The Year in Drama (Vol. 99) | The Year in Dramaby Julius Novick
The Year in Drama by Julius Novick
In recent years many people have worried loudly about the decline of the American musical theater. Broadway and the road have been dominated by long-running behemoths from Britain, and by loving revivals of classic American shows—the kind of shows nobody seems to be able to write anymore. Recent American Broadway musicals have tended to be uninspired recyclings of movies: Beauty and the Beast (the long-running Disney extravaganza, which opened on Broadway in 1994), Victor/Victoria (a crass vehicle for the indefatigable Julie Andrews, 1995), State Fair (warmed-over Rodgers and Hammerstein, albeit with beautiful songs, 1996), and Big (a 10.5-million-dollar flop, 1996). But 1996, a lacklustre year for spoken drama in America, was a year in which the Broadway musical, that proud but aging creation of specifically American genius, was invigorated by new energies from noncommercial off-Broadway...
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