BWW Blog: Plays/Musicals I Would Love to See Come to Life

Being that this is my final blog post for BroadwayWorld, I really wanted to do something a bit out of the box that would also conclude my series of blog posts and look ahead towards the future. As a matter of fact, this was really the only time where I struggled to come up with a topic at first. After plenty of thinking and consideration, I've decided to take a risks of sorts. Right now, we live in a world where the future of theater seems a bit uncertain. Nevertheless, so many people are coming up with different theater initiatives as well as plays that are possible to be produced during the pandemic. Perhaps once this is all over, we can see many of these stories on a stage and be remembered for years to come. Although I first started out theater as an actor, I've become very interested in playwriting and overall theater making throughout the years. I've written some stuff before and I'm kind of hoping to turn it up a notch sooner or later in terms of getting my work out there. With this pause of sorts in the theater industry, it's made me consider what kind of stories I would like to see out there and perhaps tell. So without further ado, here are plays/musicals that I would love to have come to life:

G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time)

Okay. I'm going to get the most cliché idea out of the way first. Obviously this pandemic is going to go in the history books and there are already people creating work based on what many have been experiencing as a result. I think what would really be cool though is to have a pandemic related show focused on Generation Z. As someone who is part of this generation, I have seen and experienced first hand the struggles teenagers and young adults have faced as a result of the changes in schools and the job market among other things. Now that I'm really thinking about it, perhaps it could be focused on the Class of 2020. These people in particular, including me, just started preschool when 9/11 happened and were first able to vote during the 2016 election and most of us were far from thrilled with the outcome. Now, they've just graduated after finishing senior year online and starting to face the real world while COVID is around. In these uncertain times when everything seems bleak, I could always go the comedic route and create a show about people struggling with and communicating through Zoom the whole time or even a MET style opera if I had the ability all about the very dramatic shifts in our government. However, it might be best to do something based on the truth and how I personally experienced the pandemic based the Class of 2020 who many encouragingly call the G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time)

Young Adult Novel/Fairy Tale Show

Now for this, I'm not saying I would want to create a show based on The Hunger Games or Little Red Riding Hood or any already famous stories related to these genres. I would actually like to imagine something more original. We've seen shows like Into the Woods, Disney's entire Broadway collection, Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and evening Percy Jackson which all prove that these kinds of stories can be successfully told onstage. Now the typical medium to start these stories and help them find a large audience is usually through books and/or movies. This time, I'd like to see if Broadway can come up with its own Beauty and the Beast or Harry Potter. I think something like this could be game changing.

A Love Story

Yet another cliché idea. Love stories have been done over and over again. But if we think about Christian From the movie (and Broadway) musical Moulin Rouge, we know that above all things, he believes in love. These stories are probably so popular to create and/or recognize since many are very captivated by the journey of finding one's soulmate or the person who will change their lives for the better in a romantic sense whether the story ends happily or not. At the end of the day, love conquers all of the obstacles. I would like to take a stab at a love story too. Whether it will be a young adult kind of story or like a Nicholas Sparks novel or even something really dramatic and heavy is unknown to me yet.

News Parody

Back to current events again. For some reason, I keep thinking of this idea where I want to create a very experimental production about a news show. Something that perhaps parodies Fox News or its rivalry with CNN or just some sort of biased news program. However, it doesn't necessarily have to be that. Maybe it can focus on work politics instead of the kind in current events or government. Or it can riff more on talk shows like The View or The Today Show. Those shows definitely have shown plenty of on and off camera drama. I think I'm very intrigued by a news/talk show production because they seem to shape many of today's societal beliefs and outlooks.

Movie Macabre

If we're being completely honest, this is probably the one that I'm the most passionate about creating right now. I'm sure part of it is because I've already started working on it. When it came time to work on my senior project for theater in college, I wanted to work on something that would get me excited and motivated but also something that can potentially make an impact. There's so many great female hot characters out there like Jennifer Check, Reagan and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. However, it took a lot of innovative changes in society to help bring these characters to life and there's still progress to be made. I really wanted to show that in my project while also making sure people were laughing and entertained instead of just being given a lecture. I've made a lot of progress so far but I hope to start revising the show soon and allowing it to live up to its full potential.