Shows That Never Made It To Broadway Getting New Life at 54 Below
by Tom Coppola
For every Hamilton or Dear Evan Hansen, there are dozens of other shows that become the “shoulda-would-coulda” of Broadway lore. Shows that JUUUST didn’t quite get to the Great White Way for one reason or another, be it financial complications or creative differences. The cancelled Broadway production of Nerds comes to recent memory…as does the on again/off again (on again?), much-plagued Rebecca.
Thankfully, some of the these forgotten gems that never made it to Broadway will get a second life next week thanks to the one-two punch of producer Rob Schneider and Jennifer Ashley Tepper, the mastermind of programming at 54 Below. Jennifer is fresh off her resurrection of the 1970s flop Rachael Lily Rosenbloom and Don’t You Ever Forget It! and continues to champion works that never made it to the Big Time, but maybe should have.
Continuing their track record of bringing Broadway talent together to celebrate the songs of the culturally iconic or rarely celebrated, Robert and co-host for the evening Jennifer will bring us Broadway Bound: The Musicals That Never Came to Broadway on March 21st for two shows, one at 7:00 and a second at 9:30 pm. Part theater history lesson and part concert, the event will feature stories and songs offered by original cast members from those long lost shows with today’s hottest Broadway names.
Robert recently saw a lot of success with his hilarious 54 Sings Christopher Guest Movies, so this is sure to be a hot-ticket. Grab ‘em while you can!
Photos:
Jill Paice
Shuler Hensley and Cady Huffman in Over and Over (courtesy of Richard Termine)
Nerds Pizza Party after they heard the show was cancelled (courtesy of Raymond J Lee)
Captain America (courtesy of Marvel Comics)