The Sparknotes version of the essential background information that you need to understand my impending temper tantrum: one of the best off-Broadway, nonprofit theatre companies – Second Stage (2ST) – recently upped their digs to the Great White Way by buying the Helen Hayes Theatre, the smallest on Broadway and thus perfectly suited for plays and more intimate musicals. For anyone who bemoans the lack of new plays on Broadway, this is objectively a stupendous development because 2ST has long been devoted to exclusively producing such work (they also stage new musicals like Next to Normal and Dear Evan Hansen, but despite the superior quality of these, I just can’t be AS excited about the prospect of more always-prevalent new musicals on the Great White Way). To quote lyrics from the former musical: “It’s gonna be good/It’s gonna be good/It’s gonna be great/It’s gonna be fucking great!” Or is it?
