TOP TEN: SHOW'S WE'D REVIVE OFF BROADWAY
TOP TEN SHOWS WE'D REVIVE OFF BROADWAY
10)
RICKY'S CHOICE - A FEW GOOD MEN - Okay, all cards on the table here. I meant for this to go in my Top 10 Broadway Revivals list. But really,there has been a revival of this play in the works for around 5 years now, that I'm starting to become worried it may not ever happen. Problem solved: Make it an Off Broadway revival. I first saw this play(before I even saw the movie) in a very small regional theater, proving that this is a fine choice for an Off Broadway space. Aaron Sorkin is a genius. Although his work in cinema and TV has been perfect, it would be a nice reminder that the man started his career writing for the theatre. Plus, based on his name and the popularity of the movie, it would sell tickets and could run Off Broadway for a while. It is one of my favorite plays and I'd love a revival of it, on or off Broadway.
MATEO'S CHOICE: DEBBIE D0ES DALLAS THE MUSICAL - It sounds like a joke, but it's actually quite a hilarious show. Based on the 1978 pornographic movie of the same name, the show follows Debbie and her friends as they try to become Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders by any means necessary. BY ANY MEANS. Unlike the actual film, the show doesn't contain any actual sex or nudity but some very funny musical numbers stand in for them. A pre-Next to Normal Tom Kitt worked on the show along with several others. First premiering at the NY International Fringe Festival it eventually made its way Off-Broadway at the now defunct Jane Street Theatre and starred Sherie Rene Scott in the title role. The soundtrack contains much of the dialogue from the film and is a strong reminder of how clever and ridiculous this little show is.
9)
RICKY'S CHOICE: FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE - This show is blast from start to finish. The musical, featuring hit songs from by Louis Jordan, has a feel of an all man version of Ain't Misbehavin. It has a brassy upbeat score and throughout the show, breaks the fourth wall with plenty of audience participation. It was be a perfect Off Broadway revival.
MATEO'S CHOICE: FLOYD COLLINS - A beautiful and heartbreaking musical that only ran Off-Broadway for 25 performances, Flloyd Collins deserves a much longer run. It follows the story of Flloyd Collins who, while exploring Sand Cave, falls through a tight passageway and becomes stuck between rocks. His family and friends desperately try to save him, all the while relaying stories to him to keep his spirits up. Think 127 Hours as a musical, and you're halfway there. The music is Bluegrass, Americana stylings, and is as beautiful as it is original. A long Off-Broadway run here in the city is just what we need!
8)
RICKY'S CHOICE: THE FOREIGNER - The reason this hilarious comedy by Larry Shue makes my Top 10 is because it is wonderfully tourist friendly. The audience eats this show up! The characters are very over the top and lovable. I could see this play having a good run at somewhere like the West Side Theater. For such a crowd pleaser, this play should be produced soon.
MATEO'S CHOICE: YEAST NATION - I had the pleasure of seeing this, the follow up to their smash hit Urinetown, at the NY Fringe Festival starring Harriet Harris. Sadly, since then it's never shown back up in New York. An Off Broadway run would be a huge hit for this satire. It's set in the year 3,000,458,000 BC and everyone in the cast play salt-eating yeasts, as they are the only living beings on earth. There's a food shortage and an unknown affection that has appeared called "love." So the King's son dreams of a better life and starts his journey to rise to the top. Even writing that description sounds totallybonkers but trust me that it's side splitting hilarious and the score is ridiculously good. One day, Yeast. One day...
7)
RICKY'S CHOICE: A NEW BRAIN - It wouldn't be a Top 10 Revivals list without me including a William Finn musical. He is one of my favorite composers and A New Brain is one of his best! He wrote this show after his own experience with a possibly life ending surgery. The score is honest and heartbreaking, yet still has Finn's ongoing humor about it all. This summer at Encores, Jonathan Groff will be starring in a limited engagement of this show. Hopefully the success of that production will spark another open ended run soon.
MATEO'S CHOICE: HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME - OK, so this seems like a totally ridiculous choice, but hear me out. Last season, Kenny Leon directed this massive Broadway misfire set to Tupac Shakur's music. It was rushed to Broadway, without an out of town pre-Broadway run, with a rushed badly scripted book, and barely a scenic design in sight. It opened at the far too large Palace Theatre in the Summer and was swallowed whole in less than two months. However, if they would have tested it out of town, rewrote that terrible and trivial book, and set it downtown in a small, intimate setting, then I truly feel it would have been the worthy show of the legacy of Tupac Shakur. Restage it with a reworked book downtown on a stage set like an actual alley. Have it emersive, edgy, powerful. Now THAT could be a show to rival the upcoming Hamilton.
6)
RICKY'S CHOICE: SOMEONE WHO'LL WATCH OVER ME - Having only read this play, I have wanted to see of production of it since high school. It is perfect for an Off Broadway run. It only has a 3 person cast and doesn't need much as far as production design. This is a play about brotherhood and friendship. It focuses on an Irishman, an Englishman, and an American who are being held hostage by Arabians in Lebanon. Throughout the play, they strip away their personal differences in order to help each other survive. Depressing? Yes. And deeply powerful.
MATEO'S CHOICE: REQUIEM - Jerome McDonough's stunning one act play Requiem is a war play. Not that it takes place during a war, but it takes place in a world, our world, that's been shattered by one war after another. Millions have died. No one remembers why they were fighting anymore. It's a broken world. The story revolves mostly around a Mother and her family and she watches her family one by one taken away and she finally runs away with her children, to escape this dark world she has inherited. A Javert like Sergeant follows her, determined to prove that no one can escape this world. It's powerful, brutal, and breathtaking. New York needs to see this in its city. What an impact it would make.
5)
RICKY'S CHOICE: THE BURNT PART BOYS - After seeing this in its limited run at Playwrights Horizons five years ago, it remains one of the best Off Broadway musicals I've seen. It deserves another open ended run. The score has a unique bluegrass feel to it as well as a touching story about fathers and sons. The original production had very minimal design, using only ropes and ladders to create a small mining town community. It is another musical that is rarely down even in regional theaters and I wish more people could enjoy this simply powerful musical.
MATEO'S CHOICE: LOVESICK - LOFT ensemble came crashing into NY from LA in 2012 and brought their play with music Lovesick with them. It premiered at the 2012 NY Fringe Festival and was epically beautiful. Written, Directed, and starring Larissa Wise, it follows Benjamin, a man who loves the darkness so much he lives in a graveyard with his best friend. They wax poetically, have jam sessions, play cards and soon discover a new way of thinking by way of Sophia, a girl made up of rainbows. She skips through the graveyard one night with her friends and they are instantly drawn to each other. Think of it as a love story, told in rhyme, funneled through Tim Burton's mind. Similar in concept to the just closed Nevermore, Lovesick grabs the heartstrings much more and would absolutely KILL in this town with a longer run. Or maybe I just miss it so.
4)
RICKY'S CHOICE: ZANNA DON'T - Talk about a feel good musical with an important message. Set in a world where homosexuality is the norm and to be straight is socially strange, this musical is fun and creative show about acceptance. It could run well at New World Stages or maybe somewhere more downtown. Either way, I'd love to see another production of it.
MATEO'S CHOICE: ANGELS IN AMERICA - My vote is that every few years, a big Off Broadway production of Angels in America:Millennium Approaches and Angels in America:Perestroika should be required to be put up. Two of the most important American plays of our time, Tony Kushner's Tony award winning saga tells many tales, all through the cracked lens of the AIDS crisis in NYC in the 1980's. Epic both in scope and length, they are not only poetic, hilarious, heartbreaking, but also IMPORTANT. So, so very important.
3)
RICKY & MATEO'S CHOICE: BAT BOY - This show remains one of the most hilarious musicals I've ever seen. With the success of his new musicals like Heathers and Legally Blonde, it is the perfect time to have a revival of composer Laurence O'Keefe's best work! The musical is so unexpected and comically genius. It is a also great ensemble piece. A true definition of a "cult classic," Bat Boy has gained more and more fans over the years that would RUN out to see a revival of it in an intimate space around NYC's Off-Broadway scene.
2)
RICKY'S CHOICE: TABOO - I don't think Taboo ever got a fair shot on Broadway. There are numerous stories about all the drama producer Rosie O'Donnell caused. It opened during one of the most popular and most competitive seasons of Broadway(the year of Wicked, Avenue Q, and Hugh Jackman's The Boy From Oz). Ever since the show closed, I wondered how Boy George's musical would do in an Off Broadway house. It would be a risk but produce/market it well and it would have a shot. Boy George's score proved to be surprisingly effective and the London production played in a much smaller house,so an off Broadway theater could be possible. I adore this score and think it deserves another chance.
MATEO'S CHOICE: THE HALLWAY TRILOGY - Possibly my favorite project Adam Rapp has ever written, The Hallway Trilogy played at Rattlestick PLaywrights Theatre in 2011 and I hope it comes back soon. The trio of plays all take place in the same Hallway in NYC. The first play takes place in the 1950's, the second during the blackout in 2003, and the third is set in the future. All three have their own unique voices and are terribly original and hearfelt. If only more shows were.
1)
RICKY'S CHOICE: JASPER IN DEADLAND - How has this show not already transferred to New World Stages after their successful limited run at Prospect Theater last season?! It was my favorite musical I saw last year by far. The score was so refreshing and the staging was wonderfully creative. It is perfect show for teenagers as well. This show is too good to not have a longer run.
MATEO'S CHOICE: THE SHADOWBOX - Michael Cristofer's 1977 Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play has not seen the NY stage in years. It's about time to change that. Set all around a hospital in three separate vacation cabins with three families dying of undisclosed illnesses. There's the husband who's awaiting his son and his wife who can't quite step through the door and accept her husband's fate. There's the gay couple and the ex boozy wife who crashes the party. And there's the dying mother and the neglected daughter. A film adaption, directed by Paul Newman, won a Golden Globe in 1980. Powerful and prime work from some meaty roles for daring actors. It's an evening that'll be a three hankie kind of situation, but we all need a good cry every now and then.