The 5 Most Expensive Musicals in Broadway History
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The average budget for a Broadway musical is 8-12 million dollars. What happens when the price tag goes way above that?
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Imagine the alternative timeline where The Lion King was the show where Julie Taymor had too much power and that became the biggest financial flop on Broadway, and Spider-man turn off the dark was the show where marvel took tact with Taymor and it went on to become one of the most successful musicals of all time...
That is the timeline where we got Rogers the musical
I can't. I simply cannot. I REFUSE!
Follow me, and ponder the question: What if?
The mcu in that universe becomes the mcu marvel musical universe.
@@pedroxquiRogers the musical will be produced by Disney this Summer in Disney California Adventure
Moral of the story with Julie Taymor: Always turn down her first idea.
Okay, but I still wanna see Simba as a furry gladiator in Centaur!Vegas as an animated series in the vein of Talespin. That shit sounds like the kind of idea that’s ridiculous on paper but could be pulled off brilliantly with the right animators+writers+voice actors.
Shout out to Schumacher for actually being able to tell Taymor “no” lmao
Julie Taymor's idea for the Lion King is a clear sign that she secretly wanted to be stopped.
(hears about Julie Taymor's original pitch for The Lion King musical)
...I'm sorry, *WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!*
Highly doubted that anything could have been more expensive than Turn Off The Dark at this point. I saw a recording someone posted online of the Frozen musical & it was actually pretty good. Would have loved to have seen those sets in person! Got to see Shrek when I was a kid in a local production; wasn't as fancy as the Broadway one but the audience had fun.
Frozen is still open in Hamburg (though it's translated into German) and apparently it's doing quite well over here. Haven't seen it myself yet but it's very popular
Had a opportunity but missed out due to work. Talked to a work colleague who saw the show and loved it. Said it was a visual spectacular and overall very enjoyable and well done. Was sad that it closed (wanted to see the new cast that caught my attention and had less then a month so I felt so sad for them having an opportunity then losing it).
@@pinkiBaerchen It's good to hear that it has survived in some form.
@@AngelJD That's sad. It would be amazing if they'd give it another chance but given everything that's going on right now (& the cost of staging it), that would probably be a long shot.
@@JuniperJadePR While I was busy with work and going back to college (which took even more time) I also incorrectly assumed it would last long enough that it would be my self graduation present in 2021. I thought it was "Frozen" so it should last plus if announced it was closing then I could have had time to rush to the theater possibly. Then 2020 happened.
Still sad for the new Elsa and Anna actors losing their big Broadway opportunity whom I saw preform on Kelly and Ryan with the new song for the show "I can't lose you".
I am very proud of myself for having witnessed King Kong in person. Was the theater practically empty during the middle of summer? Yes. Did the lovely woman at the box office hook me up with a rush seat right in the front? YES. Was it awful? OH HELL YES, but the puppet, that glorious puppet!
I've been looking up stuff on the Broadway show, because I never got to see it and I am a pretty big King Kong nerd. Absolutely everything about it looks execrable, EXCEPT the puppet. I wish I could have seen THAT.
As a set designer for my high school performance of Shrek, I can tell you, that that set piece is a BITCH TO MAKE!!! Even with the “Get Out” sign, I had to make the sign look EXACTLY like the one in the show, and the damn story book in the beginning too!! I didn’t work on the dragon, but I saw the guys who did, and they ended like, therapy after making that beast, it was THAT hard! Someone also almost was crushed during the tech rehearsal the DAY before the opening night, and they had to scramble to fix the mechanics of it all. I was sweating bullets that opening night.
I feel like you could make a video on how The Addams Family running was so short, but how it basically took over the community theatre world. That would be a great timeline video! ☺️
The Addams Family Musical is awesome!
So basically, Lion King was when the people hiring Taymor knew when to draw the line while Spider-Man was them “Yes, and?”-ing each other into oblivion.
very interested to find out what the budget was for the new Back to the Future musical. it's clearly had a LOT of money thrown at it (that has been put to EXTREMELY good use - it's definitely a Lion King rather than a Spider-Man) but i would be interested to see if it would out-rank anything on this list
I’m gonna say it’s going to cost around 25-30 million, that’s just my guess
lol terezi pfp
As someone who has seen King Kong, OMG I loved it - that puppet was seriously so impressive to see in real life, saw it in Melbourne.
It was the first musical I ever watched
but they're right when they say the puppet was the best part of the musical the story was lacking in soo many ways
The Kong puppet was he ONLY reason to sit through that drivel. He was truly impressive. But the score and book were TERRIBLE.
"The higher the budget, the harder the fall" the tagline for this channel
I clicked on this vid thinking, "Spiderman has to be #1. There's no way it's not."
The discussion about most expensive musicals will always remind me of a minor obsession I once had: the Lord of the Rings musical. So expensive and overboard that I think it didn’t even make it to Broadway, but the music is actually surprisingly good
Quick correction. Julie Taymor was the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, but she was NOT the first woman to win a Tony for Best Direction, as your video says. That same year, Garry Hynes won for Best Direction of a Play when she helmed of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. As it happens, Direction of a Play was presented before Direction of a Musical, so Ms. Hynes beat Ms. Taymor by a few minutes.
Now, if you'll excuse me, there are other videos that need my brand of pedantic nerdery. 🤓
I had an opportunity to see Shrek when I was a kid but my mom told me I couldn’t go. I could’ve seen one of the most expensive musicals, mom 😒
If I had a dollar for every time the director of a Lion King property was brought on to direct a second project with another company, and decided to rely heavily on traditional myth, only for their ideas to bomb/get scrapped, then I’d have two dollars, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice.
What was the other dollar for?
Note that all of these are movie spin-offs by producers seeking to make money, rather than genuine new musicals written by composers. They are using studio funds to blast their way onto the stage, but usually the best musicals don’t get written that way.
Even going back to Broadway’s “Golden Age”, it was typical for musicals to be adapted from something, usually literature. Movies just happen to be the current popular medium to adapt from.
the fact that taymor has both top slots…amazing
Shrek really needed more workshopping. As it stands, it should really be called Shrek: The Power Ballad.
Seeing Shrek on this list is surprising to me, because the only time I've ever seen the show is at a small local theater. Like, has seats for about 150 people max, small. The show was amazing though, the only part that didn't work was Shrek's makeup... For the Dragon I think they just did a small puppet, the magic mirror just had the actor in face paint, etc, but the show was really fun and entertaining. Kinda shows that the music and book are really solid and it didn't need that elaborate of staging, imo.
It's funny how the King Kong puppet is visually impressive because it's something in real life, but if it were say just CGI graphics then it'd be laughably terrible looking.
It does look like very old cgi when looking at it imo, but knowing it's just a gigant puppet is pretty wild.
I'm delighted by the idea of Schumacher being the "taming" influence 😆
The Frozen cost is more absurd when you know that Disney rejected putting Hunchback of Notre Dame on Broadway because it would “be too expensive”. (They we’re given the choice to choose between Hunchback of Notre Dame and Frozen)
Well Frozen did better at the box office.
Considering Phantom is the longest-running musical of all time, you'd think it would be the most expensive. Shrek is one of my all-time favorite musicals, so I'm happy that show was produced. Had it performed better, I think Shrek 2 could make a really great musical, as well. I wish I could see the Spider-Man musical to see how bizarre it was.
I’m sure Phantom made its initial capital investment literal decades ago and the only thing is it’s weekly running cost which it almost sells out every night so it ends up being quite “inexpensive” when looked at that way. And I absolutely loved Phantom on Broadway, but it is still very old and could benefit from a refit
@@andrewleeadkins93 By refit I hope you mean a refurbished theater or something like that?
@@andrewleeadkins93…. If Mackintosh gets his way, he would replace the original staging with the inferior, cheaper, but “newer” 25th anniversary staging, so he won’t have to pay royalties to the original set designer and director anymore. Just like he did with Les Miserables, my favorite musical, and the reason I won’t go see the show anymore.
okay but the pop-up book set is objectively awesome
I laughed so loudly when #1 was revealed that my dog got mad 😅
BEGGING you to do a video about the Lord of the Rings Musical. It’s such a rare musical I’ve never heard someone talk about it in the wild. I feel like I’m all alone when I listen to it. 😅 would love a deep dive on it!
Whaaaaaat? When was this?
@haleymist09 this was running in the West End from 2007-2008 I think, but closed after a short run because I believe it still holds the record as the most expensive musical on the west end to date. As you can see from the ✨slime tutorial✨ I posted in the comment above, the writing, music, choreography, and the SETS AND EFFECTS are mind boggling so the money did not go to waste! I wish they could revive it- I feel like perhaps with todays tech the effects could be done a lot cheaper.
@@juliajohnson2285 WOOAAAHHH sounds incredible! And definitely worth a Wings vid!
@@haleymist09 luckily they have a whole album on Spotify, Apple Music, TH-cam, etc! Since the slime tutorial audio isn’t great, lol
literally cannot stop listening to "the road goes on" as of late
thought the title of this was 'most experimental musicals' when i was looking through the homepage. i think that would make a pretty awesome video as well.
Another great video!!! Love this channel!
Woah I loved the intro! It was kinda fun watching all the clips, and it felt like if watch MOJO videos were actually good
Nice work! This is the first video I watched after meeting you for coffee today at the Drama Book Store 😎
LAS VEGAS LION KING??? Thank God Disney stepped in
Yeesh I have to wonder what sort of life these mega-musicals would have after Broadway. Would “Spider-Man” or “King Kong” have any life in regional or community theaters?
Shrek gets a decent amount of regional / community theatre play, at least; I suspect it's because it's a fairly well-known property, it has a big cast, and there's a kids version available -- so it works well as a family show. Besides that, its origin as a cartoon means you can opt for a more stylistic than realistic take on costuming and props if you want, and it's almost thematic.
Turn Off The Dark wouldn't have seen regional play, I don't think. Its identity is too fundamentally tied to the aerial stunts. Same with King Kong and the puppet. The required minimum budget for those is... yeesh. (Same with Frozen and its gigantic video screen -- you need to have a way to compellingly pull off Elsa's ice powers.) The first two are also not... kids' shows? Not that Shrek is, either, but it's definitely more aimed at kids than, like, King Kong is.
@@daekieisms One of our local companies did “Cats” a few years ago. Instead of a giant tire, Grizzabella ascended on a “stairway to heaven.”
I never understood why people didn’t like Frozen. I thought it was fabulous. The set was great, the new songs were fun, and everyone on stage did a great job.
I’m not a fan because Hunchback of Notre Dame was supposed to be brought to Broadway but it didn’t work out. Frozen took the place. I already wasn’t a huge fan of the movie because it was a little overrated in my opinion.
I saw it 21 times across Australia when it was here.
I’m not a fan of the movie but the musical was great.
My top 4 songs are in the musical and not the movie.
It finished its Australian tour back in Nov 22 and gee do I miss it.
@@erianwilliams9059 - I still kick myself for not going to see “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” at the Paper Mill Playhouse. Since, I had assumed it was going to Broadway. The strangest thing about Disney choosing to adapt “Frozen” for the Great White Way, was it was even more expensive than “Hunchback”. They stupidly thought a trendy and overrated film would play better with Broadway audiences, than an adult-oriented musical. Not understanding that the reason “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin” were successful, was due to adults loving those films just as much as their children. “Frozen” did not have that luxury. Adults generally despise it, and think it is Robert Lopez’s weakest music. It was such a colossal flop, that Disney can no longer afford to stage more than two shows simultaneously. That is with owning the New Amsterdam Theater. The only way I can see Disney closing “Aladdin”, or just opening a new show, is for a “Beauty and the Beast” revival. They truly missed a golden opportunity with “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.
A couple of things. The Lion King was NOT the first Disney show in the New Amsterdam. The first Disney show was King David, composed by Alan Menken (you know, the guy who wrote the music for Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Newsies, etc.). About The Lion King. Count me as someone who absolutely hated it (loved the movie, an African Hamlet, though Disney claims that's just a coincidence-yeah, right). First of all, the plot doesn't even kick in until Act II. Okay. Everyone praised the puppets and how "original" they were. Except they weren't original. Julie Taymor ripped off the concept from The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. The same puppets had been featured in shows there TEN YEARS BEFORE. So much for originality. If we learned anything from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Ms. Taymor is a crappy director. Seriously, her record on Broadway consists of The Lion King (yes, a money maker), The Blue Bird (huh-it came and went), Titus (likewise), and SM:TOTD. I rest my case.
I agree with you on The Lion King. I haven’t been impressed any of the Disney staged musicals that I’ve seen. The Little Mermaid and Mary Poppins are just a step above Spamalot as being the worst musicals I’ve ever seen.
I saw King Kong’s very first New York performance (the first “preview”, so before opening night… my ticket was October 5, 2018). That puppet spectacle was absolutely stunning. The music was terrible though, I couldn’t remember how any of the songs went by the time I got back home
I loved Frozen on Broadway it was awesome. Sad it closed but i expected it once covid hit
Ah spider man turn off the dark being number one where it belongs 😂😂😂
The Lion King on Broadway was one of the few Michael Eisner Ws
Defunctland dedicated a large part of one of his seasons to talking about things that Eisner was involved in, and used it as a way to talk about the man's tenure at Disney itself. At least the way he presents it, I would say that Eisner had more than a few wins, though more than a few losses as well. Same could be said for Walt, when it comes right down to it.
(Honestly, I'm less interested in being an Eisner apologist than I am in recommending Defunctland.)
@@THATGuy5654 I watch Defunctland all the time! You don’t have to recommend it to me! 🤣 but I get what you are saying! However it seems that he just always takes more Ls than Ws
Yeah, the kong puppet was the only stand out.
I never saw the King Kong musical, but damn does that puppet look amazing!
This is the only time I've heard of King Kong the Musical. That or from a Taxi cab Ad. 😆 We did saw Frozen on Broadway before it was close and it was so cool.
that's because you can't even get a cast recording of it, not even the original Australian cast, when it was on in Melbourne all those years ago it was when many musicals struggled to get bums on seats and while the sheer magnitude of the puppet was amazing and some of the original tracks were lovely the story was lacking
Love the video!!
As someone who saw Kong on broadway I can attest that the puppet is the only memorable thing about the show because I can't remember a single song from that musical.
Exactly. Kong was amazing. The book and score sucked ass.
@@tonycommodore8929 There was a book? I thought it was just an adaptation of the movie.
@@dannytheman1313 LOL, the script for a musical is called the book or libretto.
@@tonycommodore8929 I see thank you for clearing that up I'm only a casual musical fan.
you would assume starlight express would be on there, that was expensive too
They did what always happens when superhero adaptations go bad. They tried to make it "serious" they took a beloved story that already had enough pathos, character and theme to hang their hat on and they decided it needed to be a myth! Or a commentary! or a deconstruction! And it flopped, because those always flop.
Taymor hadn't actually read many of the Spider-Man comics, afaik? One of the cowriters wrote a book about his experience with Turn Off The Dark where he mentions it. I don't know how much of this was her trying to make it 'serious' and how much of it was her trying to write a Spider-Man story /she/ wanted to read/watch, but I'd bet it leans more towards the latter half.
Wait, was that bit in The Lion King section for real? Did she really try and put that in?
I was NOT expecting that final total for Spider-Man and my jaw dropped so hard that I heard it crack in several places. YIKES on SO MANY BIKES.
Too bad the Lord of the Rings musical never made it to Broadway
hi im just here to beg you to do a full video on american psycho!!!! i went looking for it assuming you had made one lol…PLEASE!!
I am so, so curious what the earlier versions of Frozen on Broadway looked like. The final show we got on Broadway (and subsequent tours/replica productions) was such a direct, almost literal translation of the movie to the stage, and I wonder if the earlier version were more abstracted and puppet-driven like The Lion King or even The Little Mermaid were.
It was pretty similar to the final one iirc
That Kong puppet was absolutely spectacular. The show sounds like it was a big pile of "ehh? issokay" but Kong himself is not in that pile. Imagine if the show around him was Lion King tier, it'd probably be just as fondly recalled.
I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to see King Kong in New York
As someone who actually experienced Spiderman Turn off the dark before it imploded, I must say that the main problem was the music - there wasn't one single memorable song in it. Other than that, I found it quite enjoyable
You say that like “A Freak Like Me Needs Company” doesn’t slap
Dang Shrek deserves more respect
King Kong moving into the theater that previously housed Turn Off the Dark should've been taken as some kind of bad omen.
wake up babe wait in the wings just posted another video.
I love Taymore’s idea for Spider-Man. I don’t want to see it instead of an actual Spider-Man story, but maybe a reimagining a la what they’re doing with Batman movies. Like how Joker both is and is not a Batman movie.
Whoooo was Elsa before Cassie???
I was wondering this too!!
I was about to comment this
I wish I could see a Broadway show again! But I can;t dare go to New York right now!!
Why?
Can you please do a video on My Favorite Year
King Kong was absolutely amazing - the definition of spectacle. There is a a difference in how much a Broadway show cost and how much it lost. Pretty Sure Spiderman still holds both records.
My last trip to Broadway I had the choice to see either King Kong or SpongeBob. While I like the show, I am a lifelong kaiju fan and could not resist the opportunity to see Kong brought to life. Unfortunately he was the only good part of the show. Kong had more life in him than the rest of the story and cast combined. This was one time the critics got it right.
SMTOTD was the first one of these I heard about from Game theory of all places
I saw King Kong man that puppet was cool and yeah everything else was meh
on broadway? because it had a ton of rewrites from when it was in Australia as the book was meh back then
King Kong was a cool show it didn't deserve the evisceration by critics thst it got forgettable characters and music but it was a spectacle show and it delivered on that
Sad thing about Spider-man is, it’s a great U2 Album. You also didn’t mention all the injuries.
Dad and I saw FROZEN ON BROADWAY before it closed in 2020!!
There’s a small part of me that kinda wants to see Taymor’s original version of the Lion King, just because of how off-the charts WILD it was. That idea was somehow even WORSE than her idea for Turn off the dark!
day ??? of asking you to cover the raggedy ann musical
Maybe you can ask him to do that as a Pateron request
@@KaminoKatie i would if i had money lol
@@gwynfromRARE Maybe you can do it if you're financially stable enough later down the road
If y’all want to see something hilarious: look up the trolls from the frozen musical
I forgot Spiderman had a musical lmao
I did see a church in my area do a production of Shrek.
Correction - Beauty and the Beast won best costumes in 1994.... that was Disney's first Tony
the book about the making of spiderman is gr8 !!!
Frozen was ghastly....spiderman had too many risky stunts gone wrong....
times sq was fun till disney arrived/ and guliani........sigh
More like Times Square was a dangerous, crime-ridden shithole in the '70s and '80s. The city almost went bankrupt and some even wondered if Broadway would survive at all? Rather, it was the Republicans via Rudy Giuliani who really cleaned up the city in the '90s and made it safe for residents and tourists alike. Sadly, the "woke" Democrats in charge, who are soft on crime and tend to romanticize "gritty" NYC of the '70s/'80s, are letting it go back to shit again.
Wow!! She is an expensive date!!
Got plans to do a top 5 least expensive musicals in Broadway history?
I’m sure DreamWorks gets a few bucks every time a high school does Shrek, which is all of them, so it’s all good.
Ngl, for an adaptation of such an overhyped movie, Frozen the musical is really underrated imo, and to me, it’s a big improvement over the original film. Was legitimately angry when Disney cut its Broadway run out of nowhere, I think it deserves a pro-shot on Disney+ like what they did with Hamilton and Newsies tbh
yikes, I'm glad Taymor didn't have her way with Lion King. What is this, Pinnochio?!
It's a bit weird that all of them are adaptations of a movie.
Omg, who was supposed to play Elsa before Caissie?!
I saw King Kong! It was amazing except for the ending…. It was a little weird and abrupt.
We saw King Kong in New York and liked it very much. Though I agree, the story and human characters were weak. So was the music except for the last number. But, boy, King Kong stole the show! He was fabulous! Imaginative sets. I think the production may have done better in Las Vegas, a placed known for Super Spectaculars.
I loved King Kong !
Not only Spiderman was the most expensive Broadway show, but also a huge flop.
No "Let it Go" jokes? I'm surprised...
Why would a Frozen musical need that many people in the cast? There were only 6 important beings in that movie: Ice Queen, Pollyanna, Himbo, Just A Moose, Snobomination, and Meet-Cut. Get 6 others to play background nobles, peasants, soldiers, and trolls, and there you are.
And they dragged poor Reeve into Spider-Man. He didn’t deserve that.
king kong fucking ruled
Lavishing millions, even billions, on a musical is not a problem when that musical has a long shelf life, such as the Lion King, Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables. It is when huge sums are speculated on a musical that is almost certain to close within months that is the problem. Knowing what is going to succeed or fail is a key problem for the industry, but sometimes it's about as obvious as the nose on one's face. Good musical scores are usually a key factor to a musical's likely success. But who am I to judge - I fell asleep during Evita!
I am surprised frozen didn't do better on the stage. I heard good things about it as a show.
I wish I could have seen king kong
hold up im so confused... why hasn't wait in the wings done a video on be more chill???
are you telling me Shrek the Musical's magic mirror was essentially performed by a vtuber
💖
I saw Spider-Man before it as rewritten to be “better.” I don’t know how the second version was but the original was awful.
They told frozen to "Let it Go"
The problem is we don’t need bunches of musicals. We need FEWER musicals not more.