10 musicals that need to be revived
We love to see exciting, daring work that gives audiences something they never knew they needed – be it old shows or fresh material. There’s also always scope for remounting and revising – giving existing pieces a new lease of life. Here are ten musicals we’d love to see make a return.
In The Heights
© Johan Persson
Lin–Manuel Miranda’s hit musical won big when it first premiered at Southwark Playhouse before transferring to the King’s Cross Theatre. It is a brilliant, bombastic celebration of a vibrant community, and with the film arriving in style, why not a new production to go alongside it?
Kiss of the Spider Woman
The play with the same name was seen at the Menier Chocolate Factory pre-Covid but the musical, penned by Kander and Ebb with a book by the late Terrence McNally, which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical, hasn’t been on these shores for many-a-decade. That needs to be corrected.
Ragtime
Ahrens and Flaherty’s Once On This Island proved a solid hit when it was seen outdoors earlier this year, but it’s high time to have Ragtime back on UK shores. A 2016 production was warmly received, so we expect a similar reception to a new iteration.
Spamalot
Broadway is about to see the bright side of life with a new staging of the Monty Python classic, so we’d love to get a piece of the Python pie this side of the Atlantic. If Hannah Waddingham was also game to return, this would no doubt be an instant theatrical “moment”.
The Beautiful Game
The world (theatrical and otherwise), is football mad at the mo, especially with the blistering success of James Graham’s Dear England. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton’s show, which uses the sport to tap into some pressing topics, might have found an ideal moment to return?
Jekyll and Hyde
A workshopped new vision for the musical has been teased, so we expect it’s only a matter of time before this show finally makes its return in a fully formed production. Maybe somewhere outside of the West End first?
Starlight Express
With Newsies now vacating the Troubadour Wembley Park, we’d love to see a major new, pseudo-immersive staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe’s brilliant, barnstorming Starlight Express. Get your skates on, producers – a whacky musical about trains is clearly what the people need!
Bombay Dreams
A bona fide West End hit when first seen in 2002, the show follows a Bombay man who pines for Bollywood success. It ran for a couple of years in the UK, so we’d love to see it back in action!
Merrily We Roll Along / Sweeney Todd / A Little Night Music
Excuse us for lumping together three lots of Sondheim, but we’d genuinely adore seeing any of the three musicals above make their way to the stage – especially when the first two are already making waves in New York. In the meantime, you can watch a glitzy, star-led show led by Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga in the West End from next month!
Little Shop of Horrors
Audiences need feeding! The greenest, meanest musical of them all hasn’t been seen for a few years now, and it feels as though this needs to be corrected.
