Theatre- a picnic?
You have two kinds of shows on Broadway - revivals and the same kinds of musicals over and over again - all spectacles. You get your tickets for the Lion King a year in advance, and essentially a family comes as if to a picnic, and they pass on to their children the idea that that's what theatre is - a spectacular musical you see once a year, a stage version of a movie. It has nothing to do with theatre at all. It has to do with seeing what is familiar. We live in a recycled culture...I don't think the theatre will die per se, but it's never going to be what it was. You can't bring it back. It's gone. It's a tourist attraction.
Stephen Sondheim
To me this quote has an extremly valid point, when will there be a completely new broadway show? can there ever be one? why does the industry insist on re-creating something that has been done to death!
Although, the best thing about theatre is its diversity. There are hundreds of types of theatre, virtual becoming one of them. You get to choose what you want to see, there is enough theatre out there!
