GALILEO to Open at the Shubert Theatre, Fall 2026 — Page 4

SteveSanders said: "hak5 said: "Y'all who are saying this will close early are shameful. We should be happy we are getting a new show! And let's not judge it before we see it."

I don't necessarily disagree, but if people did what you suggest about 25% of the posts here would never be made.

"

And?? What would be the downside if that happened??

The art is quite striking

Dolly80 said: "This won’t be round for long."

This board often wonders why Buena Vista Social Club is extremely successful like it doesn't occur to people that there are Spanish speaking people all over the world that come to/live in New York. This board is a not a good indication of the average tourist but somehow is always wanting/complaining about new works. I think a lot more people will be interested in this that you might think.

Updated On: 5/23/26 at 03:12 PM

Every time I see that "He gave us stars" tagline, I think of Kenneth Parcell on 30 Rock. "'Believe in the stars.' It's like that doesn't even mean anything anymore!"

When Schmigadoon announced for Broadway, there was a whole thread of people saying how hard it was going to flop and how any producer would be insane to put their money in this. No one on this board knows anything.

Ensemble1698878795 said: "Rentaholic2 said: "When Schmigadoon announced for Broadway, there was a whole thread of people saying how hard it was going to flop and how any producer would be insane to put their money in this. No one on this board knows anything."

Schmigadoon has a TV following that kept it afloat in previews. New musicals without major fan bases are typically not surviving. Let’s hope this doesn’t flop, but there currently is no “buzz.”

"

No buzz because it doesn’t even start previews for months…

Buzz has nothing to do with when the show starts. It has to due with the excited anticipation of audiences and fans. Example: The Spring Awakening revival or Paddington. This title and names behind it don't incite excitement. Again, that's not to say the show won't be good. It just means the show is a hill ahead of it to earn its audience.

Exactly. The Lost Boys started marketing their show 7 months before it even started. The buzz and excitement for that show was huge and it's doing really well, which is no surprise. Most shows have to do that if they want it to be successful. People are excited and talking about both of the shows you mentioned because their marketing departments know exactly what they're doing. This show starts in less than 4 months and no one is talking about it, not even here. Raul is wonderful but is not a huge star, so they need to figure it out. A lot of people are fascinated with Galileo Galilei, but why should they go to this show?

They need to get with the zeitgeist. Rebrand as "Heated Galileo." Add some nude shower scenes. Cast Jesse Metcalf as the "telescope."

Ensemble1763372746 said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "Snippet of a demo track has just dropped - Esparza performing “Heaven’s Changing”:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbBjX-MhMYb/?igsh=MXEyaHl4aTZhc3AzYQ=="

That’s sounds great. I am considering a trip to New York to see this. I really like the work of the director."

And see they’re beginning the buzz…

The California reviews were mixed leaning away from commercially promising. I read 'em all because I have close friends who (via a family member) are very much production adjacent; they all flew out. No one believed the reviews promised Broadway at the time, but clearly a belief in this show is significant enough to pull it East and into the Shubert. I wish it well, but I'm fascinated that it is coming without another tryout.

I would say that clip made me significantly less likely to see this on stage.

To points raised in my earlier post, and my friends' dismay; Variety (May 17, 2024) nails the general consensus in Berkeley, which prompted my post::

"It’s hard to imagine an easy road ahead for a show whose theme is fairly rarefied by musical-theater standards, yet whose sometimes hokey, simplistic tenor is unlikely to generate the critical support needed to lure in more mainstream audiences ...

"That duo' {the designers'} stimulating array of religious, scientific and celestial imagery is arguably the show’s best element, as well as the only one that conveys the ideas at hand without jokey or sentimental pandering.

"Otherwise, book and lyrics alike are often ham-fisted, whether going for snippy quips or trying to make us feel emotional depths these cardboard characters can’t approach. The central relationships are off: A stereotypically feisty, ahead-of-her-time Virginia swerves between urging her father to defend science and the opposite, their parent-child bond failing to convince as a result..."

"Showstopping moments are in service to songs that feel like throwbacks to the MOR radio rock of forty years ago or more—artificially inflated, grandiose incitements to Bic-lighting. They’ve got some notably clumsy lyrical hooks, like the young lovers’ insistence that their hearts beat “Louder, Louder,” or the ensemble’s repeated chanting of the word 'faith.'

"The conception of Galileo himself as Renaissance cock-rocker, endlessly pleased with himself might’ve worked in the hands of a performer and show more humorously self-aware. But Esparza’s committed turn doesn’t lend that narcissism much saving irony. And despite scattered one-liners, “Galileo” at present feels all too sincere in treating a celebrated historical standoff as the kind of slick, shallow, glorified concert that would make better sense if performed by the likes of Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler."

A year later, are we once again in Danny Strong trouble? An open question. Maybe a workshop fixed it, as opined above; yet the issue raised by Variety sound organic to the concept, and that's why I scratched my head and wondered where the $20 million came from.

Updated On: 7/22/26 at 06:11 PM

I mean how can all the people who were force-fed the hype that Danny Strong had at long last fixed the book of CHESS, be terribly excited about another DS musical book so soon after that debacle?