torn Middle East did not amuse the critics, and the show closed in days.

Brigadoon (1980 - 141) returned in a flawless production but lacked an established star to attract attention. Martin Vidnovic and Meg Bussert's passionate rendition of "Almost Like Being in Love" remains one of the grandest things this author has ever seen on a stage, but this Brigadoon faded into the mist without returning its costs.

My Fair Lady (1981 - 124) returned for its 25th Anniversary with original star Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins. But "sexy Rexy" was in his 70s, and some of the supporting cast was embarrassingly weak. To make matters worse, the show had enjoyed a far better revival just five years before. The problem with these failures was that the producers had not bothered to ask why anyone would pay $25 to see their particular project.

Merrily We Roll Along (1981)Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim based a 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The story revolves around Franklin Shepard who, having once been a talented composer of Broadway musicals, has now abandoned his friends and his songwriting career to become a producer in Hollywood. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank's life that shaped the man that he is today. Like Sweeney Todd, the show utilizes a chorus that sings reprises of the title song as transitions. The musical closed on Broadway after 52 previews and only 16 performances in 1981 and marked the end of the Harold Prince-Sondheim collaborations until 2003.

“Not a Day Goes By”

TRIUMPH OF THE MEGA-MUSICAL

Cats (1982)Andrew Lloyd Webber and director Trevor Nunn reshaped the theatrical landscape with Cats (7,485), a musical based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. They emphasized aerobic dance, high-tech effects and heavy-duty marketing tactics. Cats premiered in London, then came to New York – where it forced 42nd Street out of the Winter Garden and over to the Majestic Theatre. Lloyd Webber was so certain of the show's success that he co-produced it with Cameron Mackintosh, a move which made both men millionaires.

More a revue than a book musical, Cats depicted a gathering of felines in a garbage-strewn alley where one cat will be allowed to ascend (on an oversized hydraulic tire) "the heavy-side layer" – i.e., kitty heaven. Cats cleaned up at the Tonys, with Best Book going to the long-dead Eliot, and Best Featured Actress going to Betty Buckley as the bedraggled feline Grizzabella. They even produced a video for MTV.

New approach to marketingCATS was such a big deal that it was able to force a long-running show (42nd Street) to vacate the Winter Garden Theatre for a million-dollar remodel to house the massive set. The revolutionary thing about Cats was not the show on stage – it was the marketing. Before this, most musicals limited their souvenirs to photo programs, songbooks and T-shirts. Cats splashed its distinctive logo on coffee mugs, music boxes, figurines, books, greeting cards, baseball caps, satin jackets, Christmas ornaments, stackable tins, stuffed toys, pins, matchboxes and key chains, to name a few. The ballad "Memory" and those feline eyes were everywhere. Cats spread to places that had not seen professional theatre in years. The show ran into the next century, becoming the longest running show in Broadway history.

Blood Brothers (1983)

Kenrick says that Willy Russell’s BLOOD BROTHERS is a prime example of the best and worst aspects of the magamusical. A long-running musical in London, its first American production on Broadway did not open until 1993. And although it ran for two years, it never turned a profit.

The Last Great Broadway Season?Broadway saw a stellar array of American songwriters debut new works during the 1983-84 season –

George Hearn, Gene Barry and the original Cagelles from Jerry Herman's La Cage Aux Folles. Appearing on the cover of Theatre World annual remains a singular honor reserved for shows that define their season.

Baby (1983)Lyricist-librettist Richard Maltby and composer David Shire's Baby (276) was an underrated concept musical about three couples facing the life-altering challenges of conception, pregnancy and childbirth.

The Tap Dance Kid (1984)Composer Henry Krieger and lyricist Robert Lorick scored with The Tap Dance Kid (669), an original story about a African American teenager who dreams of a dance career despite his father's disapproval. Danny Daniels won a Tony for his energetic choreography. It starred a young Alfonso Ribeiro in the title role and hoofer Honi Coles in a featured role.

The Rink (1983)

Kander and Ebb's The Rink (233) paired Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli as a battling mother and daughter battling over the sale of their family-owned roller skating rink, reliving memories and heartaches along the way to their eventual reconciliation. Rivera received a long-overdue Tony for Best Actress in a Musical, and soon afterwards an ailing Minnelli left the show for her first stint in drug rehab.

Sunday in the Park With George (1984)Stephen Sondheim's Sunday In the Park With George (1984 - 604) took an innovative look at the commercial and emotional challenges of being an artist, starring Mandy Patinkin as painter Georges Seurat and Bernadette Peters as his lover Dot. The action then switched to modern times, with Seurat's grandson facing the same issues while an aging Dot looks on. Audiences cheered for a breathtaking first act finale that recreated Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grand Jatte" while the cast sang the ravishing chorale "Sunday."

La Cage aux Folles (1983)Jerry Herman's La Cage Aux Folles (1,761) was an old-fashioned book musical that broke new ground by focusing on a gay couple dealing with their son's marriage into a bigoted politician's family. Playwright Harvey Fierstein provided a hilarious book, and Arthur Laurents helmed one of the most entertaining musicals Broadway had seen in years. Numerous Tony awards (including Best Musical and Best Score) ended years of creative frustration for Herman, the composer of Hello Dolly and Mame. George Hearn won a well-deserved Tony for his performance as the loveable drag queen Albin, and won cheers with his renditions of "I Am What I Am" and "The Best of Times is Now."

La Cage took the Tony for Best Musical, but with so many fine new musicals debuting on Broadway, theatergoers were the real winners. Sunday in the Park earned the Pulitzer Prize. This giddy year for musical theatre fans ended all too soon. The following season brought only one original hit – Big River (1985 - 1,005) a refreshing adaptation of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn with a score by country western composer Roger Miller. With no effective competition, it won the Tony for Best Musical and ran for three years.Link to MUDDY WATER from 2003 revival.

And then there was a sudden, chilling silence. New American musicals still appeared on Broadway, but they had trouble attracting a sizeable audience. For the first time since Oklahoma, a full decade would go by before a new American musical would pass the 1,000 performance mark. What happened?

Monumental failures included…

THE MAGIC SHOW (1983) despite its failure, it was the Broadway debut of Nathan Lane.

BIG DEAL (1986) featured direction, choreography and direction by Bob Fosse

Didi Conn sings “Lion Tamer”

Failures…

RAGS (1986) was a rare miss for Stephen Schwartz and collaborator Charles Strouse

LEGS DIAMOND (1988) starred Australian pop star Peter Allen

Carrie (1988) Nothing matched the spectacular failure of Carrie (5), which became the most celebrated musical flop of the late 20th century. Based on Stephen King's best-selling horror novel and subsequent hit film, the stage version was so weak that experienced producers refused to touch it. After landing in rejection piles for more than half a decade, the project was picked up by Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company (which had succeeded with Les Miserables) and German producer Friedrich Kurz. A preliminary British staging received such a critical drubbing that Barbara Cook (playing the title character's mother) withdrew from the project, and many assumed Carrie was done for. But the determined Kurz brought the show to Broadway with young Linzi Hateley in the title role and Betty Buckley taking over for Cook.

Link to 2012 Cast Recording excerpt

The Triumph of the BritishFrom the mid-1980s on, British mega-musicals flew across the Atlantic season after season like an implacable invading force. The happiest of these imports was Me and My Girl in 1986 – (1,420) a heavily revised World War II London hit with songs by Noel Gay. Shakespearean actor Robert Lindsay won a Tony for his ingratiating performance as poor cockney who inherits an Earl's title.The other "Brit hits" of this decade were all brand new.

Mega-musicals as modern operettas

Relying on pop rhythms, stage hydraulics and high-tech special effects, these shows came to be known as mega-musicals. Substance took a backseat to spectacle, and occasional hints of humor were buried in oceans of soap opera-style sentiment. These tech-heavy presentations came with a high price tag, but the best mega-musicals ran for decades, selling tickets to millions of people who had long since fallen out of the habit of going to the theatre.

Few noticed that these British and French mega-musicals were direct pop-flavored descendants of a form thought long-dead -- operetta. It was no accident that these shows almost always replaced their pop-voiced original casts with singers who had operatic credentials. No one else could deliver such sweeping melodies and gushing emotions eight times a week.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1982)

Written as a school oratorio IN 1968, JOSEPH predates JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.The first NY production was staged by Tony Tanner in 1982 and ran for 747 performances. Since that time, it has had countless revivals throughout the world, including a 1993 revival on Broadway thatran for 231 performances.

Starlight Express (1984)Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express was a tremendous hit in London with hydraulic ramps that allowed roller-skating actors to careen through the Apollo Victoria Theatre. It fared less well on Broadway (761), where critics dismissed it as a children's show blown out of proportion. No one really cared who was in the cast. For the first time since the Hippodrome shows of the early 1900s, it was all about the spectacle. But Starlight Express did well on tour, became a staple in Las Vegas, and was revived with tremendous success in London.

Song and Dance (1987)Song and Dance is a musical comprising two acts, one told entirely in "Song" and one entirely in "Dance", tied together by a love story.

The first part is Tell Me On A Sunday, with lyrics by Don Black and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, about a young British woman's romantic misadventures in New York City and Hollywood. The second part is a ballet choreographed to Variations, composed by Lloyd Webber for his cellist brother Julian, which is based on the A Minor Caprice No. 24 by Paganini.

Les Miserables (1987)Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boubil first offered their Les Miserables as a double album, then as a Parisian stage spectacle, enlivening the core material from Victor Hugo’s epic novel with a sung-through score that sounded like a pop version of grand opera. British producer Cameron Mackintosh became involved, teaming with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cats director Trevor Nunn to revamp it into an international sensation. Mackintosh brought Les Miserables to the West End (1985), Broadway (1987 NY - 6,680), and most of the other cities in the civilized world.

“One Day More”

Sondheim vs. Lloyd Webber, Round 2Into The Woods (1987) The Phantom of the Opera (1988)

Phantom of the Opera (1988 NY)Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera (still running) was co-produced with Cameron Mackintosh. The lush score featured pop-operetta melodies and an ending that departed completely from Gaston Leroux's classic novel. Hal Prince's lavish production made the show another triumph. Broadway audiences did not mind paying $45 a ticket when they could see the money on stage in scene after lavish scene. Stellar performances by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman helped.

Most theatergoers augmented the show's income by taking Phantom mementos home with them. Just as Cats had forced 42nd Street to evacuate the Winter Garden six years before, Phantom of the Opera now pushed 42nd Street out of the Majestic Theatre and over to The St. James. Producer Cameron Macintosh told one interviewer that Broadway was now "just another stop on the American tour." The British were not only back on top – they were downright cocky about it.

Into the WoodsThat same season, Stephen Sondheim and director-librettist James Lapine collaborated on Into The Woods (769), combining revised versions of several classic fairy tales to illustrate that nothing goes happily ever after, but also assuring audiences that "No one is alone." Although Phantom walked off with the Tony for Best Musical, Sondheim was able to relish that season's Tony for Best Score. But the overwhelming popularity of Lloyd Webber's show was undeniable, and both its London and New York productions remained sold out for more than two decades. Critics and scholars had no difficulty defining the difference between Lloyd Webber and Sondheim. For example –

Lloyd Webber is unquestionably a skilled craftsman, manipulating theatre technique in precise, complex, extraordinary detail, but he has not shown much original creativity. He depends heavily on the tricks of composing, using the fundamental and simplistic ideas of each category . . . When Sondheim writes pastiche, he does so for dramatic effect. . . Andrew Lloyd Webber doesn't bother with dramatic justifications -- he quotes from a wide range of musical sources, often anachronistically. . . Sung-through shows lack the integration that makes the American musical the great and original art form it is.- Denny Martin Flinn, Musical! A Grand Tour (New York: Shirmer Books, 1997), pp. 474-475.

ASSASSINS 1990After INTO THE WOODS, Sondheim turned his attention to other venues. He wrote a film score for DICK TRACY with Warren Beatty, Al Pacino and Madonna. His next original stage work would be an off-Broadway production of his controversial ASSASSINS with a book by frequent collaborator John Weidman. The initial production ran for 73 performances at Playwright’s Horizons. Scheduled for a major Broadway premiere in 2001, it was shutdown by the events of 9/11. Finally premiered on Broadway in 2004, it won 4 Tony Awards.

Ballad off Booth from Sondheim Tribute

Clip from 2004 revival

Although British megamusicals were doing big business on Broadway at the end of the 1980s, two new American musicals were noteworthy…

Grand Hotel (1989)Grand Hotel (1,077) was a project that had closed on the road in 1958. Based on the classic novel, play and MGM film, it told of the intertwined fates of guests at a posh Berlin hotel in the 1930s. To the dismay of the original composers, director Tommy Tune called in Nine's Maury Yeston to replace about half of the score. The revised show got mixed reviews, but limited competition, good word of mouth and strong marketing kept it running for several years. Big-name cast replacements including MGM legend Cyd Charisse – helped make Grand Hotel the first American musical since La Cage to top 1,000 performances on Broadway.

City of Angels (1989)

City of Angels (878) won the 1989 Tony for Best Musical thanks to its hilarious Larry Gelbart script about a screenwriter interacting with the fictional characters in his latest script. The Cy Coleman-David Zippel score was pleasant and featured jazz rhythms harking back to an earlier time.

When all three of these American hits had come and gone, the mega-musical hits Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera were still playing to capacity, with multiple companies packing them in worldwide. So the 1980s were very much the decade when the Brits "got a little of their own back.

MISS SAIGON (1991)Cameron Mackintosh re-united most of his Les Miserables creative team to re-set Madame Butterfly in the middle of the Vietnam War. Miss Saigon (4,097) opened in London and later conquered Broadway, after a heavily-publicized union fracas over casting British actor Jonathan Pryce as a Vietnamese character. One of the most successful mega-musicals, Miss Saigon toured the planet and sold mountains of souvenirs. In the US, suburbanites and tourists lapped up the lavish effects and tear-jerker love story. This was the last time Mackintosh triumphed with his patented mega-musical approach.

Lea Salonga’s audition

ASPECTS OF LOVE (1990)

The British sent over more mega-musicals, but the trend was losing steam on Broadway. The first sign of change came when Andrew Lloyd Webber's shallow soap opera Aspects of Love (1990 - 377) lost over $8,000,000 despite a year-long Broadway run.

Really Useful Video with Michael Ball

2013 version of Love Changes Everything for British TV

SUNSET BOULEVARD (1994)Thanks to a lack of competition, Webber's $11 million adaptation of Sunset Boulevard (977) swept the 1995 Tonys. Broadway audiences worshipped as divas Glen Close, Betty Buckley and Elaine Paige took turns portraying Norma Desmond. The production had such a high weekly running cost that even a three year run could not turn a profit.

Other British mega-productions either died in London (Whistle Down the Wind) or on the pre-Broadway road (Martin Guerre), and expensive attempts to copy the British style (Poland's Metro, Holland's Cyrano and America's Shogun) failed on Broadway. The public had seen too many lavish spectacles that took themselves far too seriously. Audiences on both sides of the Atlantic were tiring of the mega-musical format.

Once on This Island (1990)Once on This Island was originally staged at off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons, running from May 6, 1990 through May 27, 1990. The Broadway production opened on October 18, 1990 at the Booth Theatre and closed on December 1, 1991, after 469 performances and 19 previews. With direction and choreography by Graciela Daniele, the musical featured LaChanze as Ti Moune, Jerry Dixon as Daniel, Andrea Frierson as Erzulie, Sheila Gibbs as Mama Euralie, Kecia Lewis as Asaka, Gerry McIntyre as Armand, Milton Craig Nealy as Agwe, Eric Riley as Papa Ge, Ellis E. Williams as Tonton Julian and Afi McClendon as Little Ti Moune.

The Will Rogers Follies (1991)

Will Rogers Follies (983) had a muddled book, but Tommy Tune's ingenious production numbers and a disarming performance by Keith Carradine in the title role kept folks cheering. In a memorable highlight, Will and the Follies chorines stopped the show with a synchronized tambourine routine during Favorite Son. Appropriately, it played at the Palace.

The Secret Garden (1991)

Gays and students kept more adventurous shows running until word of mouth brought them a wider audience. Their favorites included Secret Garden (706), an emotional and visually stunning adaptation of the classic children's tale.

Falsettos (1992)

Falsettoes (489) gave a musical voice to the ongoing AIDS crisis. Producers hedged their bets with a pre-Broadway tour that covered all production expenses. Many expected this subject impossible to sell on Broadway, but several Tonys and a slew of rave reviews led to a profitable New York run.

Jelly’s Last Jam (1992)

Jelly's Last Jam (569) used the life story of jazz composer Jelly Roll Morton to take a frank look at racial attitudes within the black community. It featured Gregory Hines and Savion Glover in its cast.

Revivals

GUYS AND DOLLS ( 1992) 1144 performances CAROUSEL (1994) 368 performancesSHOW BOAT (1994) 946 performances

CRAZY FOR YOU (1992)

Crazy For You (1,622) reworked Girl Crazy into a giddy musical comedy choreography by Susan Stroman and a score of classic George & Ira Gershwin songs. Most of the credit went to director Mike Ockrent, who pulled it all together with style. Despite a long run, it took numerous tours and foreign productions for the show's investors to see a profit.

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (1993)

Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1993 - 922) mixed the showbiz dazzle of Chita Rivera with a gritty tale of homosexual love in a South American prison. It won the Tony for Best Musical but tied for Best Score with Tommy (927), a stylish high-tech staging of The Who's popular 1969 rock opera.

PASSION (1994)

Nothing could keep Stephen Sondheim's somber Passion (280) running for more than a few months. This ambitious look into the sometimes tragic price of human obsessions won several Tony Awards (including Best Musical) but closed within weeks of the ceremony.

THE CORPORATE MUSICAL(Disney on Broadway)

THE CORPORATE MUSICAL(Disney on Broadway)

Beauty and the Beast (1994)Broadway's biggest money maker in 1994 was Beauty and the Beast (5,464), the first stage effort of Walt Disney Productions. It was no match for the glorious animated film it was based on, but it had tremendous box office appeal. People with no interest in the theatre were happy to pay top dollar to bring their children to Beast. Beauty and the Beast was faithfully replicated in cities all over the world

THE CORPORATE MUSICAL(Disney on Broadway)

The Lion King (1997)The triumph was complete by the time Disney's The Lion King (still running) came to Broadway. It premiered in the New Amsterdam Theatre, one-time home of Ziegfeld's legendary Follies. The Disney Corporation purchased and restored this theatre and opened a large retail shop next door. It was the biggest hit of the 1990s. While some still claim that Rent was revolutionary, Lion King did far more to change Broadway. Link to a viral video set on NYC subway.

People who had never been interested in the theatre lined up for The Lion King, and even a price hike to $80 a seat didn't prevent the show from selling out for a year or more in advance. The Tony Awards now groveled before this new regime, giving The Lion King the Best Musical Tony (despite the fact that Best Score and Best Book went to Ragtime). The all-American Corporate musical was triumphant and hit-hungry Broadway was in no mood to argue. London soon had an identical sold-out production, and The Lion King remained a hot ticket on both Broadway and the West End until well into the next decade.

A corporate musical is built, produced and managed by multi-functional entertainment corporations like Disney or the now-defunct Canadian corporation Livent. These shows may begin as the idea of a composer or writer, but most of each project's development is corporate sponsored. While the staging of these shows may reflect the stamp of creative individuals, corporate musicals exude the anonymous efficiency of a department store. They look quite impressive, flow with ease, provide pop ballads and may even make viewers smile on occasion (which is more than most British mega-musicals ever did). They can also be reproduced for foreign or touring productions with matching sets and casts – no need for high-priced stars. What's missing is the joyous vitality that no corporate consciousness can provide.

RENT (1996) Seasons of Love

Even the much ballyhooed Rent was nurtured for a year by a company that booked and produced national tours. I was an assistant in their office during the two years leading up to Rent's off-Broadway premiere. Rent's producers had vision and took a genuine risk, but it was a calculated risk informed by years of business experience. They guided composer-lyricist Jonathan Larson through extensive rewriting in the months before the show opened at The New York Theatre Workshop. As it was, the composer's death on the night of the Off-Broadway dress rehearsal made Rent a cultural cause celebre. As the show moved to Broadway on a wave of sympathetic publicity, no opportunity was wasted.

By the late 1990’s, almost every show that made it to Broadway was a corporate product. With the average musical budget running over $8,000,000, it took a lot of people to finance a show, and they all wanted some say in the production. This left no room for amateurs or rebels.

1996 was a “weak” season in NYC

RENT competed against STATE FAIR (126), BIG (192) and a revival of A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (750) for recognition. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Jonathan Larson was awarded best book and best score posthumously.

Click above to see Nathan Laneperform Comedy Tonight on theLate Show with David Letterman.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (1998)

With far less fanfare but a more hardcore rock score, this bizzare and daring show found a dedicated following. Librettist John Cameron Mitchell starred as the title character, a transsexual punk rocker whose operation was botched—an unlikely idea for a show, but young audiences embraced it.Click logo above for a

look at the movie trailer.

Chicago (Encores revival) - 1996Both CHICAGO and CABARET enjoyed major revivals. A five performance City Center Encores! concert version of Chicago (still running) was such a sensation that it moved to the Shubert Theatre. Co-directors Walter Bobbie and Ann Reinking paid tribute to the late Bob Fosse's original intentions, but gave the show a simpler, streamlined staging that made this cynical look at fame and American pop culture seem even more timely than it was in 1975.

Roundabout revival of CABARET - 1998

The Roundabout Theatre brought over a hard-edged British production of the 1967 hit Cabaret (2,306) that rankled traditionalists but delighted many others. Thanks to rave reviews and a succession of stellar replacement casts, both revivals outran their original productions.

Bring in Da’ Noise, Bring in Da’ Funk - 1996

The most successful black musical of the decade was Bring in Da' Noise, Bring in Da' Funk (1,148), which used a series of contemporary tap numbers to look dramatize and reflect on the history of Africans in America. The score was new, but the key issue was the dancing, which expressed every emotion from despair to rage to triumph. Savion Glover headed the cast and received a Tony for his choreography.

Click logo for a clip.

Floyd Collins 1996

FLOYD COLLINS Book by Tina Landau; music and lyrics by Adam Guettel; additional lyrics by Ms. Landau; directed by Ms. Landau; sets by James Schuette; costumes by Melina Root; lighting by Scott Zielinski. Presented by Playwrights Horizons, Tim Sanford, artistic director; Leslie Marcus, managing director; Lynn Landis, general manager. At 416 West 42d Street, Clinton.

An ambitious and underappreciated new musical from the grandson of Richard Rodgers, Adam Guettel…who would go on to write The Light in the Piazza.

"How Glory Goes" from the Off-Broadway Cast Recording of "Floyd Collins"

Frank WildhornOne of the few new American composers to find success on Broadway in the 1990s was Frank Wildhorn. His adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde (1997- 1,543) developed a dedicated cult following, and his entertaining The Scarlet Pimpernel (1997 -772) was revised twice during its run. Wildhorn made a noisy misstep with The Civil War (1999 - 61), an incoherent attempt to present America's national nightmare in a semi-revue format. But there was no question that his works appealed to a dedicated, if limited, audience.

TITANIC – 1997The best musicals of the late 1990s came from corporate producers that aimed for artistic integrity as well as profit. Composer/lyricist Maury Yeston (Nine, Grand Hotel) and librettist Peter Stone (1776), had built their reputations on making unlikely projects sing. When their Titanic (1997 - 804) sailed off with five Tonys, including Best Musical, the theatrical community was shocked. The best new American musical in over a decade, it put creative aspects ahead of the marketing concerns. Over a dozen key characters were defined through songs which invoked various period or ethnic styles: the hopeful immigrants dreaming of life "In America," the arrogance of the rich exclaiming "What a Remarkable Age This Is," the elderly Mr. & Mrs. Strauss reaffirming that they "Still" love each other as they face death. Whatever its imperfections, Titanic deserved its success.

SIDE SHOW - 1997

Although it played only 97 performances, this musical featured a strong score by Kenry Kreiger and an outstanding cast led by Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner as Siamese twins Violet and Daisy Hilton.

RAGTIME - 1998Ragtime (861) was another example of the corporate musical at its best, thanks to a spectacular score by American composers Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. The epic story told of a crumbling family, a black man seeking justice, and a Jewish immigrant father fulfilling the American dream for himself an his child. Ragtime was not afraid to use satire ("Crime of the Century") or raunchy humor ("What A Game") along with soaring chorales, ballads and rags. When Brian Stokes Mitchell (as musician Coalhouse Walker) and Audra McDonald (as his beloved Sarah) sang of how they would ride into the future "On the Wheels of a Dream," it was pure, potent musical theatre. Ragtime was a musical with brains, heart, and courage.

Adaptations from film

FOOTLOOSE (1998) SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1999)

Despite composer John Michael LaChiusa's insistence that his Marie Christine (44) was a musical, it was a modern opera based upon the classical tragedy Medea.

1998’s Parade (84) was a somber history lesson with little audience appeal, given a handsome production by director Hal Prince. The true story of a bigoted Southern mob lynching a Jewish man for a crime he didn't commit, this show had few admirers until after it closed. As the only major book musical competing with Footloose, Parade copped Tonys for Best Book (Alfred Uhry) and Score (Jason Robert Brown).

FOSSE - 1999

Fosse (1,108), a compendium of the late choreographer's finest dances, was the season's longest running hit. Consisting of previously seen material, it could hardly be called a new show, but it won the Best Musical Tony. Co-directed by Richard Maltby Jr. and Ann Reinking, with special assistance by Fosse's widow Gwen Verdon, it offered a wide ranging look at what this "razzle dazzle" genius had accomplished.

More revivals at century’s end…

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN In 1999 , a revised Annie Get Your Gun (1,046) gave Bernadette Peters a strong vehicle and her second Tony as Best Actress in a Musical. Despite clumsy cuts, Irving Berlin's finest stage score still delighted audiences.

KISS ME KATE (1999)A 1999 revival of Kiss Me Kate (885) was a glorious production that stood out all the more in an era when new shows were marked by intellectual vapidity and a terminal shortage of humor. Audiences were amazed to hear themselves laugh out loud at lyrics for the first time in years – proving Cole Porter's genius was indeed timeless. After years of "heavy" musicals, theatre goers were hungry for something happier. But musical comedy was dead and buried -- wasn't it?

After flourishing through most of the 20th Century, the Broadway musical was in uncertain condition at century's end. Shows that appealed to the lowest common cultural denominator thrived, while wit and melody were reserved for revivals. Musical theater professionals and aficionados had good reason to wonder what the next century might bring.