Last Sunday, If/Then played its final performance on Broadway, closing after one year and four hundred performances. In their tearful speeches, authors Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey highlighted the importance of new musicals.
Yorkey said, “Tom and I wanted to say just a word about courage. It takes tremendous courage to make a new musical happen. It’s much easier… It’s a lot easier to go with something tried and true and much harder to take a plunge on something that starts with an idea… And with no idea what it might end up being. This is the second time we’ve had the great fortune to do that on the greatest stage in the world – Broadway.”
When he says “second time,” the first time refers to Next to Normal, an original musical about a woman suffering depression that netted both Yorkey and Kitt Tony Awards, as well as a Pulitzer Prize. If/Then was nominated for Best Score but did not win.
For his closing statement, Yorkey said, “Without any doubt, each and every one of us in this building loves the American musical as an art form. We love everything it’s been, everything it is, and most of all, we love everything it has yet to be. You and I may disagree on which new shows will move the art forward, but we all have to agree that without new shows we will never move the art forward. So thank you to those producers, those investors and everyone. Thank you to our fans who have gone out and said, ‘Go see the new show,’ because your courage in standing up for us has made it possible for us to be here today.”
This speech highlights a problem endemic in musical theater today: the complete dearth of original musicals. Broadway is overrun with revivals, movie adaptations, and jukebox musicals. If/Then was one of two Broadway musicals from last season not based on anything (the other being First Date). The two previous seasons only had one each (Hands on a Hardbody and Book of Mormon). In fact, there have only been ten entirely new musicals not based on anything in the last seven years, two of which came from Kitt and Yorkey.
That is why it’s big news when the team announced their new project following the closing of If/Then. Having already tackled mental illness and the impact of choices, the duo is next turning their attention to “the power of love and how — in the face of all different kinds of hate — love ultimately can prevail.” Although that musical is still in very early stages of being written, this writer is already extremely excited for it.
And perhaps not all hope is lost: this season, three musicals not based on anything will have played Broadway – more than any season since 2009. The Last Ship, featuring a score from Sting, already flopped and closed. But Something Rotten, which just started previews and is the predicted Tony darling, looks to be a huge hit. Its first few previews filled the cavernous St. James Theater to the brim, and it’s a very crowd-pleasing show that’s sure to become a big-ticket item. And there is still the wedding comedy It Shoulda Been You arriving in the next month.
Do you think there are enough original musicals being written? What are your favorites? And are you excited for the new Kitt-Yorkey project?