Arrive Magazine - November/December, 2009

Broadway Bound, are being revived this fall, and the classic musical Bye Bye Birdie has staged a comeback as well. Perhaps the ultimate familiar brand—from Shakespeare to stage musical to movie and back again—West Side Story made its way back to Broadway in an updated production helmed by legendary director Arthur Laurents. With songs translated into Spanish and Latin roles actually played by Latinos, Laurents dusted off the show for a new generation of fans.

Film-to-stage adaptations remain a constant source of fascination, both for what films are adapted and for how they translate to the stage. Big movies like Shrek and 9 to 5 were natural choices for adaptation, but it was Stephen Daldry’s little gem of a film, Billy Elliot, that produced this year’s must-see musical and big Tony winner.

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Signs of the Times

Success aside, the country’s serious mood has had an effect on Broadway, and many believe it’s been a positive one. “If you were to look at last season, it’s a far more substantial season than the one before it, in terms of quality,” says Frederick Zollo, producer of A Steady Rain. Zollo sees the current trend toward more serious fare as parallel to Broadway’s rally during the Great Depression.

“When Broadway finally responded to the times in the early ’30s by presenting plays that began to reflect the crisis—plays by [Eugene] O’Neill, [Clifford] Odets and [Lillian] Hellman —people started going to the theater again,” he says.

From Billy Elliot’s backdrop of a British mining strike to Next to Normal’s exploration of mental illness, serious topics have been the order of the day this year, even for musicals. Hair producer Jed Bernstein found opportune timing for a show that, in his words, “harkens back to a purer, more positive time in the American zeitgeist.”

“In hindsight,” he says, “it all seems so obvious now—producing Hair in the depths of a national recession, with a new administration in Washington and demands for change.”