by Nathaniel R
Uh-oh... The Tony Awards last month wrapped up the 2018/2019 season with a reminder that original musicals were doing just fine (The Prom is getting a film version, Hadestown remains a very hot ticket, and Tootsie has its diehard fans). Strangely, then, the 2019/2020 Broadway season is looking troubling from this distance. Of the six new musicals currently scheduled for the season NONE have original scores....
- Moulin Rouge! (currently in previews, opening July 25th) uses pop standards like the movie did though not all of the same ones.
- Freestyle Love Supreme (opening October 2nd) is more of a special event than a musical and has no score since its hiphop is improvised each night
- American Utopia (opening October 20th) is an adaptation of David Byrne's album of the same name
- Tina (opening November 7th) is a jukebox biography of Tina Turner.
- Jagged Little Pill (opening Dec 5th) an original story set to Alanis Morrissette music
- Girl from the North Country (opening March 5th) an original story using Bob Dylan music
Now it's rare to see a year with only 6 new musicals so you can expect at couple of more to be announced. But it's not good news for the artform or for one of the key Tony Award categories that there are still no original scores scheduled for Broadway this season. At least not yet. By way of comparison here's the past decade of Broadway seasons, the Tony Winners for Best Musical and Best Score, and how things shook out in terms of eventual quantity of originals that opened versus how many of them were 'jukebox musicals' i.e. using previously existing songs rather than new scores.
2019 Hadestown / Hadestown
11 originals, 3 of which were jukebox musicals
2018 The Band's Visit / The Band's Visit
7 originals, 3 of which were jukebox musicals
2017 Dear Evan Hansen / Dear Evan Hansen
13 originals, only 1 of which was a jukebox musical
2016 Hamiton / Hamilton
11 originals, 2 of which were jukebox musicals
2015 Fun Home / Fun Home
10 originals, 2 of which were jukebox musicals
2014 A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder/The Bridges of Madison County
12 originals, 4 of which were jukebox musicals. This is the only time in the past decade when the Best Musical winner was eligible for Best Score but didn't win. It's rare though though the Aughts were unusually volatile in this way with three instances of this occurring: 2009 (Billy Elliot vs Next to Normal) 2005 (Spamalot vs Light in the Piazza) 2002 (Thoroughly Modern Millie vs Urinetown)
2013 Kinky Boots/Kinky Boots
8 originals, only 1 of which was a jukebox musical
Jukebox musicals only came close to 50% of all musicals available in one of those years (2018 - a very weak year for Broadway musicals) but so far for 2020 they're 100% of the game. Yikes!
Unfortunately we couldn't find complete lists of eligible shows which opened in these years
2012 Once/Newsies How did Newsies win Original Score when, like Once, they used the songs from its movie in the stage version? Strange. I dont remember this situation/controversy. Anyone?
2011 The Book of Mormon / The Book of Mormon
2010 Memphis / Memphis
Though we're still early in the 2019/2020 season there are already more non-original score musicals scheduled to open than at any point in the past seven years. Curiously there are also no musical revivals scheduled yet though rumors are floating around as ever about shows that might happen. The only revivals officially announced are The Music Man and 1776 but both are scheduled for the 2020/2021 season instead. To make a long story short (too late) this might be a very weak theater season for musicals unless some of the shows in development are stealth-ready and charge forward with an eye to a golden window of opportunity to win Tonys without much competition.