Broadway musicalThese days, if you have Broadway tickets for a Broadway musical, the chances are good that you'll be seeing a show that had its origins in movies, TV, or some other medium. Why is it that so few of the shows on the Broadway musical scene are original shows, like they were in the old days, 30 or 40 years ago, when having Broadway tickets meant seeing something that was written and staged specifically for the Broadway theater? Seemingly gone are the days when giants like Steven Sondheim or Bob Fosse staged a new Broadway musical that really made waves. Of course shows like Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera have been popular, but even they are derived from famous novels, while a show like Mamma Mia is merely a thin book written around a bunch of mediocre pop songs. Will we ever see a good, original Broadway musical again that's not based on an existing book, movie, or TV show?