Little Produced Best Musical Nominees

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Since 1949, the American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards have given out a Best Musical prize. This award is considered to be the crown jewel of the Broadway season, given to a show that in most cases is a history-making hit of its season. For the first seven years of the awards, only a winner was declared, but starting in 1956, nominees were honored as well. With the exception of 2020 and 2021, which were combined into one award season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a Best Musical winner and typically three fellow nominees every year.

The majority of Broadway’s Best Musical winners and nominees become some of the most produced shows in America and beyond, for decades to come. From 1957 winner My Fair Lady to 1977 winner Annie, from 1969 nominee Hair to 2009 nominee Next to Normal, the majority of shows that are honored in the Best Musical category are seen in many places following their Broadway bows. Most go on to tours, New York revivals, international premieres, professional regional productions, school and amateur licensing, and so on. 

But for a small number of the shows to be nominated for Best Musical, Broadway is one of the only places audiences will ever be able to see that piece.

Recently, the first-ever New York City revival of the 1966 musical Skyscraper is happening Off-Off-Broadway. If a theatergoer looks hard, they can sometimes find rare productions of Best Musical nominees like this one, that are infrequently produced! 

There are six main reasons that a musical that is well received and popular enough to receive a Best Musical Tony nomination might not have significant life after its Broadway run. The first is that the show is significantly linked to a star performance or star performances from its original cast. The second, similarly, is that the show is dependent on its original direction or choreography in order to be fully realized. The third is that the show was a lesser known nominee, usually from a Broadway season containing shorter runs, and as it follows has been less popular in licensing. The fourth is that the show has underlying source material that has provided a conflict. The fifth is that the show is “of its time”, that is to say it related to current events during its original production and is no longer seen as relevant. The sixth is plainly that the show did not receive an original cast recording and thus its legacy has been diminished since future generations can’t discover it this way, preventing revivals. 

Of course, contradictorily, there are many Best Musical nominees that are popular that also fall into each of the above categories! Funny Girl was significantly associated with its original star performance, but it is still revived. Hair was “of its time” but is often produced all over the globe. A Chorus Line is dependent on its original direction and choreography, but is done by many regional theaters and colleges each season. 

Star vehicle nominees that have been rarely seen since their original production include Jamaica, New Girl in Town, Redhead, and Coco. Jamaica is a fascinating 1957 star vehicle because it was originally written for Harry Belafonte, but then rewritten around the talents of Lena Horne, who replaced him. New Girl in Town and Redhead won Gwen Verdon consecutive Best Actress in a Musical Tony Awards in 1958 and 1959. Coco was a glamorous 1970 vehicle for Katharine Hepburn, who played Coco Chanel in this show that has been rarely staged since.

Director-choreographer as auteur shows that have been rarely seen since their original productions include Oh! What A Lovely War!, Big Deal, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, and Contact. Oh! What A Lovely War! was a 1964 revue about World War I and war in general, that was the brainchild of director Joan Littlewood (who is part of my new book Women Writing Musicals!). Big Deal was the last hurrah of the iconic director-choreographer-auteur Bob Fosse. Jerome Robbins’ Broadway was a showcase of work by the great Jerome Robbins, helmed by the man himself at the end of his career. (A rare large scale production of it happened at the MUNY several years back.) Contact, 2000’s Best Musical winner, has rarely been seen since its original Lincoln Center production created by Susan Stroman. 

Underappreciated nominees during seasons containing shorter runs that have had a relatively small footprint post-Broadway include Pipe Dream, Leader of the Pack, and The Civil War. 1956 saw only two Best Musical nominees: the winner, Damn Yankees and the lesser known Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Pipe Dream. Leader of the Pack, an early jukebox musical that did not get great reviews, was nominated during a season of the 1980s where the other two non-winner nominees were either closed or closed shortly after the Tony Awards. (This fun and poppy jukebox musical, about the life of Ellie Greenwich, is ripe for increased licensing in our current audience landscape!) The Civil War, a large scale show about America’s great conflict, was nominated during the 1999 season where all three non-winner nominees had shorter runs than desired. 

Shows with underlying source material that have impacted their post-Broadway success include Raisin and Sugar. Raisin, a gorgeous 1974 musical adaptation of Raisin in the Sun is often cast aside in favor of its much more well known play version. 1972’s Sugar shares source material with the newer Some Like It Hot, so one can predict less licensing of that title moving forward. 

While every show could technically be considered “of its time” by definition, examples of shows that are perceived as being “of their time” in a way that sometimes prevents future productions include The Me Nobody Knows and Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death. The Me Nobody Knows is a 1970 musical chronicling the lives of inner city youth. One of the first rock musicals to hit Broadway, both the show’s sound and topics covered are very much a function of 1970. That said, given its young roles, and energetic score, the show is a slam dunk for schools and community theaters who are able to tackle the time period context and challenges. Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death is a Melvin Van Peebles masterwork from 1971 that is dark, political, sexual, and like The Me and many other 1970s musicals, also about life on the streets. The show received new life in the 2000s when it was revived in New York and a 2020s Broadway revival has been announced, but the fascinating and bold piece spent years being rarely seen.

Musicals that might have received more productions in their post-Broadway life had they received an original cast recording include The Lieutenant, Quilters, and James Joyce’s The Dead. If a musical doesn’t receive a cast recording, it has greatly diminished odds of being popular in licensing since the public can’t discover the show on their own via audio documentation. It is relatively rare for a Broadway musical popular enough to attain Best Musical Tony nominee status to not be recorded, but as recordings are expensive, it’s not always possible for a show to get one. And of course a good amount of musicals were recorded originally on LP, but then not transferred to cassette, CD, and/or streaming, diminishing their knowability and thus their influence. The Lieutenant, a daring musical addressing the Vietnam War in 1975, Quilters, a 1984 musical about American pioneer women, and James Joyce’s The Dead, a 2000 musical based on a Joyce short story, unfortunately never received commercial cast recordings.

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