Arts & Entertainment
The
Great
Diversity
Way
This holiday season
on Broadway, there’s
something for everyone
BY LIZ JOHNSON
This is not the year of the brassy
Broadway musical.
Neither is it the year of the serious,
thought-provoking play.
Nor is it the year of comedies, revivals or jukebox musicals.
Instead, this is the year of them all.
From sports heroes (Lombardi) to
political activists (Fela!), from comedic
revivals (La Bête) to campy adaptations
(Promises, Promises), the variety of subjects and styles of the plays and musicals on Broadway seems never to have
been more diverse.
This holiday season, on Broadway,
there really is something for everyone.
Do Not Follow That Trend!
“There’s absolutely no trend,” says
Charlotte St. Martin, executive director
of the Broadway League, the national
trade association for the Broadway
industry. “There’s such an immense
diversity in types of shows and diversity
for all age groups and ethnicities.”
Think about it— 25 years ago, you’d
find just three types of entertainment on
Broadway stages: serious plays, comic
plays and musicals.
Now, says St. Martin, there are “small
plays, big plays, jukebox musicals, serious
plays, one-man shows, one-woman
shows, shows for 20-somethings, shows
for 30-somethings. Used to be it was
pretty much over 40.”
The new season has all those, plus
a big wallop of star-power. Al Pacino
plays Shylock in The Merchant of Venice;
Pee-wee Herman plays himself in The
Pee-wee Herman Show. James Earl Jones
and Vanessa Redgrave star in Driving
Miss Daisy.
