Photo by Ari Mintz
The always-charming Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and Fill in the Blank) brought some movie star magic to Broadway last night for the official opening of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I’ll be catching the show soon—I can’t wait to see the wonderous Tammy Blanchard (Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows)—and will be sure to give a full round-up in next week’s “To See or Not to See” column.
Until then, the return of this 50 year old musical got me thinking about the business of revivals and which show should be given another chance at the spotlight. For years, I always said Little Shop of Horrors, one of the two or three scores that made me want to be a writer, but its big revival finally arrived in 2003—along with some complaints that it just didn’t belong in a large theater. Recapturing the magic of a classic piece can be a dangerous business.
So, let’s play a little Revival Roulette; which musical or play do you think has what it takes to make a winning return to Broadway? My vote is City of Angels: witty score by Cy Coleman and David Zippel, hilarious book by comic genius Larry Gelbart and a clever conceit–just think what they could do with projections to make the film noir sequences come to life.