“Little Shop of Horrors” also began life as a stage musical but is now better known in its subsequent film version. What’s conspicuously missing from the new list are the golden-age Broadway musicals that dominated it as late as the ’90s. “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Music Man,” “Oklahoma!”: All once figured prominently in the annual Dramatics survey, and all have vanished since the turn of the century. That is a huge change in taste, and the Dramatics survey data are the first quantifiable sign of what it might mean for American theater. Mr. Teachout, the Journal’s drama critic, is the author of “Satchmo at the Waldorf.” Write to him at tteachout@wsj.com.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 20, 2020 21:00 UTC