Groundbreaking. Game-changing. Revolutionary.
That’s what the critics have called Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” which won a bevy of Tony Awards last night.
So what will be the next “groundbreaking,” “game-changing,” “revolutionary” Broadway show?
“SpongeBob: The Musical.”
Don’t laugh.
Mr. SquarePants may not pass through the White House gates as often as Miranda does. Or write editorials in major newspapers urging Congress to bail out Bikini Bottom the way Miranda advocates for Puerto Rico. Or be mentioned, as Miranda is, as a potential mayor of New York City one day.
But SpongeBob’s got a good show on his hands, and he may be the one to beat at the Tony Awards next year. The $20 million musical is no ordinary kiddie show. It’s a sly, subversive, satirical musical in the mold of “The Book of Mormon,” which won the Tony for Best Musical in 2011. “SpongeBob” is just one of several buzzy new productions heading to New York City in the 2016-2017 theater season.
Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce will be headlining a much-anticipated revival of “Hello, Dolly!” at the Shubert Theatre next spring. Celebrated Broadway star Josh Groban (I jest) has signed on to the $14 million “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” a musical adaptation of “War and Peace.” Think “Les Misérables” by way of “You Raise Me Up.” Chazz Palminteri has turned his hit one-man show “A Bronx Tale” into a musical. Composer Alan Menken (“The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin”) and lyricist Glenn Slater (“School of Rock”) have written the score. Robert De Niro is billed as the director, but I hear Tony-winner Jerry Zaks is doing most of the heavy lifting.
Critics cheered the off-Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” featuring star-in-the-making Ben Platt, last month. It’s moving to the Belasco in the November, and Platt is already being touted as the leading man to beat at next year’s Tonys. He plays a lonely teen who becomes involved in a family tragedy.
It’s hard to believe, but New York has been without “Cats” since the original closed in 2000 after a run of 7,485 performances. But the memory will live again when Andrew Lloyd Webber unveils a new production — with some new songs — at the Neil Simon Theatre in July.
Two shows are going for the kiddie crowd: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Anastasia.”
“Charlie” opened in London a couple of years ago to indifferent reviews. But a new creative team, led by director Jack O’Brien, is retooling it for Broadway. Don’t eat that three-course meal gum, Violet Beauregarde!
And “Anastasia” — based on the 1997 animated movie about the (allegedly) last surviving member of the Romanov family — has a score by the talented team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who collaborated on “Once on This Island” and “Ragtime.” I hear it could give some of the Disney shows a run for their money.