Hal Prince? Give My Regrets to Broadway

They want to put on a show featuring the best songs from musicals Hal Prince produced?

Nope. Not likely to happen. Not on Broadway. And if it ever comes to Broadway, it'll lose money.

The generation gap, and culture gap, is widening on Broadway.

You think the tweens who like Bieber and Miley want to go hear "show tunes?" No. Do most people 20 to 40 have much tolerance for music that lacks a rock beat? Notice how the soundtracks to movies are now more rock than semi-classical or even jazz. There's no Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini or Dominic Frontiere anymore and few movie soundtrack albums sell.

At one time movie soundtracks were so good...you'd buy even if you didn't see the movie. Sure, it's dumbed down classical in a way, but still rewarding. Sometimes, pretty damn close to great moments in classical.

And Broadway? The Broadway musical now is driven by the visuals (Sting's "Spiderman" comic book bullshit, Lauper's "Kinky Boots" drag queen nonsense) and the music doesn't matter, as long as it has some kind of rock-pop beat. The music also doesn't matter of the musical is kid stuff, which is the only other way to maybe get a long running hit with a musical. "Lion King," with tepid music by Elton would be an example. Sometimes a revival stays around ("Chicago") as long as it's not traditionally a "show tune" score, and yeah, there's still "Phantom of the Opera," which does rely mostly on visuals and special effects, and less on Weber's all-too-familiar mush-up of movie soundtrack and pop cliche.

Hal Prince, producer of many classic Broadway shows, has found out he's a fossil, and his legacy is dying. It won't die as quickly as he will (he's 85), but it's dwindling. That's how it goes. Many classic musicals are now just curiosity pieces, and kind of corny. A revival of "Oklahoma" or "Carousel" may have a few critics banging the drum slowly, but the tickets won't move. Fair enough. Nobody is watching old Claudette Colbert movies, reading "Goodbye Mr. Chips" or watching Hopalong Cassidy or listening to a lot of Big Band music. Tastes change and some things are no longer too relevant.

Some Broadway shows are still relevant, just as so much of classical music still is. While a revival of "Bye Bye Birdie" seemed fairly pointless, except as nostalgia-camp, there's a good reason to go see a new production of "Man of La Mancha," "Oliver," or "Fiddler on the Roof," if a qualified performer can approach what the original stars could do.

The trouble is, there's not as many great performers trained for the stage. Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury in "Sweeney Todd." Not many could do what they did.

Did many people go see the movie version of "Sweeney Todd" even with Johnny Depp in it? Most didn't even want to try. Sondheim's score is brilliant, a Zappa-esque version of classical and show tune and operetta, piercing and dazzling as the music fights with the lyrics at times...but not many are eclectic enough and schooled enough to appreciate it. (And I have to add that my patience was tried by his other forays into this genre, "Assassins" and "Sunday in the Park with George," which also veered from standard tunes interrupting dialogue to more integrated and less melodic singing passages)>

So another art form has begun to disappear. Some might say, "Good...fuck it," as they are saying about the ballet companies and symphony orchestras that are shutting down because they aren't getting government support and the old millionaires are dying out and the new ones don't care about ballet or classical music, and don't dress up in white tie to sit and listen to music or watch dancers.

Along with culture shock...it's down to finance. Thirteen MILLION to stage a Broadway show?? Thanks, unions. Thanks city taxes. Thanks greedhead landlords.

It seems that the friends and fans of Hal Prince, who should be affluent enough to raise the money and write off the tax loss, ain't doing it.

True enough, a musical salute to Hal Prince is just a vanity project, and hearing a bunch of singers and actors who aren't as good as the trained and brilliant ones of 20 or 30 years ago, is not a big draw. I wouldn't be going, and I have eclectic tastes and find some Broadway musicals very rewarding. Sometimes it's just an amusing pastime to see a real Broadway show, and enjoy the excitement of a live performance in a big theater. "Chicago" was mildly entertaining and not too obnoxious and "Phantom of the Opera" had spectacle, even if Weber's music was 80% drivel. "Cabaret" was surprisingly grim and interesting, not what you'd expect if all you know of it is the nauseating title song sung by Liza. But...at $100 or $200 a ticket? NO!

What a lethal one-two punch: "show tunes" being an antiquated style of music, and high prices making things worse. The future of Broadway seems pretty obvious. They'll pander to affluent gays ("Kinky Boots" is still running), keep doing the "all black" revivals and musicals to get rich liberal white people and the affluent blacks who have gotten affirmative action and high-profile six figure jobs, and always have family-friendly tourist-friendly garbage like "Spiderman" and "Lion King" and "Mary Poppins." It'll be a rarity when a new Broadway musical of any kind appears, and when it does, be assured it'll either be shit like "Kinky Boots" (music by Lauper), or a very middle-of-the-road job by Rupert Holmes, or some high-profile "rock musical" propelled by comic book heroes, nudity, a sci-fi premise and...some annoying pop-rock icon, whether it's Elton or Sting or someone even worse. Brooooooooose.