Trigger alert: If you’re a lover of brand-spankin’ new musicals, this article is gonna irritate you.  

While preparing for my State of the State of Broadway presentation, I dug up some data.

I wanted to know what was working NOW.  What was resonating with audiences.  What they wanted to see.  And what they were telling other people to see.

So I looked at the highest grossing new musicals (based on the weekly average of their run) of the last five years . . . excluding the megahits. 

Here comes that trigger, my original musical lovers.

4 out of the top 5 highest grossing new shows featured pre-existing music.  Yep, they were jukebox or bio musicals.  MJ, & Juliet, Moulin Rouge and Hell’s Kitchen.  (The 5th and only original in this group was Beetlejuice, by the way.)

(Side note – but another not insignificant detail – 4 out of 5 were also in theaters with over 1400 seats – could bigger theaters be returning to favor?)

What does this mean?

It means that when buying tickets to a musical – the music is the most important element – and an audience wants music that they know and love.

Now – before you blow your top – note that I did NOT say, “an audience wants music that has been on the radio,” although that can certainly help.

I said, “an audience wants music that they know and love.”

So, for us original musical purists out there – our job is not to complain about what the audience wants – they are the audience, after all.  We are here BECAUSE of them – so we must acknowledge what they are willing to pay for.  And give it to them. 

Honestly?  This isn’t new.  Andrew Lloyd Webber knew this way back in the 70s . . . which is one of the reasons he released Jesus Christ Superstar as a concept recording FIRST.  That music was everywhere, which made the musical take off faster as a result. (Lin-Manuel Miranda is using this classic strategy with his new musical as well.  Even HE knows the importance of getting those tunes out there.)

And look at Six!  A recent social media post from their official channel boasted of one billion streams of their music!  Now can you see why the show is a hit?  When it almost “shouldn’t be,” by conventional rules of “what works” on Broadway?

I’m convinced that Waitress was a hit because Sara Bareilles recorded (and performed) “Songs From Waitress” well before the show premiered. 

And while Be More Chill may not have had a long run on Broadway, it GOT to Broadway on the back of the audience’s consumption of the music before the show opened.

We can’t fight what the audience wants.   We just need to find new ways to give it to them.

That can mean jukebox and bio musicals. (They aren’t going away – because they are working and they are what the mass audience enjoys.)

But there is still room for new musicals.  But if we want to open a new musical on Broadway or anywhere in 2024 and get it to run, it’s more important than ever to get the music to the people beforehand.

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Got a comment on this article?  I want to hear it!  I write these articles because I believe the world is a better place if there is more theater in it.  And there is only more theater in the world if we’re talking about how to make more theater and better there.

And your comment will help!