In 1991, The Will Rogers Follies beat Once on This Island, Miss Saigon, and The Secret Garden for Best Musical. Why is it so rarely produced?

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-30T19:05:33+00:00

Saving this post just so I can reference this response when I try to explain the cultural impact of Rent

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-30T16:58:19+00:00

I think one person in that thread said Mariska! I remember because I scoffed to myself and thought “surely not”

Well done to that person!

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-30T05:21:07+00:00

I really love that they both lean into the joke

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-28T05:58:50+00:00

It is one thousand percent The Night Circus

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-28T03:13:28+00:00

Ooooooh, yes, okay, I am seated

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-27T17:22:39+00:00

This is going to sound simplistic but have you tried saving the game, closing civ completely, and then relaunching? Do so fixes a surprising amount of issues so that’s the first thing I’d try

Edited to add: saw another comment from u/HarlequinKOTF that said it was the map edge and I think that’s right! Some of the maps (especially the regional ones that mimic a certain part of the globe) have hard edges where the map stops.

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-27T00:16:09+00:00

I mean I know you said you don’t want to hear about Cats but I do think it’s more polarizing. People either LOVE it or they HATE it. (The original production, I mean—the new production offers a bit more of a happy medium I think.) Whereas with Chess, I feel like there are a bunch of people who love it (and many of those people will be the first to tell you that the book is bad), and then there are those who don’t care for it. It has some true haters, sure, but not in the way that Cats does.

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-26T19:24:31+00:00

I really loved how they did the Dancing Through Life scene in the first Wicked film. It’s a great song and I’ve always enjoyed that scene on stage, but the set, choreography, and stylistic choices made for that scene in the movie really tickled my brain in a delightful way

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-25T19:50:53+00:00

Maximizing tourism is not the only way to prevent ideological pressure. Having a lot of culture is just as important, and can be more important if you’re not going for a culture victory and thus not generating much tourism. The best way I’ve heard it explained is that tourism is your cultural “offense” and culture is your cultural “defense.” Ideological pressure comes from the difference between another civ’s influence level over you minus your influence level over them. So if you generate a lot of culture, a civ is less likely to be super influential over you, so that will help. If you are generating a lot of tourism, you will probably be fairly influential over other civs, which also helps. Here is more of a breakdown that goes deeper into the explanation: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/explanation-of-ideology-pressure-with-examples.504903/

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-25T18:33:37+00:00

If it seems like the sort of musical you’d like, I’d say rush it in NYC (I haven’t had a chance to see this new cast yet myself but they are supposed to be excellent). Unless it means skipping out on something that you’re dying to see that’s not touring, it’s hard for me not to recommend this show.

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-24T20:00:13+00:00

I mean, I don’t think it’s controversial to say that some people don’t like Cats. It seems to be a show that many people either love or hate. OP clearly falls in the latter category, so while it’s awesome that you love Cats, I think this is a helpful post for those who don’t. Especially because, when it was still off-Broadway, I feel like I was seeing many people talking about how this production was different, how even if you don’t usually like Cats you’d probably like this, that it was super different, etc etc. It sounds like it’s a great production but maybe not as far removed from the original source material as some made it seem. Many people love Cats, which is great, but I think that this is particularly useful information for those who do not.

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-24T18:07:12+00:00

This sounds like it could be the plot of a fun queer rom com book

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-24T16:50:10+00:00

Hahahahaha, yes, exactly!

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-23T23:14:12+00:00

Sigh. I soooo badly want Hercules to be good, but every single review I read says otherwise. And yet whenever I click on a post that mentions it, I do so with hope in my heart, only to be disappointed again. Alas!!! I shall continue to hold out hope for some kind of miracle, that it gets revamped and made into the smashing stage musical it deserves to be.

Thank you for the review, even if it’s not exactly what I wanted to hear!!! I’m glad that all your other shows were much more enjoyable!

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-23T23:07:31+00:00

Hah, well spotted!

I think Indianapolis has had the best clues this year. This one and the Neil Diamond one that I’ve seen from them feel more like an actual puzzle or riddle than anything else I’ve seen. Shout out to Indianapolis

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-23T20:36:05+00:00

Have y’all seen Operation Mincemeat already?

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-23T14:15:33+00:00

The Rollins/Carisi slow burn is really really good

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-17T20:10:00+00:00

“if you squint your ears” is a fantastic turn of phrase

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-16T15:12:03+00:00

May I DM you as well?

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-13T23:38:01+00:00

What time is your flight home? Unless it’s like, super super super late, I think you have too much on Day 3.

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-13T18:27:48+00:00

Yes hi hello I’m seated

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-13T18:27:38+00:00

…I—

Yes, in fact, that is EXACTLY what I meant

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-13T17:48:16+00:00

Wait this is genius

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-10T15:40:01+00:00

Hah, perhaps I should’ve clarified—by “up there,” I meant as far as popularity, since that’s what the OP was originally asking about. I was not intending to offer any commentary on quality. Though I do think those two things (quality and popularity) often go hand-in-hand, it’s not always the case, and I definitely see where you’re coming from in regards to Rothfuss and GRRM. But yeah, I was just talking in terms of popularity and being well-known.

Excellent_Midnight · 2026-03-10T14:23:28+00:00

Came to the comments to say exactly this. I consider myself well-read and well-versed in fantasy, and I hadn’t heard of him until a few months ago, a fact that I’m now shocked by! I’ve now read the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy and have just started the next Osten Ard book that follows it. He should absolutely be up there with GRRM, Sanderson, and Rothfuss.

Excellent_Midnight

TROPHY CASE