This month on Broadway

Broadway’s reputation has taken a nose-dive recently, whether it be because of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s new musical, or the controversy surrounding Hadestown and Patti LuPone. Broadway has never been perfect, but recently it seems that its last shred of dignity has gone.

By this point, I’m sure everyone has seen the unfortunate press conference for Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical, ‘Bad Cinderella,” which has been met with gloriously negative reactions, and a torrent of Tiktoks making fun of the actress, Linedy Genao, and her cringe-worthy statement of “I’m not your Cinderella, I’m your bad Cinderella.” ‘Bad Cinderella’ is a reimagined version of the classic fairy tale, which supposedly examines gender roles and ‘beauty shaming,’ whatever that means. I can see the headlines now of “Bad Cinderella is bad.” I feel like Andrew Lloyd Weber was setting himself up for that one.

Another shocking announcement was the news of the closing of ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ which has been on Broadway for a total of 35 years, and will have its final performance in February. This news has been devastating to fans of ‘Phantom,’ who recognize the musical as one of history’s best, and a hallmark of Broadway, as it has been there since 1988, and many feel that with this loss, Broadway is losing its integrity.

Hadestown, a musical based on the Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, has come under fire recently, as an actor mistakenly called out an audience member for what they thought was a recording device, but was actually a captioning device, used to help hard-of-hearing people understand the show better. The drama made it to Twitter, of course, and the actor in question faced horrible criticism, a lot of which was racist and had nothing to do with the actual issue.

In this discussion of policing electronic devices in the theater, Patti LuPone’s name got brought up, because of her reputation for calling out audience members recording performances. She has been known to take cellphones from viewers, but made it known that she was very disappointed she had been brought up in this recent controversy. 

“Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about,” said LuPone on Twitter. “Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out.”

LuPone’s response refers to her resignation from the labor union Actors’ Equity, which is incredibly telling, because of LuPone’s long history with Broadway, and her stature as a giant in the industry.

A renowned show coming to an end after over three decades, a new musical without promise, and a Broadway legend renouncing the industry; what other evidence do we need to say that Broadway is losing its prestige? Being a place for drama, Broadway is a place for drama, in the other sense. Its inherent nature as a theater community means that there will be emotional turmoil and distress, so its downfall was somewhat inevitable. I mean, have you ever met a theater kid? Hopefully, Broadway can regain some of its relevance, but for now, the future of the Great White Way is looking dark.