Can a “Dated Musical” Still Work on Broadway?

Lucie Arnaz and Robert Klein in They’re Playing Our Song

by Chris Peterson

Of all the strange little questions that can send a theatre person down a rabbit hole, this one started for me with They’re Playing Our Song.

Not because I think the Broadway revival community is secretly sitting around waiting to bring back a 1979 Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch, and Carole Bayer Sager musical comedy about two songwriters falling in and out of love. Though honestly, stranger things have happened. But, because listening to the score the other day, it feels so unmistakably of its time that it raises a bigger question.

When a musical is dated, does that mean it is dead?

They’re Playing Our Song is one of those shows that wears the late 1970s on its sleeve. The music has that pop sheen, the jokes have that Neil Simon rhythm, and the whole thing feels like it belongs to a very specific cultural moment. And I kind of love that about it.

But could it work on Broadway today? That is where things get tricky.

The temptation with any older musical is to “update” it. But with a show like They’re Playing Our Song, I’m not sure that helps. The sound of the show is so tied to its era that dragging it into 2026 might make it feel less fresh, not more.

At some point, the question becomes whether the datedness is a flaw or the actual reason to revive it.

I would argue that some musicals need to stay in their original time period because the score is doing more than providing songs. It is creating a world. This is one of the reasons why I think the recent revival of Merrily We Roll Along worked so well.

Maybe the better approach is not to apologize for the late 70s of They’re Playing Our Song, but to lean into it. Make it stylish. Make it specific. Let the clothes, the sound, the rhythm, and the romantic neuroses all live exactly where they belong.

The bigger issue is whether today’s Broadway audience would care. In recent seasons where revivals often need either a major star, a beloved title, or some urgent new interpretation to justify their existence, They’re Playing Our Song would probably need a very clear reason to come back. Nostalgia alone is not enough.

But I do think there is value in asking whether “dated” has become too easy an insult. Sometimes dated just means specific. Sometimes it means honest to the period that created it. And sometimes, yes, it means a show has aged like a fondue pot at a yard sale.

For They’re Playing Our Song, I think the only way it works now is by admitting exactly what it is: a late 70s romantic comedy with a late 70s pop score and no interest in pretending otherwise. Honestly, that might be its best argument for coming back.