Since Halloween beckons, and since the modern holiday tends to be all about dressing up and creating a world of illusion – just like Broadway – I thought I’d throw a chill in the air and offer five things about the current Broadway season to feel ever so slightly spooked about.
1) “Big Fish” the season’s blockbuster fall musical – which, by the way, I liked very much – got mixed reviews from other critics and isn’t exactly burning up at the box office. New York Post writer Michael Riedel predicted vultures hovering over the Neil Simon Theater after Jan. 1. I personally hope the show catches on (or at least people come for Norbert), but it’s a big production with, presumably, a big weekly operating cost, so we’ll see if it swims or sleeps with the fishes.
2) There’s been one brand-new play on Broadway so far this season: “The Snow Geese”, and reviews have been middling. Worse, there won’t be another new script to encounter until January (“Outside Mullingar”). The spring does promise new work by Eric Simonson, Terrence McNally and Harvey Fierstein, but hey, this is a scary story not a hopeful one.
3) The Broadway Museum Continues . . . Oh sure, there are plays on Broadway, just not new ones. We’ll have four Shakespeares, two Pinters, a Rattigan and a “Raisin in the Sun”. Welcome to 1974.
4) What are new musicals made of? Jukeboxes and movies – that’s what new musicals are made of. With the exception of “First Date” and “If/Then,” every single new, non-jukebox musical this season is adapted from a movie: “Big Fish”, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ (from “Kind Hearts and Coronets”), “The Bridges of Madison County”, “Rocky”, “Aladdin” and “Bullets Over Broadway.” Meanwhile, the rest take their music from other media, be it Janis Joplin, Carole King, Sting, radio hits (for “Bullets over Broadway”) or the hymns of Shlomo Carlebach. Eclectic? Sure. The easy way out? Sure again.
5) There are nearly a dozen long-running shows on Broadway, few of which show any signs of losing their momentum. This is, of course, a good thing for Broadway’s bottom line, but looked at from the glass-half-empty perspective, it can be tough for new productions to find a home if the Eugene O’Neill, Ambassador, August Wilson, Minskoff, Broadhurst, Majestic, Helen Hayes and Gershwin Theaters – and potentially the Music Box and Al Hirschfeld – are off-limits till the Mets win another World Series.
Wait, did I just mention a New York sports team? This Halloween story’s getting too scary even for me.
