A Question About the Shortest Running Shows

[Beautiful_City2]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 6:13pm

We all know that many shows have had the distinction of closing after only one performance. However, if you take into account both previews AND performances, which show(s) was(were) officially the shortest running in Broadway history? I don't know the answer, I'm just curious!
Updated On: 2/1/10 at 06:13 PM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 6:20pm

I guess the answer would be the shows that closed in previews... of recent vintage:

Bobbi Boland (7 previews)
Face Value (8 previews)
Oh, Kay! (the return) (8 previews)
One Night Stand (8 previews)
Senator Joe (3 previews)
The Little Prince and the Aviator (16 previews)

Updated On: 2/1/10 at 06:20 PM

[Beautiful_City2]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 6:21pm

Do you know which of those had the shortest preview period before closing?

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 7:16pm

Smaxie's already answered the question: Senator Joe, which had 3 previews before closing.

Frankly, I'd forgotten it ever made it to Broadway at all, though I did see its out of town try-out. It was pretty interesting.

Thanks a lot, Adela Holzer (is she still in jail? )

[Sauja]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 8:11pm

Ghostlight, I had never heard of Senator Joe before and after seeing your post about someone ending up in jail because of it, I HAD to find out more. Happily, I located this NY magazine article about Holzer from 1989. Amazing stuff!!

http://books.google.com/books?id=AekCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52&dq=senator+joe+adela+holzer&source=bl&ots=BJnh0Wtsf8&sig=r6MIDhNsupIMWTBwY52VQQxM-L8&hl=en&ei=MnpnS5TaB9qfmAeO7OyaAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCEQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=senator%20joe%20adela%20holzer&f=false

[wexy]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 9:22pm

And I did see one of the Bobbi Boland previews.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 9:40pm

This is a difficult question to answer because the statistics on the number of previews of shows that opened do not appear in the IBDB or in Theatre World yearbooks before the mid '60s. Any show that opened before that and played one performance without any previews, which may have been the case in the long ago, would then have the shortest run of performances + previews. But as I say, how would one find this out?

In 1962, "Infidel Caesar" closed after two previews.

For previews + performances post 1965, "Ring Round the Bathtub" played one performance and 3 previews.

But even the act of verifying can be tricky, since mistakes are made in both the yearbooks and the IBDB. For example, the IBDB lists "Father's Day" as having played 1 performance + 1 preview. But Theatre World says 1 performance + 16 previews.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 10:52pm

Unfortunately, Sauja, I knew many of the details of the Adela Holzer article first-hand, but I thank you for linking to it. When it played out of town, (in Rye, I think), work was constantly stopping and starting because of bounced checks. It was a convoluted nightmare, money-wise, but really a not-bad show.

I saw all of Bobbie Boland's previews and I think they made the right choice to close it in previews. It wasn't a great show, for starters, and I've often wondered of Ms Fawcett's illness was affecting her even then. To put it kindly, she was nowhere near as capable in Boland as she was in the off-Broadway Extremities years before.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/1/10 at 11:03pm

Re "Bobbi Boland."

It was not a bad play. In fact, it was a very good play in its off-Broadway incarnation before it was brought to Broadway. On Broadway, it was changed for the worse, and very badly presented.

Still, even the Broadway version was better than many a play I've seen. I could probably come up with a dozen of them this season alone, but I'd rather forget them entirely.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 2/2/10 at 1:02am

HOME SWEET HOMER played 11 previews and 1 performance.

While there have been many shows that played "one night only", this one played "one afternoon only" since its "opening night" was a Sunday matinee!

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/2/10 at 3:10am

I believe the play "I Won't Dance" also played just one performance which was a Sunday matinee + 7 previews.

The author of this play, Oliver Hailey, has the unfortunate distinction of having all three of his Broadway plays play only one performance, the other two being "First One Asleep, Whistle," and "Father's Day."

[WOSQ]

Posted: 2/2/10 at 10:59am

Chu Chem, the original 1966 production, played 4 previews in Philadelphia and then shut down. Since it never officially opened, it couldn't officially close. (Chu Chem eventually came to Broadway in about 1989 and died a horrible death. It ought to have stayed dead and gone and forgotten.)

Somewhere in Broadway trivia books, and I cannot remember much more than what I will write--no title or year, there is a play that closed on opening night at intermission so officially it played a half performance.

Up until about 1963 many shows played no public previews at all. They would go out of town for a try-out, close there, load in to NY, play a few invited dress rehearsals and then open. Consequently the opening night was the only NY performance.

[Hello Dolly is about the last big hit to not play any previews: closed in DC Saturday night and loaded out and trucked to NY overnight, loaded in on Sun and Mon, tech Mon night, tech with actors Tues afternoon, invited dresses Tues and Wed, brush-up and final notes Thurs afternoon, opened Thursday night.]