I know the term, "robot" comes from the 1920 play, R.U.R. or Rossum's Universal Robots, which played on Broadway at the Garrick Theatre in 1922. It was even the Broadway debuts for Spencer Tracy and Pat O'Brien.
However, have there been any robot characters of prominence since?
^there is, but it's played by a real person who drags a prop along.
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I'm still bitter Broadway hasn't gotten a proper production of this. I saw the 2001 UK tour and it was GENIUS. In the US, it's been relegated to awful amateur and school productions that suck all the creativity out of the show.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
I'm still bitter Broadway hasn't gotten a proper production of this. I saw the 2001 UK tour and it was GENIUS. In the US, it's been relegated to awful amateur and school productions that suck all the creativity out of the show.
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The hidden producer in me thinks we're about 3-5 years too late for this and/or a Starmites revival. At the PEAK of the Marvel/Game of Thrones/Comic/Nerd focus of pop culture (let's NOT go into Turn Off The Dark), I think the timing could have been prime to tap into the zeitgeist.
Brent Spiner was in '1776' (lolz). More seriously, I don't know the play but from what I've heard, 'Marjorie Prime' had robot characters. That was Off-Broadway though.
Technically, I think 'The Tales Of Hoffmann' opera, featuring robot/automaton character Olympia, might have been on Broadway at some point in the distant past.
The show didn't play on Broadway, so it might not count, but there's a VERY prominent robot in the musical version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The character spends most of the show in the form of Maria, but if the album is any indication, "Futura" should have had at least two scenes in the first act: the reveal of the Futura robot in the laboratory, and the Act I finale when Maria's likeness is transposed onto the machine.
DSamuels90 said: "The show didn't play on Broadway, so it might not count, but there's a VERY prominent robot in the musical version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The character spends most of the show in the form of Maria, but if the album is any indication, "Futura" should have had at least two scenes in the first act: the reveal of the Futura robot in the laboratory, and the Act I finale when Maria's likeness is transposed onto the machine."
Indeed, and Maria/Futura was played by none other than Judy Kuhn in London.
It was off-Broadway, but HEDDATRON directed by Alex Timbers and produced by his company (that French-named thing) was a version of HEDDA GABLER using robots. I know it's been done elsewhere and I believe you can rent the robots they originally built for it.