Musicals You Want Revived

Cabaret at the Donmar. Firstly with Alan Cumming then with some other great actors going in for limited time!

In all honesty, I would love to see a return of the Lost Musicals series - a place to discover lost gems that would never get a revival otherwise.

I don't particularly have a wish list - other than perhaps more votes for Camelot and Brigadoon - both packed with wonderful music and long overdue for major professional productions.

There are so many great scores out there that deserve a hearing - most of them have pretty poor books - and so perhaps a series of concerts would be the way to go. With a bit of revision, some of them may go on to commercial success.

Who would have thought back in the 80s that a revised version of Me and My Girl would have gone on to huge success? There are many shows from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s that won't get a chance of a restaging unless someone with vision takes a punt.

Concert versions don't have the glitz and glamour of a full production - but you can probably attract better singers than you could afford for a run in a small venue and so the music would be well served.

There was also a production in Regent's Park in 1995 with Brian Cox and Liz Robertson. I went to a matinee. By 'eck it were hot!!!

I believe thats a similar akin to the Encores! they do in NYC and I would also be up for more productions like this to give lesser known knows a god needed airing out!

I reckon I must have seen more than half of those shows and, with the odd exception, they were outstandingly successful. For me the most memorable were probably Jubilee, Love Life, The New Yorkers, Around the World and all the Cole Porter/Ethel Merman shows with the wonderful Louise Gold.

But, as you say Mr Snow, there are now a number of venues taking a chance with old or neglected shows like the recent Ballroom at Waterloo East and The Frogs at Jermyn Street, so we may yet get to see some of our 'wish list' shows somewhere or other.

I don’t know why I didn’t put West Side Story. I’d love to see it. Never have. But a new version without the Jerome Robbins choreography...

I am puzzled, souchyboyy, why you don't want the Jerome Robbins choreography if you have never seen it? Or do you mean you have seen the choreography in the movie and want to see the show on stage with new choreography?  Why? The Robbins choreography was just as much a part of the creation and conception of the show as Bernstein's music, Sondheim's lyrics and Arthur Laurents' book, so for me, any staging of 'West Side Story' should include at least an adaptation of the Robbins choreography. Of course people elsewhere on this website are discussing the possible reimagining of certain musicals and I guess 'West Side Story' could be reimagined with different choreography as well as other possible changes, but again why, when it is one of the greatest of all musicals as it stands? 

I saw a touring production of 'West Side Story' at Wimbledon just a couple of years ago (which was excellent) and I also saw the original London production at Her Majesty's in London in March 1960, on which I have delivered a Tonyloco lecture in the thread about productions improving or deteriorating over a long run – that one was a tired, listless shadow of what it should have been and after a run of only 16 months.

As regards Tibidabo's comments, I agree that the score is magnificent and we heard extracts extremely well performed at a recent John Wilson Prom concert at the Albert Hall.  The great tragedy is that in his own recording of the show, which should be definitive, Bernstein chose two totally unsuitable singers in Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras.  So yes, by all means let us have real musical theatre stars singing the music, but the show also contains a lot of music for dancing so a concert version or even a semi-staged one would hardly do justice to the show as a whole without dancing.  It was the way the dancing was such an integral and powerful part of the show that caused it to be such a sensation on Broadway in 1957 and I don't see any reason to change it, any more than we need to change any of the music!

Have seen the film, so if we get a revival of it I’d like something completely different, rather than something that resembles what we know. I love it, don’t get me wrong, but I just want a brand new WSS. Maybe that’s just me, but that’s what I’d like.

Xanadu needs to return, and Beauty and the Beast would be nice, too.

And I second Memphis.

You are right, cmonfeet. It's a damn good song from what was a damn good show before the PC brigade got at it. As you say, the clichés are there (they were meant as clichés at the time) and the insensitive elements throughout the script and songs are indeed due to naïveté rather than malice.

The famous tenor Jonas Kaufmann has commented recently that much of what is contained in the repertoire of popular opera and operetta would no longer pass muster by present standards, especially how women are perceived and treated and he quotes the Franz Lehar song 'Girls were made to love and kiss', a great favourite when sung in both German and English by Richard Tauber, as being quite unacceptable by today's notions of how women should be treated. So what do we do? Trash all the works of Bizet, Puccini, Mascagni, Verdi, etc, completely or change them to suit today's attitudes: Carmen now kills Don José at the end of 'Carmen' in a recent production and perhaps Desdemona should shoot Otello in Act IV next time the Verdi opera is produced!

Bat Boy, please!

Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. A fantastic score.
The Secret Garden, the original Broadway version, not the RSC version or the new 2018 version with some songs cut.
And although neither will ever happen, Lautrec and Carrie.