So Much Has Happened…

I began to think after writing my first post about Broadway that so much changes and quickly in the Broadway world. It’s almost like following a sports team where players get traded up and down, new developments happen on the road and teams win and lose. In the Broadway world, it seems like as much changes in the same relative timeframe (actors and actresses make or don’t make certain casts, shows open and close and nominations and releases occur etc.).

Back in December, I traveled down to Texas to see my 7-year-old son play the lead in the play “A Holiday Moosical” and stayed with my old college roommate. He introduced me to All Arts TV’s “Broadway Sandwich” series on Youtube in which the host, Garen Scribner, follows an actor or actress between their Saturday matinee and evening performances. At the same time, I was extremely interested in the prospect of travelling to New York to see a real Broadway show and was listening to the original Broadway cast album of “A Band’s Visit”. I was intrigued by the idea of seeing an original cast, especially one of a production that won 10 Tonys (“Hamilton” won 11 for comparison). I thought how cool it would be to see a show like that with the original cast and be able to say that you’ve seen it, as if you had buy in and were growing up with the show as it developed.

For Laura’s Christmas gift, I wanted to purchase Broadway tickets to see “A Band’s Visit” and set up a small trip over a weekend to New York. With the idea of “Broadway Sandwich”, however, I was now determined to travel to New York and see two shows in the same day. So, we would see “A Band’s Visit” and another show which, at the time I didn’t know much about. I also bought tickets for the same day for “Be More Chill”, which hadn’t opened on Broadway yet at the time, but would star Will Roland, who originated the role of Jared in “Dear Evan Hansen” (we saw the national tour in Denver last October for Laura’s birthday). Different from other shows about to open, “Be More Chill” already had a cast album of its pre-Broadway cast, which we listened to on repeat for a bit.

So much has happened… After buying tickets for both shows (one that had won 10 Tonys the year prior and one that had not yet opened, but already had a tremendous following), we learned that “A Band’s Visit” would, in fact, close on Broadway on April 7^th, 2019 (the tickets were for the June 1^st matinee). So, we needed to find another show. I was a bit stuck on the aspect of Tony wins; that, if a show wins a Tony, it must be very good (like picking up a book that’s won the Pulitzer prize). I Google searched predictions for the 2019 Tony nominations and stumbled on a blog where one person said to not discount “Hadestown”, which I read in my head as “haids town”; that it had far-fetched plans, at the time, of opening on Broadway later in 2019. Like “Be More Chill”, it also had a cast album of its pre-Broadway run and a concept album by Anais Mitchell. After listening to some of the music and seeing the website, I bought tickets to the show way before its opening day.

So here we are… The 2019 Tony nominations, which will take place on June 9^th (over a week after we make our pilgrimage to Broadway on June 1^st), were released today and “Hadestown” leads the pack with 14 nominations (a nomination nearly in every category). “Be More Chill” only has 1 nomination (best original score for Joe Iconis). While I am personally happy for “Hadestown” because I absolutely love the concept and the way that it’s a story that can resonate with today’s audience, I thought that “Be More Chill” was robbed. I read an article about this idea and the author pointed out that the social media craze and fanbase is really “not enough”; that the fanbase was adolescents and the nomination committee was not. This made me think that there are definitely different veins and movements of Broadway. There may be a divide that’s developing between the newer, edgier shows that don’t fit the Broadway mold which have underground followings and iterations and developments of the former (not to say that “Hadestown” is old-school, but it does follow two parallel love stories and is the re-telling of the Orpheus and Eurydice tale).

We saw the 20^th Anniversary Tour of “Rent” when it was up in Greeley, CO and it made me think that it was the edgy show of its time even though it does show its age today. We also recently saw the national tour of “Cats”, which seems to follow the same vein. It seems like a show will emerge that is much different than anything before it and change the landscape. Regardless of the opinions around “Cats”, which set my expectations relatively low going into the show, it really accomplished incredible feats with respect to lighting and costumes and choreography. These shows accomplish something that future shows build on and it’s interesting to see those interconnections. Not really related, but a neat thought I had… the sets of “Rent” and “Cats” are incredibly similar…. The old junkyard, which really sets the mood for the cast of misfits.

Whenever anyone asks me about what I thought of a show, my first response is (and I know that I sound like the “Broadway Bitches” when I say), “So good!”. It is interesting, though, I’ve heard a few interviews of people leaving shows and, when asked about their thoughts of the show, say that they wish Donald Trump could see it. This happened with “Come From Away”, which we took our kids and parents to see when the national tour came through Denver over Thanksgiving, and “Hadestown”, which we plan to see in New York in June. One approaches the idea of taking foreigners in during a time of crisis and one talks about building walls and freedom. Very interesting times indeed.

I am looking forward to the original Broadway cast album of “Be More Chill”, which will be released this Friday (the opening song “More than Survive” was pre-released today) and for our trip to New York in June. Meanwhile, so many developments happen, so many moving pieces to the Broadway mosaic. I’m looking forward to following this ever-changing landscape and hypothesizing about the way that these movements correlate to the current social and political environment. So much has happened since my last post, but so much more is yet to come.