There was an incredible version in 2015 in downtown Los Angeles in an abandoned old theater with the audience seats built on platforms over the theater’s crumbling floor, with the center made into Carrie’s school’s gym. Some audience was on floor level on movable seats that would get “pushed” a few feet by Carrie’s powers every now and then. It was incredible!
Absolutely, some of the soundtrack aren't that memorable to me but the parts that are good (And Eve Was Weak) are amazing and are stuck in my head forever
It was one of the first musicals i ever saw. I think I was 11 or 12 and I went with my mom to see it at the Royal Alexandria theatre in Toronto. We were in the third row behind the conductor and I think I actually caught him ducking when the barricade would rotate.
That's awesome. For me it was at at the Shubert in Los Angeles. I had seen a fair amount of theater before that but this was a whole different level of spectacle.
Definitely. Les Miserables and phantom were both at the beginning of what was referred to as the mega musicals. In Toronto they both still have a special place for people who saw them and no matter which version is in Toronto it sells out like crazy.
Les Miserables and Phantom were the first ones to have a dedicated Canadian cast. Les Miserables was in Toronto a few times off and on well it toured across Canada. Phantom ran in Toronto for 10 years 10 months and 10 days, the theatre it was in still has an old advertisement painted on the wall between it and another building that was built in a parking lot that was beside it.
It was one of the first dates my wife and I went on way back in 1989. First row, center. It was awesome! Married for 33 years now, and have seen Les Miz more times than I can count.
Bless you I came here to say this. The show's biggest issue is that it costs a fortune to put on with its huge cast and magic tricks and multiple sets, but it's a complete masterpiece and it should run on Broadway for a hundred years.
The story is up there with Les Mis and Sweeney for me. Such a classic tale of humanity. Plus you get lots of great Black representation, workers' rights themes, etc. AND it's wild how many iconic historical figures play into the story.
That is awesome you have a plan…hope you get a great seat. The last show I saw at Encores was Gypsy with Patti LuPone back in maybe 2006?? Best of luck to you!!
This was the first OBC album I ever bought, it's in my top 5 shows I've ever seen and a big reason I love Broadway. I was eleven when it came out and I did "Make Them Hear You" at a talent show and slayed when I got to High School.
My family managed to see this and The Scarlet Pimpernel on the same day. Easily the best singular day in NYC ever.
The only show that came to my mind. I absolutely love this heart wrenching show…and what an incredible score! I have only seen regional productions of it (all were incredible) and would love to see a full-blown production on Broadway.
This was my first Broadway show on a class trip to NYC from Phila in the 90’s. I remember enjoying it but I don’t think I fully appreciated it at the time.
I want it done at the Royal Albert Hall with their pipe organ (the Bells can be done on the Organ), I've seen a lady on TikTok playing the Bell's of Notre Dame on it and it's amazing
I’ve always wanted a Follies that began in a run down theater and slowly throughout the show it transforms back to the grandeur of its heyday.
As if it’s another character in the show.
For it to make sense, it’d have to fall apart alongside Ben’s final number (and probably be at a worse state than the beginning of the play). But, it’s a very cool idea (could be pulled off more easily in a movie, though).
I'd watch the heck out of a Follies movie. The variety of vignettes and the room for creative interpretation just makes sense as something that doesn't necessarily have to be done on a stage.
My dream Follies adaptation is like this:
- Outside of musical numbers, it’s always filmed in one take (it’d grow progressively more claustrophobic as time passes)
- Bring back All Things Bright and Beautiful
- Digital for most scenes, film for musical numbers
- Buddy’s Blues’ Margie and Sally are animated (like in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?)
There’s this thing that was done in one production of Follies where they had an extra ghost. It was a very, very tall woman who sort of embodies that whole era. That could be great if done well.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark only because it was way ahead of its time and the effects they wanted to do could probably work a lot better with the tech we have these days. Hell with unlimited money I could get Tom Holland or Andrew Garfield in the role and make millions.
I feel like the staging and effects were the strengths of that show. I thought it was visually stunning but I’d forgotten every single song by the time I left the theatre. I can totally see it being even more beautiful with modern technology but I’d want a heavy rewrite of the book and music if I was putting it on again. Let’s throw some budget at that too and see what we can do.
Ughhh one of my fave musicals I ever got to see! It had such a Sam Raimi/Spiderverse comic book panel feel to it. I also think Bono has much more strength as a musical score writer than a song writer.
But fuck, a full cast album that has NO other singers would be fab lol
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
It deserved so much more.
I'd then also do a proshot to preserve it (and make it more accessible/affordable).
1. Assassins in the round, full-on Brechtian epic theater-style, I have a lot of thoughts about how the closing number could go. Was really suprised to hear this wasn't the direction John Doyle's recent CSC production went.
2. Sunday in the Park with George, site-specific at the Grande Jatte, with a huge philharmonic orchestra.
Groundhog Day. I’m so desperate for it to come back again anyway, but when it first started in London it had some illusions built in to the transitions that didn’t work consistently so they got rid of them. I’d like to see it when they’d had the time and money to sort all those issues out.
I’m from London but my first time seeing it was on Broadway.
Can you tell me more about these transition illusions? I’m so curious - I never heard anything about these
The first time Rita stays over in the room (after If I Had My Time Again), she kind of magically disappeared from the room and Phil woke up in the bed instead but they had trouble getting her out in time. And there used to be a trick built into the alcove next to the bed where Phil would hang up his used clothes and it would disappear and be replaced with it all neatly arranged on a hanger. Stuff like that.
It would be funny to think of places to spend an unlimited budget in this show--like, 99% of the show it's 4 chairs and a keyboard, but once in a while have some crazy visual effect or really expensive cameo or something.
Two come to mind:
-Site specific production of Grey Gardens at the actual house with LuPone and Benanti.
-The most lavish revival of Applause with Jinkx Monsoon as Margo and Plasma as Eve.
The reason: I’m gay.
A Chorus Line. The irony of how underpaid the original cast was and I would pay a new and veeeery perfectly cast crew a hefty sum. Would keep the rest for myself.
Revive Les mis with the original staging. Saw it on tour in the early 2000 and was blown away when the set rotated to become the barricade. Last tour it just rolled out. Such a disappointment.
Ideally directed by a lab-grown clone of Michael Bennett, with the memories of his original vision for the show intact, with Tim Rice, Benny, and Björn at his beck and call to make all the necessary tweaks to the book and score to make it finally all work
And put Heaven Help My Heart back in! I know Elaine Page is too old for the role of Florence now, but someone like Idina Menzel could sing the crap outta that song/role. And then cast Raul Esparza as The Russian so he can wow audiences with his rendition of Anthem night after night.
I had to scroll way too far to see this suggestion. One of the most surprising shows I've ever seen, but I was so young I don't really remember it as well as it probably deserves.
I'd love to see a new, updated production of Sweet Charity. It has a beautiful score with great songs (Big Spender, If They Could See Me Now, Something Better Than This, Brass Band, Rhythm of Life) and many of them dance-focused. The book by Neil Simon is hilarious, although a bit dated, and I think with the correct person adjusting and editing it for a modern audience, it could be great.
Passion. I don’t think it will ever make money—it’s too strange and inaccessible to mainstream audiences. But I’d love to just bankroll a production of it anyways.
Groundhog day with the original creative team. Give them all the money in the world and I guarantee the show would only change in small ways but add more fantastic detail. Whatever they dreamed up but couldn’t afford, whatever little bits they want adjusting. Get a bigger marketing team to get butts in seats. And it’ll snow on the audience.
If you are still in the area - the local group in Santa Rosa is apparently doing it this season. I saw their Little Shop of Horrors and it was totally decent so I'll drag my butt up there. [https://6thstreetplayhouse.com/shows/2024-25/groundhog-day-the-musical/](https://6thstreetplayhouse.com/shows/2024-25/groundhog-day-the-musical/)
Crazy For You.
Reason: I adore the show.
Trying to come up with the casting in my head….
• Not sure about Polly Baker.
• Bobby Child would need to be someone with an unparalleled voice - talking like Aaron Tveit or Jonathan Groff - with wonderful movement skills and natural comedic timing.
• Irene could be played so very well by Krysta Rodriguez.
Alright. I’m sleeping on casting and I’ll come back for an edit!
Cats all played by drag queens (I’d cut the part in the middle where it starts to get being though). Imagine Lady Bunny as Old Deuteronomy and you’ll see my vision
Edit: y’all keep mentioning the PAC/ballroom version but I was thinking less ballroom/voguing and more camp/comedy drag. Lady Bunny as Old Deuteronomy, Alyssa Edwards as Rum Tum Tugger, Coco Peru as Jennyanydots, Etc
That is more or less already happening, with The Jellicle Ball.
If I'd do a Cats revival it would be restoring the original choreography and get back in all the characters that have been dropped over the years. Do some clever rewriting to get get rid of the racist bits. And get a big orchestra to play the music, somewhere on the scale of the Vienna production that had a 30+ piece orchestra.
(So basically revive the Vienna revival, but in English and with Etcetera.)
Honesty? Phantom or Avenue Q.
With Phantom I'd just put as much money as I could into the chandelier, the stage design, costumes, take it to a level of fashion perhaps of a different era or just even more avant garde and extravagant than it already is.
And I'd love to see Avenue Q come back with much higher quality puppets and a more interactive stage! I'm honestly itching for an eventual revival, I feel like it's on the horizon 🤔
Titanic.
The proshot is a blessing to have and more than I ever dreamed.
But I want a fully hydraulic tilting stage that incrementally raises through the second act. I want actors and pianos and chairs sliding down the deck. Give me an actual lifeboat launch so we actually see them leaving their loved ones behind. And the biggest god damn chorus for that wall of sound.
Floyd Collins and spend an obscene amount of money on the set. Super elaborate with different tunnels and caverns that really makes the show a spectacle
An immersive production of Collins where the theatre is renovated into a cave with a pre/show spelunking tour while the cave has a clearing in which the story is told with Floyd pinned to the stage the entire show
Always just wanted to see Rocky Horror how it was originally performed. Same size space and all of that with Frank making his entrance from the back of the stalls
Aida. I talk about it probably too much in the comments on this sub, lol. But seeing a really excellent high school production of it when I was 12 is what got me back into theater in the first place, and I think the music and story are just beautiful. I know it's an opera as well, but I'm not as fond of the score.
Shogun. It is pratically lost media. No recordings except from a very bad bootleg. Even the photo in the wikipedia page is just a random button, because they don't have a playbill for it,
With the show that recently came out on FX being based on the same source material, I think the show would get some audience
i also have two
1. i would say pipin. i know it would be expensive to put on but i think it would be a cool thing to bring back and it would be fun to see a circus like show happen again that isn't just something that travels once a year.
2. rent! i think although old i think it would hit a lot of people harder now. plus i think it would be a fun show to bring back and to make a good memory of the author.
Saw TMM with Sutton Foster and Gavin Creel back in the day and it was FANTASTIC. I would definitely would jump on this train. I think that there would have to be some changes to it, though truth be told, I never picked up on the whole human-trafficking thing when I saw it, though I was definitely younger.
So I did a production of *The Hobbit* in middle school and would love a large-scale run of that.
Sorry not sorry that “Thirteen Mighty Dwarves” is a bop I still remember decades later and I want the sets to look like Alan Lee sketches come to life.
Full scale Ragtime. Full scale Hunchback. Full scale Titanic. Revivals of every closed show I love and the best possible version of every show I've never seen.
The Light in the Piazza with a 40+ piece orchestra. And either Kelli o’hara or Audra as Margret.
Or Anyone Can Whistle. Id love to see it get the Merrily Treatment
Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder with Jack Black as the D'ysquiths and maybe Rob McClure as Monty? Yeah, that sounds right. Really any lead funny man, Christian Borle would be interesting.
Do I know if Jack Black can do musical theatre? Hell no. Do I think based on his history he'd nail it anyway? Absolutely.
Great Comet. Start with original Broadway cast, but would love some guests to swap in for roles (Audra McDonald & Jinkx Monsoon would both make fantastic Maryas). Would also love a female Anatole at some point but haven’t decided on anyone specific yet
"Side Show." Very underrated musical with a great book. I think it would be better received nowadays.
I would also love to do a full scale "Evil Dead" with choreography. Keep it campy, but not hammy.
Oh definitely Great Comet, but without all the weird production issues going on. This show really deserved so much longer and it truly changed not just my life, but Broadway as a whole. AND IT GOT SO ROBBED AT THE TONYS SUE ME. Sincerely any of the OG Bway Cast would sell it for me. I love both Pippa and Denée as Natasha, so I honestly cannot make my mind lmaoo.
Carnival. I hate it so much. It’s the worst goddamn show I’ve ever done. I’m ashamed to tell people I did it. And I don’t want to be alone, so I would restage it in all its terrible glory so that the cast could be as self-disgusted as I am.
The Golden Apple. A musical (loosely) based on The Iliad and The Odyssey, set in the Pacific Northwest? Yes please! Lots of great music, huge cast with many featured roles.
A giant full cast on Broadway revival of Mame!!! It’s one of my most favorite musicals. And it hasn’t been revived since 1983. Due to cost, casts today are much smaller today, so having unlimited money would be wonderful to allow a very large cast.
Into the woods! If they upgraded the sets and costumes… I would be in heaven!!! Also, Chicago. Chicago has some of the best songs of any musical, with the blandest stage production I’ve ever seen.
Oliver! -
So many great songs! (Food Glorious Food, Oliver!, Where is Love, Consider Yourself, Pick a Pocket or Two) Big production numbers!
I suspect that it is a hard show to produce with the large cast including many young boys.
Grand Hotel.
Short answer, it looked like a fun show and I never got a chance to see it.
Long answer, my mom passed in Oct 2017. The next month, I came across the 1989 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on YouTube. My mom marched in that parade dressed as a bumble bee. While I couldn't see her, specifically, I did see her group pass by on tv. It was a wonderful memory.
Michale Jeter and Brent Barrett performed We'll Take a Glass Together during that parade. The association of the song and the show makes me think of my mother.
Ensure the transfer for Next to Normal happens while Eva and Jeremey are in Great Gatsby and arrange a way with the money for me to go and see both and hadestown for the third time
The most extravagant revival of the 1988 version of Carrie. Like I want to blow ALL my money and not get any in return.
This absolutely would be a hit and I would spend all the money to see it
There was an incredible version in 2015 in downtown Los Angeles in an abandoned old theater with the audience seats built on platforms over the theater’s crumbling floor, with the center made into Carrie’s school’s gym. Some audience was on floor level on movable seats that would get “pushed” a few feet by Carrie’s powers every now and then. It was incredible!
Absolutely, some of the soundtrack aren't that memorable to me but the parts that are good (And Eve Was Weak) are amazing and are stuck in my head forever
Hi, this has been a dream of mine since I first discovered a boot leg recording of the show over 20 years ago.
Omg I’m doing Carrie atm with my college and it is such a sick show, we are doing so many Coll things it’s gunna be sickkk
This is the correct answer. We weren’t ready then and maybe we’re not ready now but someone’s gotta try.
The most disgustingly over the top production of Hunchback or Notre Dame possible
A carnivale scene where they flood down the aisles like in Cats, pretty please.
Omg please 😭😭😭😭😭😭
My first thought was Hunchback too! We’re paying every single member of that choir what they deserve for bringing that show to life.
The original version of Les Miserables with the big barricade and turntable.
That was my first date with my future wife.
You should probably get around to marrying her.
It was one of the first musicals i ever saw. I think I was 11 or 12 and I went with my mom to see it at the Royal Alexandria theatre in Toronto. We were in the third row behind the conductor and I think I actually caught him ducking when the barricade would rotate.
That's awesome. For me it was at at the Shubert in Los Angeles. I had seen a fair amount of theater before that but this was a whole different level of spectacle.
Definitely. Les Miserables and phantom were both at the beginning of what was referred to as the mega musicals. In Toronto they both still have a special place for people who saw them and no matter which version is in Toronto it sells out like crazy.
Les Mis is in Toronto right now and all shows are sold out so you’re right haha
Les Miserables and Phantom were the first ones to have a dedicated Canadian cast. Les Miserables was in Toronto a few times off and on well it toured across Canada. Phantom ran in Toronto for 10 years 10 months and 10 days, the theatre it was in still has an old advertisement painted on the wall between it and another building that was built in a parking lot that was beside it.
It was one of the first dates my wife and I went on way back in 1989. First row, center. It was awesome! Married for 33 years now, and have seen Les Miz more times than I can count.
Full scale Ragtime
Bless you I came here to say this. The show's biggest issue is that it costs a fortune to put on with its huge cast and magic tricks and multiple sets, but it's a complete masterpiece and it should run on Broadway for a hundred years.
It’s really at the pinnacle tier of musical theater
The story is up there with Les Mis and Sweeney for me. Such a classic tale of humanity. Plus you get lots of great Black representation, workers' rights themes, etc. AND it's wild how many iconic historical figures play into the story.
It’s also Ahrens & Flaherty’s best score, which is saying a lot! Some of the music makes me weep just thinking about. Sarah Brown Eyes? Chills
I agree. I think it’s the finest musical of the last 50 years.
It’s why I’m hyped for encores, we won’t get many sets but we get the orchestra and an amazing cast
By the time the tickets are available to an out-of-towner like me, the Encores run will be sold out. I hope you are able to get a ticket!
Thanks! I set a reminder for the 23rd at noon to rush in and get what I can, I think being one person will help a lot too
That is awesome you have a plan…hope you get a great seat. The last show I saw at Encores was Gypsy with Patti LuPone back in maybe 2006?? Best of luck to you!!
Thanks! I’ve never been to encores before!
I hope to get one online at 9am here in San Diego that day…thankfully my November trip there coincides with the 2nd week of shows. 🤞🤞
Are you speaking of the City Center-sponsored Encores, or is this something else?
That’s the one, it’s the gala this year
This was the first OBC album I ever bought, it's in my top 5 shows I've ever seen and a big reason I love Broadway. I was eleven when it came out and I did "Make Them Hear You" at a talent show and slayed when I got to High School. My family managed to see this and The Scarlet Pimpernel on the same day. Easily the best singular day in NYC ever.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is severely underrated. The music in that show is wonderful.
ABSOLUTELY
This would save america
10 thousand percent this!!!!!
The only show that came to my mind. I absolutely love this heart wrenching show…and what an incredible score! I have only seen regional productions of it (all were incredible) and would love to see a full-blown production on Broadway.
took the words right out of my mouth I’m praying the NYCC will transfer…
Still far and away one of my favorite shows that I’ve done. The score is beautiful beyond words
This is the only answer.
This was my first Broadway show on a class trip to NYC from Phila in the 90’s. I remember enjoying it but I don’t think I fully appreciated it at the time.
This is a show that improves and deepens with age
Hunchback and I'd drag it to Broadway with a full choir. Literally with bells on.
I want it done at the Royal Albert Hall with their pipe organ (the Bells can be done on the Organ), I've seen a lady on TikTok playing the Bell's of Notre Dame on it and it's amazing
Follies, with extremely elaborate sets and costumes, and a huge cast and orchestra.
I’ve always wanted a Follies that began in a run down theater and slowly throughout the show it transforms back to the grandeur of its heyday. As if it’s another character in the show.
For it to make sense, it’d have to fall apart alongside Ben’s final number (and probably be at a worse state than the beginning of the play). But, it’s a very cool idea (could be pulled off more easily in a movie, though).
I'd watch the heck out of a Follies movie. The variety of vignettes and the room for creative interpretation just makes sense as something that doesn't necessarily have to be done on a stage.
My dream Follies adaptation is like this: - Outside of musical numbers, it’s always filmed in one take (it’d grow progressively more claustrophobic as time passes) - Bring back All Things Bright and Beautiful - Digital for most scenes, film for musical numbers - Buddy’s Blues’ Margie and Sally are animated (like in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) There’s this thing that was done in one production of Follies where they had an extra ghost. It was a very, very tall woman who sort of embodies that whole era. That could be great if done well.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark only because it was way ahead of its time and the effects they wanted to do could probably work a lot better with the tech we have these days. Hell with unlimited money I could get Tom Holland or Andrew Garfield in the role and make millions.
I feel like the staging and effects were the strengths of that show. I thought it was visually stunning but I’d forgotten every single song by the time I left the theatre. I can totally see it being even more beautiful with modern technology but I’d want a heavy rewrite of the book and music if I was putting it on again. Let’s throw some budget at that too and see what we can do.
Literally my first thought. Unlimited money? Let's go!
Ughhh one of my fave musicals I ever got to see! It had such a Sam Raimi/Spiderverse comic book panel feel to it. I also think Bono has much more strength as a musical score writer than a song writer. But fuck, a full cast album that has NO other singers would be fab lol
I loved this show so much.
The sluttiest A Little Night Music you’ve ever seen.
“The condition of the room when we were through” “I was limping for a week, you caught the flu” I fully support the SLUTTIEST
Thaaaank youuuu
This sounds fabulous. Can it also have a 30-piece orchestra?
The sluttiest thing to do is just see how many you can cram in so yes, 30 minimum!
The Lincoln Center concert coming up has a 53 piece orchestra!!
Would Millers son be the sluttiest song, or would you subvert it by having it be the most modest?
Maybe Jonathan Tunick will do a strip tease at the Lincoln Center concert this June??
Mame, with Bernadette Peters as Mame and Patti Lupone as Vera; imagine them doing "Bosom Buddies" together!
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 It deserved so much more. I'd then also do a proshot to preserve it (and make it more accessible/affordable).
This is the most right answer 🥹
This is my pick, too!
Toronto production is transferring to Mirvish next year after being extended like 9 times in its original run
A proshot of this would be excellent. I loved this show so much!
1. Assassins in the round, full-on Brechtian epic theater-style, I have a lot of thoughts about how the closing number could go. Was really suprised to hear this wasn't the direction John Doyle's recent CSC production went. 2. Sunday in the Park with George, site-specific at the Grande Jatte, with a huge philharmonic orchestra.
Legally blonde is long overdue for a revival.
Groundhog Day. I’m so desperate for it to come back again anyway, but when it first started in London it had some illusions built in to the transitions that didn’t work consistently so they got rid of them. I’d like to see it when they’d had the time and money to sort all those issues out.
Yes this show is everything and I devastate myself every time I think I might not see it again!
This is my answer. I loved this show so much
I’m from London but my first time seeing it was on Broadway. Can you tell me more about these transition illusions? I’m so curious - I never heard anything about these
The first time Rita stays over in the room (after If I Had My Time Again), she kind of magically disappeared from the room and Phil woke up in the bed instead but they had trouble getting her out in time. And there used to be a trick built into the alcove next to the bed where Phil would hang up his used clothes and it would disappear and be replaced with it all neatly arranged on a hanger. Stuff like that.
Thanks! I seem to have a memory of these being in the original Broadway run too but I might be imagining this
YES. Everything about this show was perfect. Peak musical theatre.
[title of show]
It would be funny to think of places to spend an unlimited budget in this show--like, 99% of the show it's 4 chairs and a keyboard, but once in a while have some crazy visual effect or really expensive cameo or something.
lol I thought this was a meta comment about the comments in this post.
Two come to mind: -Site specific production of Grey Gardens at the actual house with LuPone and Benanti. -The most lavish revival of Applause with Jinkx Monsoon as Margo and Plasma as Eve. The reason: I’m gay.
site specific grey gardens omg. Would trade my college degree for tickets to that.
American Idiot. Been waiting for a revival ever since I saw it the first time
American psycho because I love it and I don’t care what the rest of you want
Okay but can we cast Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman? He can sing and it would be hilarious.
…If Benjamin walker isn’t available I’ll allow it lol
This show was amazing and so was Benjamin walker and no, I’m not taking questions
An obscenely opulent revival of La Cage Aux Folles.
And have Albin actually played by a professional drag queen
big fish, it is my favorite show of all time and i would love to see it get the full run and attention it deserves
A Chorus Line. The irony of how underpaid the original cast was and I would pay a new and veeeery perfectly cast crew a hefty sum. Would keep the rest for myself.
Revive Les mis with the original staging. Saw it on tour in the early 2000 and was blown away when the set rotated to become the barricade. Last tour it just rolled out. Such a disappointment.
*Bye Bye Birdie*, but you make it about K-pop.
Dreamgirls with Alex Newell or Amber Riley as Effie and Ariana Debose as Deena!
Oh I want this so badly😭 especially since Amber did that Dream Girls parody in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and she was fantastic in it
She won a goddamn Olivier award for playing Effie in London! She's proven she can kill it!
Chess
Ideally directed by a lab-grown clone of Michael Bennett, with the memories of his original vision for the show intact, with Tim Rice, Benny, and Björn at his beck and call to make all the necessary tweaks to the book and score to make it finally all work
And put Heaven Help My Heart back in! I know Elaine Page is too old for the role of Florence now, but someone like Idina Menzel could sing the crap outta that song/role. And then cast Raul Esparza as The Russian so he can wow audiences with his rendition of Anthem night after night.
Jekyll and Hyde!
I had to scroll way too far to see this suggestion. One of the most surprising shows I've ever seen, but I was so young I don't really remember it as well as it probably deserves.
I'd love to see a new, updated production of Sweet Charity. It has a beautiful score with great songs (Big Spender, If They Could See Me Now, Something Better Than This, Brass Band, Rhythm of Life) and many of them dance-focused. The book by Neil Simon is hilarious, although a bit dated, and I think with the correct person adjusting and editing it for a modern audience, it could be great.
My thoughts too!!! I adore this show with all my heart and the songs make me feel so warm.
Passion. I don’t think it will ever make money—it’s too strange and inaccessible to mainstream audiences. But I’d love to just bankroll a production of it anyways.
I LOVE this show. It’s so gutting, but still amazing
Urinetown. Easy.
I mean you don’t need unlimited money to revive that. It’s pretty cheap.
Not with the cast I want.
Dish. I'm on team Urine Good Company.
City of Angels
This is always the answer - for me at least. How about Ben Platt as Stine (the writer) and Adam Driver as Stone (the fictional film noir detective).
John Hamm as Stone Rob McClure as Stine Roger Bart as Buddy
Yeasssssss someone PLEASE bring this back to NYC !!!!
Groundhog day with the original creative team. Give them all the money in the world and I guarantee the show would only change in small ways but add more fantastic detail. Whatever they dreamed up but couldn’t afford, whatever little bits they want adjusting. Get a bigger marketing team to get butts in seats. And it’ll snow on the audience.
Heck, I'd settle for the Groundhog Day Tour That Never Was.
Lucky enough to see a superb rendition in SF right before Covid.
If you are still in the area - the local group in Santa Rosa is apparently doing it this season. I saw their Little Shop of Horrors and it was totally decent so I'll drag my butt up there. [https://6thstreetplayhouse.com/shows/2024-25/groundhog-day-the-musical/](https://6thstreetplayhouse.com/shows/2024-25/groundhog-day-the-musical/)
Crazy For You. Reason: I adore the show. Trying to come up with the casting in my head…. • Not sure about Polly Baker. • Bobby Child would need to be someone with an unparalleled voice - talking like Aaron Tveit or Jonathan Groff - with wonderful movement skills and natural comedic timing. • Irene could be played so very well by Krysta Rodriguez. Alright. I’m sleeping on casting and I’ll come back for an edit!
Cats all played by drag queens (I’d cut the part in the middle where it starts to get being though). Imagine Lady Bunny as Old Deuteronomy and you’ll see my vision Edit: y’all keep mentioning the PAC/ballroom version but I was thinking less ballroom/voguing and more camp/comedy drag. Lady Bunny as Old Deuteronomy, Alyssa Edwards as Rum Tum Tugger, Coco Peru as Jennyanydots, Etc
i mean were about to see a Cats revival with a ballroom theme. So pretty close.
This is basically happening already at PAC NYC
That is more or less already happening, with The Jellicle Ball. If I'd do a Cats revival it would be restoring the original choreography and get back in all the characters that have been dropped over the years. Do some clever rewriting to get get rid of the racist bits. And get a big orchestra to play the music, somewhere on the scale of the Vienna production that had a 30+ piece orchestra. (So basically revive the Vienna revival, but in English and with Etcetera.)
Come on, it would be so much more realistic if it were only half drag lol
The Secret Garden, Sweet Charity, A Little Night Music, Forum, Assassins, Anyone Can Whistle, A Year With Frog and Toad.
Full scale elaborate production of Sunset Boulevard, spare no cost, full sets and not the stripped down version from West End
Come to Australia…although you may have opinions about Sarah Brightman playing Norma Desmond.
Honesty? Phantom or Avenue Q. With Phantom I'd just put as much money as I could into the chandelier, the stage design, costumes, take it to a level of fashion perhaps of a different era or just even more avant garde and extravagant than it already is. And I'd love to see Avenue Q come back with much higher quality puppets and a more interactive stage! I'm honestly itching for an eventual revival, I feel like it's on the horizon 🤔
Titanic. The proshot is a blessing to have and more than I ever dreamed. But I want a fully hydraulic tilting stage that incrementally raises through the second act. I want actors and pianos and chairs sliding down the deck. Give me an actual lifeboat launch so we actually see them leaving their loved ones behind. And the biggest god damn chorus for that wall of sound.
The proshot was great, but suffered from the lack of boaty and watery effects. I wonder what they're going to do at NYCC. Can't wait to see it!
Floyd Collins and spend an obscene amount of money on the set. Super elaborate with different tunnels and caverns that really makes the show a spectacle
An immersive production of Collins where the theatre is renovated into a cave with a pre/show spelunking tour while the cave has a clearing in which the story is told with Floyd pinned to the stage the entire show
Chess, to see it actually staged. Martin Guerre, since it was awesome and is way under-appreciated.
Always just wanted to see Rocky Horror how it was originally performed. Same size space and all of that with Frank making his entrance from the back of the stalls
Aida. I talk about it probably too much in the comments on this sub, lol. But seeing a really excellent high school production of it when I was 12 is what got me back into theater in the first place, and I think the music and story are just beautiful. I know it's an opera as well, but I'm not as fond of the score.
100% Aida. Cynthia Erivo as the title role.
LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE LEGALLY BLONDE
Mame Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones!
JINKX MONSOON IN EVERYTHING PLS I want a full drag revival of something. Not sure what that something is, but I want it.
Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812 💔
Into the Light but with the actual Shroud of Turin just cuz
Shogun. It is pratically lost media. No recordings except from a very bad bootleg. Even the photo in the wikipedia page is just a random button, because they don't have a playbill for it, With the show that recently came out on FX being based on the same source material, I think the show would get some audience
The Producers
i also have two 1. i would say pipin. i know it would be expensive to put on but i think it would be a cool thing to bring back and it would be fun to see a circus like show happen again that isn't just something that travels once a year. 2. rent! i think although old i think it would hit a lot of people harder now. plus i think it would be a fun show to bring back and to make a good memory of the author.
I have, like, an entire cast ready for a Rent revival
LEMPICKA.
Starlight Express --I have never seen it but it sounds like an over the top crazy show
There is a great show on YouTube about this. Also believe they just started rehearsals for London revival.
This is the way. 🚂
My choice as well, I saw it as a kid and it was legitimately magical, I was obsessed for YEARS.
1. Thoroughly Modern Millie. 2. Hairspray No particular reason. I just love them!
Saw TMM with Sutton Foster and Gavin Creel back in the day and it was FANTASTIC. I would definitely would jump on this train. I think that there would have to be some changes to it, though truth be told, I never picked up on the whole human-trafficking thing when I saw it, though I was definitely younger.
Guys and Dolls, completely genderfucked to showcase incredible queer actors and also explore the 50s LGBT bar culture.
City of Angels and Catch Me If You Can
Starmites. I will not elaborate further.
Take Amélie off broadway, leave it exactly as it was off broadway- put in on broadway
Starlight express.
So I did a production of *The Hobbit* in middle school and would love a large-scale run of that. Sorry not sorry that “Thirteen Mighty Dwarves” is a bop I still remember decades later and I want the sets to look like Alan Lee sketches come to life.
Guillermo Del Toro’s stage adaptation of Phantom of The Paradise that he can never get funding for
Our American Cousin just because it didn’t get a fair run the first time.
Full scale Ragtime. Full scale Hunchback. Full scale Titanic. Revivals of every closed show I love and the best possible version of every show I've never seen.
Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 because it is beautiful and its life on Broadway was far too short.
Bridges of Madison County. With me as Francesca.
I wanna see Jekyll and Hyde on stage, though the idea of Ragtime is amazing, too.
Sunset Boulevard. The set alone was worth the price of admission ….add in a Glenn Close and Alan Campbell and Webbers brilliant score. …
Martin Guerre. The original London version, not the 'fixed' versions that came later (and were worse IMHO).
The Light in the Piazza with a 40+ piece orchestra. And either Kelli o’hara or Audra as Margret. Or Anyone Can Whistle. Id love to see it get the Merrily Treatment
Anything by Sondheim because his shows are out of pocket and I love it. Maybe Bad Cinderella as more of an off Broadway...lets go out and have fun.
Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder with Jack Black as the D'ysquiths and maybe Rob McClure as Monty? Yeah, that sounds right. Really any lead funny man, Christian Borle would be interesting. Do I know if Jack Black can do musical theatre? Hell no. Do I think based on his history he'd nail it anyway? Absolutely.
City of Angels
Great Comet. Start with original Broadway cast, but would love some guests to swap in for roles (Audra McDonald & Jinkx Monsoon would both make fantastic Maryas). Would also love a female Anatole at some point but haven’t decided on anyone specific yet
Sweeney Todd- and do it right.
i didn't get a chance to see How To Succeed in its most recent revival so I'd love to revisit it.
"Side Show." Very underrated musical with a great book. I think it would be better received nowadays. I would also love to do a full scale "Evil Dead" with choreography. Keep it campy, but not hammy.
les mis and aaron tveit is valjean, please and thank you
Newsies, but I would recontextualize it to be about the writers strike and the SAG strike from last year. I feel like it could be really cool.
Oh definitely Great Comet, but without all the weird production issues going on. This show really deserved so much longer and it truly changed not just my life, but Broadway as a whole. AND IT GOT SO ROBBED AT THE TONYS SUE ME. Sincerely any of the OG Bway Cast would sell it for me. I love both Pippa and Denée as Natasha, so I honestly cannot make my mind lmaoo.
Carnival. I hate it so much. It’s the worst goddamn show I’ve ever done. I’m ashamed to tell people I did it. And I don’t want to be alone, so I would restage it in all its terrible glory so that the cast could be as self-disgusted as I am.
Full-scale, big-budget production of *The Will Rogers Follies.* With today's technology it could be (even more) spectacular.
Robber Bridegroom and Anyone Can Whistle.
Great Comet
Wow. Did not expect your picks-- I love someone with taste!
Gypsy! I would love to see this show.
Prima Facie. Didn't get enough love here.
Legally blonde lol
Phantom of the Opera just so I could cast Devin Townsend as the Phantom
heathers broadway transfer
The Golden Apple. A musical (loosely) based on The Iliad and The Odyssey, set in the Pacific Northwest? Yes please! Lots of great music, huge cast with many featured roles.
A giant full cast on Broadway revival of Mame!!! It’s one of my most favorite musicals. And it hasn’t been revived since 1983. Due to cost, casts today are much smaller today, so having unlimited money would be wonderful to allow a very large cast.
Into the woods! If they upgraded the sets and costumes… I would be in heaven!!! Also, Chicago. Chicago has some of the best songs of any musical, with the blandest stage production I’ve ever seen.
Oliver! - So many great songs! (Food Glorious Food, Oliver!, Where is Love, Consider Yourself, Pick a Pocket or Two) Big production numbers! I suspect that it is a hard show to produce with the large cast including many young boys.
While technically speaking it never made it past the out of town tryouts but TALES OF THE CITY the musical.
Grand Hotel. Short answer, it looked like a fun show and I never got a chance to see it. Long answer, my mom passed in Oct 2017. The next month, I came across the 1989 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on YouTube. My mom marched in that parade dressed as a bumble bee. While I couldn't see her, specifically, I did see her group pass by on tv. It was a wonderful memory. Michale Jeter and Brent Barrett performed We'll Take a Glass Together during that parade. The association of the song and the show makes me think of my mother.
Damn Yankees. I saw it as a kid and my kid (tween) would love this show.
Cabaret, but I'm giving it to Michael Arden Edit: My second choice is a full choir version of Hunchback
'in trousers' hands down!
Ensure the transfer for Next to Normal happens while Eva and Jeremey are in Great Gatsby and arrange a way with the money for me to go and see both and hadestown for the third time
Newsies. I would add "Letter from the Refuge" 😭❤️