Musical Theatres: A Narrative Crisis

This discussion focuses on a pressing issue in contemporary musical theater: the limited scope of available storylines and the tendency of theaters to repeatedly stage the same works. Key topics include the reasons behind this repetitive programming, the balance between the classical heritage and modern works, and the potential for refreshing narrative material and discovering new stories for the musical stage. Participants will explore the boundary between popular classics and repertory inertia, and consider whether today’s musical theater can offer audiences new narratives comparable in scale and expressive power to the works of the classical repertoire.