Bucky Barnes should have played a bigger role in Rogers: The Musical if the show doesn’t run for a limited time. Compared to the movies, the Winter Soldier only made short appearances in the Broadway musical based on the first Captain America, Steve Rogers. However, it wasn’t Disney’s original plan.
Disney and Marvel Studios have brought Rogers: The Musical, the in-universe show, to the fans’ timeline. The show was supposed to be a background element in Hawkeye, but Kevin Feige decided to have the Broadway veteran Marc Shaiman develop it into something more.
In an interview with The Direct, the show’s conductor and composer, Christopher Lennertz, revealed the real reason behind Bucky’s small role in the musical. Disney intended to play the show four times a day, so it could only run for 30 to 35 minutes.
That said, he and the team couldn’t do anything but do things they didn’t want to, like cutting off Bucky’s appearances. So though the character is referenced throughout the show, considering he appears before Steve’s Super Soldier transformation, he only returns in the final musical number.
The focus of Rogers: The Musical on Steve and Peggy’s relationship also has something to do with Bucky’s limited appearance. But then again, Lennertz stressed it wasn’t the original plan. In fact, the longer version of the musical had Bucky as a “much bigger player.”
He explained:
There was a much longer version of this show, and there is a much longer version of this show. Hopefully, you know, if anybody would ever let us do it, the longer version of this show had Bucky as a much bigger player in this. That's the other really big person in Cap's life from the get-go. I could absolutely see a Bucky and Cap song in there somewhere. But we just literally didn't have the time.
The Fans’ Complaints Over Giving Bucky’s Lines to Peggy
Lennertz also addressed the complaints over Bucky’s on-screen lines in Rogers: The Musical being given to Peggy. He cleared that the change “wasn’t a mistake” or disregarded the MCU canon.
With the team’s intention to include those lines in the stage show, it was the only way they could do so, considering the musical had “unique demands.”
We know there are tons of fans who are upset because Peggy said a line that Bucky said. Obviously, we all knew that. It wasn't a mistake. We all knew; we all knew. We all made the choice that for this 35-minute show, we wanted to get the line in, and the way to get it in was to land on the Peggy storyline.
However, to make it up to fans, Lennertz teased there could be a “great Broadway version” of Rogers: The Musical. And if it happens, Bucky will finally have the chance to say the lines he should have.
“Absolutely, there could be a great Broadway version of this show in which Bucky has a really big part and will say the lines he needs to say. So, it's interesting to think how that could work,” he said.
By the looks of it, fans have to wait for this longer version of Rogers: The Musical to happen to see more of this World War II veteran and Steve’s best friend. For now, they need to understand why Bucky has a limited appearance in the 35-minute play.
