Jersey Boys, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical, and On Your Feet! Broadway is awash in musicals highlighting pop music of the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. As millennials (Americans born between 1982 and 2004) come into adulthood, Broadway producers might want to consider a new crop of jukebox musicals celebrating the glory years of this largest generation in American history. With that in mind, we propose five new jukebox musicals drawn from the turn-of-the-millennium pop renaissance.
5. Now That’s What I Call Musical! One Hit Wonders @ the Turn of the Century.
Remember those compilation CDs they used to sell during commercial breaks fromFelicity? Imagine one of those, but onstage: “Mmmbop,” “Barbie Girl,” and “Mambo No. 5” all wrapped into one undeniably insane musical. One anticipates such a show would accompany a magical Broadway season, capped off with a Tony Awards performance of Sisqó’s “Thong Song.” Of course, it would take a very creative book writer to shoehorn so many disparate songs and styles into a coherent plot, which is why we nominate Seth Rudetsky, who seems to have mastered the special lunacy of the form in his new musical, Disaster!