2024 - 2025 Broadway Musical Logos: Death Becomes Her

The latest musical based on a film has come to the Main Stem, headlined by two beloved divas, a pop star and a Broadway favorite. With pretty excellent reviews, an A-list cast and a popular film as its source, Death Becomes Her has all the makings of a big hit. Will the show's logo make much difference? I think so, since a good sized portion of any New York audience is made up of tourists who don't follow reviews and don't know the who's who of Broadway names. Without film stars on the marquee, but with a well-known (albeit 30+ years old) movie title, the show art does need to help bring the show to the attention of those visiting Times Square.

2024 - 2025 Broadway Musical Logos:

Death Becomes Her

The key art here has a lot in common with its motion picture relative. The central image should be familiar to the film's fans, while the title lettering is very similar to movie's advertising. Of course, there are small tweaks that update it and make the musical version its own identity.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two is that the stage logo doesn't include the Bruce Willis character, played by Christopher Sieber. No offense to him, but he is not the name Willis is. And really, even on the movie poster, he barely registers - you really only see his head and the wild pictures of Streep and Hawn are what draw the eye. Broadway is diva land, and so capturing stars Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard with those iconic looks is the prudent choice. Just to mix it up, their dresses are switched from the originals.

The font used is virtually identical, though the coloring is much more interesting, a smoky, marbled purple is mysterious and evil adjacent. I love the subtle cracks in the letters - even marble ages even as it "lives forever." And that eternal light in the center draws the eye and helps create foreboding shadows, and gives the title great dimension. 

  

On the show card/Playbill version (as well as the online advertising), there's a cheeky tagline: "Musical Comedy Revitalized." And another version starts with the hilarious twist on a familiar saying - emphasis on the "bitch." Show queens, rejoice! While the slogans require one to know something about the plot, they do serve to announce that it is, in fact a musical, and that it will be catty fun and lively. Similarly, the Playbill image is dependent on certain knowledge of the story and the magical elixir that grants a reprieve from aging and death. There's something kind of cool and intriguing about the hands - rich, elegant and perfectly manicured - one holding the vile, the other lifting the stopper. Both versions appeal to me; I love the detail and especially the colors. It is vibrant and compelling.

Grade: A