NEW YORK – How do you rate a Broadway season that was filled with very good musicals but lacked either a history-making masterpiece or a blockbuster hit that will surely run for years?

That's the way it was in 2006-2007 on the Great White Way. The season officially ended on Wednesday so that Tony Award nominators could decide on a slate to be announced Tuesday. The awards will be passed out June 10.

We spent the first week of May in New York, catching up. Four new musicals are reviewed today, and three dramas will be reviewed here Monday.

Musicals, of course, are Broadway's lifeblood. They're the shows that attract out-of-town visitors. Ninety percent of the shows that tour around the country are musicals, too.

The season's fall lineup, which actually extends from May through December, fed the troops with a greater number of notable shows than usual.

Of those, Mary Poppins has the Disney trademark to help bring in crowds, but many observers doubt it has the potential for the kind of long run that Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King have enjoyed. Grey Gardens and Spring Awakening can boast of intellectual cachet but are struggling at the box office.

The eagerly awaited musicals that opened toward the end of the season all have their attractions. But will they last?

Legally Blonde has the name recognition and high spirits to do well on the road but feels insubstantial. Curtains appeals more to New York theatrical types but may be a little old-fashioned for a wider public.

Maybe it's mean to complain when this year's crop of Broadway musicals gives everybody something to enjoy. But it would have been nice if we could point to something absolutely, positively crazy that still promised to make a bundle.DigitalEXTRA

{WebArch} Archive: Read Lawson Taitte's reviews of more Tony contenders, including Spring Awakening and Grey Gardens.

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