The future of musicals, post -‘Hamilton,’ is bright

Sure, “Hamilton” had its eyes on us last year. And “La La Land” started a fire this winter. But this Broadway season of new musicals, which crescendoed with a final crash of openings last week, has been a rousing symphony in its own right.

The range of original shows is eye-opening. The postwar swing of “Bandstand.” The coming-of-age timeliness of “Dear Evan Hansen.” The Tolstoyan immersiveness of “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.” The idea-stuffed melancholy of “Groundhog Day.” The throwback theatricality of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” The feelgood foot-stomping of “Come From Away.”

This upstart class of '17, a number of whom have never worked on Broadway before, convened last week at legendary theater hangout Joe Allen to talk about the changing climate for musicals, the challenges faced by their shows and a Broadway forecast both bright and ominous.

Q: We keep hearing that mounting an original musical is harder than ever. And yet there are so many strong ones this season. So is it easier than people say? Or are you guys just that persistent?

Steven Levenson (“Evan Hansen”): The most exciting thing about original pieces is also the most scary: There's no book to open, no movie to watch. You have all the freedom in the world; the characters can do anything you want. And that's terrifying. And that's before the commercial (risk). I remember when we first presented our show to a producer. A musical about 16-year-olds — and one of them kills themselves in the first 15 minutes! It sounded insane.

Andy Blankenbuehler (“Bandstand”): I think you have to be especially passionate about the subject matter with an original musical because you're dealing with so many abstractions early on that if you also have to be worried about the life of the piece you'll be doomed.

Irene Sankoff (“Come From Away”): See, we had this freedom because we were starting up in Canada. We never expected it to go to Broadway. We wrote it thinking we'd be in high schools and colleges and they'd have to do it because it's about Canada. It really let us stay true to the (real-life) characters and events.

Q: Many of your shows are reinventing the form in some way. How much are you consciously thinking, “Let's do something that's never been done before” when you're writing or workshopping your piece?

Jack O’Brien (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”): I don't think of it that way when I'm doing it. I just try to respond viscerally. But looking back, some of it is really outrageous. We do tear a girl (Veruca Salt) apart. We do have the squirrels (giant creatures that impose such violence). I think that's created confusion with the critics; they say it's a problematic blend of styles. But it felt organic to us.

Blankenbuehler: I'm very conscious of something not feeling like my parents' musical. So even though “Bandstand” is swing, swing is not really different from hip-hop. People didn't know how to articulate what they were going through (after World War II) and there was a lot unrest. So they went to clubs and they played loud music and they sweated. The trick for us was making swing seem cool like hip-hop.

Q: Is that where “Hamilton” helped? You can make the 1700s trendy and so the 1940s isn't such a stretch?

Blankenbuehler: I don't think this show would be opening on Broadway without “Hamilton.” I brought ideas to the writing team like, “This doesn't need a door; she can go into the room without one” because of “Hamilton.” We can take chances and do things because audiences follow in a way they didn't before “Hamilton.”

Rachel Chavkin (“Great Comet”) : But it also drives me a little crazy that people say all these musicals are happening because of “Hamilton.” We started with “Comet” in 2011. I can't say there's anything to that except “Hamilton” was so profoundly dominant that some musicals that might have opened last year opened this year, so you get a (backlog) this year.

Levenson: But it did awaken an appetite for the audience, no? It put musicals back into the broader culture.

Chavkin: Yes, it reinforces that it's popular music. Historically musicals were always standards. And then this weird moment happened when we time-jumped and suddenly you knew immediately you were listening to a “Broadway soundtrack.” It's very odd.

Q: The idea that Broadway musicals as a genre instead of just a platform …

Chavkin: It became a type of sound. And that's changing. I loved walking into “Come From Away,” Irene. You feel the pounding on the floor with a whole different kind of music. And “Hamilton” fed that appetite.

Sankoff: It's funny, there was this contest up in Canada about what's the worst idea for a musical. And I kept thinking, “There's no bad idea for a musical.” You could only write a bad song.

Q: On the subject of film: The studios are staffing up to make a run at Broadway. A lot of them basically want to be Disney. This is on top of the revivals Broadway already does. As creators, are you concerned? Is there any way you can adjust to this?

Levenson: (Sighs.) It feels that theater has worked in part because there aren't that many gatekeepers. There's a producer but no president and vice president or chain of command. It's really an old-fashioned industry: And I think in Hollywood that chain of command is what dilutes and, frankly, runs things. So it will be interesting to see what happens when that structure tries to impose itself.

Q: Studio invasions on one hand, a lot of shows finding their “post-Hamilton” niche on the other. Would you say you're pessimistic or optimistic about where the Broadway musical is headed?

Sankoff: I am optimistic — because of all the young people. That's the biggest thing. I never would have guessed our show would be popular with young people. There's no one under 40 in it. But I asked an 18-year-old and they said they like it because it moves quickly. “It's a pace I'm used to.”

Q: It seems almost like the audience gives you reason for optimism but the industry … less so.

Levenson: The audience, especially a younger audience, is hungry for original stories. But I'm optimistic in general too. When I talk to people that don't do musicals, like my family, the refrain is, “It's all revivals and movie adaptations.” But look at this table. Look at the row of shows just on our block, one after the other: “Bandstand” and us and “Natasha” and “Come From Away.” There are all these brand new things that are being given a real shot. The future is bright. At least for now.