All tagged 70 Girls 70

Zoosical: Showtunes About Animals

Animal lovers that are Broadway lovers (and vice-versa), here is a collection that was designed just for you. I was on a long drive and a showtune came on that was about an animal. I started thinking about how many Musical Theatre songs that I could find were about animals (These are things I think about on car trips and during nights of insomnia). By the end of the car trip, I had come up with these. Please share with me any others you might think of. I hope you enjoy my corny need to catalogue such things in list form. 

Broadway Blip: 70, Girls, 70

In the spring of 1971, a musical was readying to open on Broadway that featured a cast of older performers, singing and dancing, looking back on life, many exploring regrets and old memories shaded by the perspective of time. This musical would go on to become one of Broadway’s greatest classics of all time. That musical was Follies

Opening within ten days of Follies was another musical that featured a cast of older performers, singing and dancing, exploring memories but focused on an entirely different set of circumstances. 70, Girls, 70, with a score by John Kander and Fred Ebb and a book by Norman L. Martin and Ebb, is not a musical you hear much about these days, though it does deserve a second look and listen.

Ten Flop Musicals that Deserve a Second Chance on Broadway

It's always sad when a musical flops, especially when you consider all the time, talent, heart and cash that are poured into bringing a musical to Broadway. Every once and a while a musical that failed to ignite at the box office the first time around is given a second chance to show off its merits. Consider that the classic Candide was not a hit the first time around in 1956 but found great acclaim in a 1973 revival and the case is made that a revival of a failed property can be merited. Some other musicals have had this opportunity: a revival of Side Show, a 1997 flop that hoped to make a new case for itself with a 2014 revival, met with mediocre ticket sales and reviews. Some musicals are destined to be loved in concept only, never quite yielding in popularity what their proponents see as the hidden or untapped potential of its ingredients. This is okay. Not every revival of a once successful musical is a hit, so it stands to reason that not every first go around with a piece is going to be a success. Many components besides book, music and lyrics come together to make a production, so altering those ingredients (director, budget, performers, even the written material itself) can possibly add up to a new production that works. 

Here are ten musicals that I believe, with the right ingredients and a little hope, could add up to a hit if they were given a second chance.