PLAYBILL: The 2023-2024 Broadway Series Recapped

The 2023-2024 Broadway Series at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in my beloved Saint Louis, Missouri was the first time Melissa, Nancy, and I were season ticket holders, but with our renewal for the 2024-2025 season, it already won’t be our last! The three of us collectively love live theater and had a phenomenal time experiencing all eight shows this past season, but not all shows were loved equally.

I’ve reviewed each of the eight shows in the order in which we viewed them and provided each one with a ranking amongst its peers. I have plenty to say about each one, but one thing I’m not going to talk about is the cast. Each set of thespians were outstanding in their own right, regardless of how we felt about the subject material. So just know the actors were all top notch, but not all the musicals they had to work with necessarily were…

Beetlejuice: 6/8. I’ve never once seen the Michael Keaton helmed film by the same name, so I had little to no expectations of this one. Melissa and Nancy are both big fans of that movie, so they were quite excited to see this. By the end of the night, I ended up truly enjoying the show, those two… not so much. Apparently it followed the film’s plot for the most part with only minor additions and edits. It was zany and goofy, but the songs were all catchy enough and the production and special effects were top notch. It was totally fine and made for an enjoyable launching point for our season.

Tina! – The Tina Turner Musical: 1/8. This one was SIMPLY THE BEST! We all already know I LOVE Tina Turner! She’s a queen, a legend, and an icon and her song, “The Best,” will forever remain one of my favorite’s of all time. Her life story was told through a harrowing, poignant, and inspirational lens, all woven around her generation-defining hits. I cried several times throughout and fell more in love with it in each passing moment. If it ever returns to The Fabulous Fox I’ll be seeing it as many times as I’m able because it really was that good. Also, it was particularly special for us because on our night, the Deputy Mayor of Saint Louis declared that day as Tina Turner Day in the city going forward. There was this big proclamation read and all this fanfare. Made me so happy to witness this historic moment celebrating one of the world’s greatest entertainers in one of the world’s greatest cities.

Cirque Du Soleil ‘Twas’ The Night Before…: 4/8. Definitely the most unique of the bunch, but incredibly enjoyable in its own right. It was a cirque du soleil performance, so the acrobatics and energy were off-the-charts, but it followed a cute little storyline that most definitely put us all in the Christmas spirit. I really enjoyed it and sparked my interest in seeing future cirque du soleil shows should any come to town. Also, the renditions of classic Christmas carols they used were all quite intriguing. Definitely made the experience lively and enjoyable.

Mrs. Doubtfire: 7/8. We all love the Robin Williams helmed movie of the same name, so we went into this expecting to feel the same, but we did not. We. Did. Not. Daniel, the main character who later becomes Mrs. Doubtfire, was unbearable. I would have killed him, not divorced him. When he was in the role of Mrs. Doubtfire it was totally fine, but when he wasn’t, he was just horrendous. The songs weren’t that good for us either. We truly felt that we had reached an all-time low with this one, however, we had no clue then that later in the season we’d see another show that would make this one look like a masterpiece.

Funny Girl: 5/8. It was totally fine. Did I love it? No, but did I like it? Yes. The songs were classically catchy enough and the story was engaging, but it kind of got boring for me in the second act and her decision-making abilities seemed to go out the window in the end too. It was very much of the time and I didn’t mind that, but was shocked that they didn’t update the ending to be a little more 2024. Prior to the final fifteen minutes or so, it was totally good and fine. I can definitely see why it’s had an enduring run on Broadway all these decades later.

Company: 8/8. Worst piece of crap we’ve ever seen. We enjoyed nothing about it. The music was horrible. Nearly all the characters were terrible. The story was a monstrosity of human nature. If any of these people had a chance to be a bad and awful friend, they were taking it, especially Bobbie, the main character. She was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. An antagonist masquerading as a protagonist. One example was her going to her “best friends” home and bringing this couple some brownies and a bottle of alcohol. Then her friends go on to remind her that the one the brownies are for is on a strict diet and trying to lose weight while the one the alcohol is for was recently in a drunk driving accident and now has a DUI, so is steering clear from alcohol. She was the worst version of a friend I’d ever seen portrayed in any capacity. I was truly hoping her friends would all acknowledge this and there’d be this phenomenal second act where they all hunted her down and killed her (socially of course), but that never materialized. Disappointing. It was truly simply the worst. I use the word hate often and I’ll use it here too, I hated this musical. Melissa said it best, “it was worse than almost having cancer.”

Moulin Rouge: 2/8. We were skeptical going into this as we all love this movie, but the first two movie to musical adaptations of the season weren’t the best for us, however, we LOVED this one! The production and sets were second to none and the music was just outstanding. They fused together some of the biggest pop songs in history to transcend this incredible love story about a poor boy from America and a performing prostitute from France. It was just wonderful and each scene was more engaging and endearing than the last. Another one I’d go see more than once if it were to return.

MJ: 3/8. We all love Michael Jackson, so we knew there was no way we weren’t going to love this musical and we weren’t wrong. It rocked our world! There were several songs that I felt were wrongfully omitted, but Michael’s catalogue is quite vast, so I suppose not everything was going to fit. Nonetheless, the dancing and the story were both equally outstanding. It caused me to see certain aspects of his life from a lens I hadn’t done so before and I even cried once. This was during a beautiful, “I’ll Be There” (Jackson 5) sequence between young Michael and his mother. It was just a really beautiful musical full of so many of the songs that everyone from every walk of life knows and loves. Michael’s music is timeless and I felt the same way about MJ. Would definitely see again.

I also saw two other productions this past season that weren’t part of our season ticket packages, but being honest, would probably of ended up being #1 and #2 if they were. I felt absolutely blessed to have got to see each in their exceptionally limited runs.

Come From Away: My good friend Cathy and I went to see this one and we both loved every single second of it! The music was just incredible and the limited production was ironically even more impactful than those with a high budgeted one. I cried several times throughout this and fell in love with this special set of characters. It takes place directly after the events of September 11, 2001 and follows a group of people who’s planes were forced to land in this small Canadian town as a result of those events. The towns people take them all in and we get this phenomenal story about the best of humankind and the human spirit. It could come back every year and that’s how often I’d go see it. There was nothing not to love here. Another one that earned the moniker of Simply The Best!

Aladdin: No need to use a wish for an amazing show here! It was pure magic from start to finish! This experience was particularly special because we brought our favorite neighbor ever, Anthony, with us and introduced him to “A Whole New World” of live theater. Getting to experience Disney’s beloved story through his eyes was an incredible experience I’ll never forget. Really and truly, this wasn’t just the best part of the Broadway season for me, but easily one of my favorite moments in all of 2023. The picture above will forever remain in my Favorites Album.

So there you have it, our 2023-2024 Broadway Season at the Fabulous Fox Theatre! Hope you got out there to see a show or two as well! The 2024-2025 lineup includes: Back To The Future: The Musical, A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical, Peter Pan, Six, Shucked, Some Like It Hot, Kimberly Akimbo, and lastly, & Juliet. I cannot wait to see each of these productions unfold and return this time next year to give you my thoughts and feelings on the bunch!

As always, THANK YOU all so much for viewing! I appreciate each of you greatly! Feel free to leave a comment below as I LOVE reading and responding to them! I’ll return soon with another all-new post, so until then, I wish you all, all the best!