Are Revivals Killing The Musical Theatre?
by John Kenrick (This letter appeared in the New York Times Arts & Leisure Section on September 13th the text below includes some comments the Times omitted.) In “A Crowd of Old Musicals Squeezes the New,” the lead article in the August 15th edition of the Sunday New York Times Arts & leisure section, columnist Anthony Tommasini claimed that successful revivals of old musicals on Broadway reduce the number of new musicals coming in. Moreover, he stated that a preoccupation with established shows could lead to the kind of obsession with the past that now dominates opera and other forms of classical music. To an extent, his arguments make sense. However, the real reason why there are so few new musicals making it to Broadway is because few good ones are being written. I can hear the righteous screams: “Not true! I know lots of great talents out there writing shows that can t get a hearing!” I always ask people who claim there is great Broadway-quality stuff being written to give me names
