With spring approaching, the fact that best sums up this bizarre Broadway season?
There are three new musical comedies about corpses: “Dead Outlaw,” “Operation Mincemeat” and “Death Becomes Her.”
Not far off, the romantic leads of the most acclaimed show of the past several months, “Maybe Happy Ending,” are singing robots.
Of the more traditional fare, the two jukebox bio-musicals that feature beloved old songbooks don’t celebrate arena phenoms like Michael Jackson or Tina Turner.
No, the respective focuses of “A Wonderful World” (closing Feb. 23) and “Just In Time” are Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin, both of whom died in the early 1970s and played the Copa.
Welcome to the Year of the Underdog.
Every season has a few scrappy tuners that cut through Broadway’s confetti canons with grit and heart. Think Best Musical winners “Avenue Q,” “Spring Awakening” and the more recent “Kimberly Akimbo.”
But the 2024-2025 crop has no Goliath for them to triumph over. It’s a crowded pack of artsy Davids clutching rocks, ready to hurl ‘em at each other. But they can’t all come out celebrated, or unscathed.
Worryingly, most of the 14 new musicals — far too many once again — require a lengthy explanation for ticket-buyers as to what they actually are. There is only enough time for the elevator pitch if the elevator breaks down.
That’s even true of the relatively large ones. For example, the backstage farce “Smash” is the first Broadway show I’m aware of to be based on a drama that NBC canceled after two seasons 12 years ago. Not exactly “The Producers.”
Flashy “Death Becomes Her” is hilarious, and is selling well so far. But realistically how much gas does that campy old Robert Zemeckis movie have left in the tank?
And there’s “Boop!,” a likable show in which the 1930s cartoon character Betty Boop comes to life in modern-day New York. Says everyone under 30: “Who the hell is Betty Boop?!”
Of course, you’re probably saying, “Shouldn’t creativity and cleverness be encouraged?” Absolutely.
“Maybe Happy Ending,” starring Darren Criss as a flirty android, is sublime and original. It started out in South Korea.
And I’ve already seen many of the upcoming musicals off-Broadway or in other cities. “Dead Outlaw,” with Coen brothers-style direction from David Cromer and an angsty country-rock score, is the best of those.
But I guarantee you that these strange and quirky productions, many targeting the same niche audience, will start to cannibalize each other. Tickets are expensive; punters will pick.
Just one will win the Tony Award for Best Musical in June. None being juggernauts, all will need to.
So far, everybody is boasting about how critically acclaimed they are.
Olivier Award winner “Operation Mincemeat,” the story of how a dead body turned the tides of World War II, has been overplaying the Little Engine the Could card. Its producers have been shouting “We have 74 five-star reviews in London!” for months (Nobody here cares.)
“Outlaw,” about a real criminal who died and became a carnival mummy, fires back, “We won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award!” (I’m in the Circle, and I don’t even care.)
Those two will have to contend with the feel-good story of the season — “Maybe Happy Ending.” The production was having money woes even before opening in the fall, but after rapturous reviews and glowing word of mouth it’s now grossing as much as $900,000 a week and playing to 99% capacity.
That’s not nothing. These days, a struggling musical turning things around is about as common as waking up to find you suddenly look like Brad Pitt.
But the corpse shows are coming for it.
Three letters “Dead Outlaw,” “Operation Mincemeat” and “Death Becomes Her” definitely don’t want to become acquainted with too soon are R.I.P.
