Can you name a single non-IP musical that has ever turned a profit without a BELOVED score?
I’m not talking about a merely good score; I’m not even talking about a very good score; I’m talking about a widely-hailed GREAT score.
For IP musicals, a good enough score can be good enough, because it’s not the primary sell (which is one explanation for the preponderance of jukebox musicals: audiences can be guaranteed quality music).
But for a show like Lempicka, a new score from relative unknowns such as Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould nets roughly zero ticket purchases.
I can think of only one lucrative example that qualifies as an original musical, without stellar music, from less-than-famous composers: Come from Away (and maybe Memphis).
Obviously a great score doesn’t always overflow the coffers. . . but without one? To quote Spamalot:
You won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have any tunes.
Perv alert:
How many first acts end with a sex scene?
Act One relays the courtship and build-up to the consummation, and then Act Two chronicles the fallout.
And Lempicka sniffs at another pre-intermission cliche: a significant other almost discovering the affair!