If you follow this site regularly, you know that like most avid theater fans, I have, over the years, lamented missing certain shows. You can catch all of those I've discussed HERE. But it is rare that at any given time, there are so many longer running shows that I've somehow missed. Right now, there are four!
Long-running Shows I Still Haven't Seen
Three of the four shows below are jukebox musicals, and I am sure that that figures in to why I've so far missed them. But there are other reasons...
As this show is closing in just a few days, I suppose I could have waited and added it to my "One That Got Away" series, but I don't feel like I missed out on this one as much as others on that list. While I appreciate the work of Alicia Keys and can grasp why she is both popular and acclaimed, I'd never say she's been on the top of my playlist. But here is one show I can exactly pinpoint why I've avoided it. I found their Tony Awards performance to be a complete mess and truly off-putting. (Not to mention misleading to a public that probably thought they'd get to see Ms. Keys at the piano. She was not and never was.) And it wasn't a fluke of an off performance, either. I've felt exactly the same way every time I've seen something from it on other shows. If I regret anything, it's that I missed the debut performance of Tony-winner Maleah Joi Moon, and the other Tony-winning performance of Kecia Lewis, an actress I've long been a fan of for years.
The youngest of the shows here, it is still a possibility that I'll catch it. A big fan of Jeremy Jordan, it is maybe slightly more likely than the others on this list. Anyway, the most surprising thing to me about not seeing this one is that I am a huge Jonathan Groff follower. So why didn't I get to it by now? In this case, its a combination of not being a huge Bobby Darin fan, and economics. There is only so much money in my pocket earmarked for shows, and last season meant having to make hard choices. With a decidedly smaller field of new musicals to see, I might still make a splish splash to the Circle in the Square.
Of the four shows on this list, this is the one that is most personally surprising to me. As a child of the 80s, Michael Jackson was a giant part of my life. Thriller, Bad and Off the Wall are three albums I had in three formats - vinyl, cassette and CD - and I still listen to them somewhat regularly. I have seen several performances from the show on various programs and they are all consistently well-done and exciting. Yet, somehow, MJ has become the show that I keep putting off, thinking I'll get to it eventually. I hope I do, as I have heard mostly wonderful things about it from people whose opinions I respect, and I also hope this one doesn't make it to my other list!
This show is based on my all-time favorite novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is one piece of literature that I read for pleasure, not intellectual stimulation alone. So you'd think I'd have seen this show several times, right? Except... well, it just looks (and sounds) too Disney-meets-80s-megamusical. The other recent musical version looked (and sounded) like something I'd much prefer - darker, sexier, more willing to hit those darker themes. And now, with Jeremy Jordan (and Eva Noblezada for a short while together) back for a while, it is more tempting. I also missed the national tour, when it debuted here in Baltimore, but that was definitely economic - the tickets here were more expensive than Broadway! I'm guessing I'll regret it, but I probably won't see this version. I'm holding out for Gatsby: An American Myth.
So, readers, am I missing out? If I had to pick one of these, which should I get tickets for? Let me know! Jeff
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