Best Musical Flop Voting Thread

[Bwaynerd]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 10:34pm

You vote and I'll announce the winners on Saturday 7/24!

BEST MUSICAL FLOP
13
9 to 5
High Fidelity
Lennon
Carrie

^these are the nominees people!!!

Updated On: 7/19/10 at 10:34 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 10:37pm

You mean actual good flop musicals like

The Golden Apple
Caroline, Or Change
The Human Comedy
Seesaw
Mack & Mable

or just ones from the past few years that the little girls like?

Updated On: 7/17/10 at 10:37 PM

[AudreyTwoTwo]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 10:52pm

yup, didn't see any of these.
Is All Shook Up considered a flop? If so, yeah that should be on there.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 1:02am

To add to Jordan's list of great flop musicals (the orginal list, sans Carrie, is ridiculous):

House of Flowers
Dear World
Anyone Can Whistle
Merrily We Roll Along
Simply Heavenly
Juno
The Grass Harp
Rags
Grind
Do I Hear a Waltz?
Candide (Chenoglee is even in a concert production)
Bajour
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The Baker's Wife (by that guy who wrote Wicked)
Goldilocks
Foxy
Drat, the Cat!

I get why musicals from the last few years are so heavily favored around here but it still doesn't make it any less depressing that some people obsess over such crap while leaving forgotten gems by the wayside.

Buy "Not Since Carrie". It's essential musical theatre reading. My copy just split in half the other day. I need to replace it, poor little often used book!

Updated On: 7/18/10 at 01:02 AM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 1:33am

Grey Gardens

[onedaymore]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 2:01am

Three words. The Pirate Queen.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 2:03am

I love The Pirate Queen.

[onedaymore]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 2:06am

Me too. It was here in Chicago for previews and it was so popular, then it goes to Bway...epic fail. Stephanie J Block was spectacular, vocally too. :/

[Mekroth]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 2:36am

Follies, anyone?

[romgitsean]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 12:51pm

My personal favorites are: (these are strictly shows that made it to Broadway and flopped. Not closed on the road...)

Enron
Carrie
Lestat
[title of show]
Woman in White
It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's...Superman!

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 12:55pm

ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER

LaChiusa's THE WILD PARTY

THE GOLDEN APPLE

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 8:26pm

What's a "mominee", dancing waffle?

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 8:28pm

I feel like "Flop" is so vague, and we have the same argument over whether shows like "Grey Gardens" can really qualify every time it's brought up. Why don't we do a thread with like...best flop to run under 10 performances or something? The REAL flops.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 8:32pm

Spiderman

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 8:37pm

IN MY LIFE

THOU SHALT NOT

MOLLY

KELLY

LEGS DIAMOND

[quizking101]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 12:13am

ALL ABOUT ME (though it was more of a cabaret)

CRY-BABY

[newintown]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 9:07am

This kind of thread gives me a headache...

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 9:22am

The only one on your list that has credibility as a flap is Carrie, pick 4 better ones to go with it like Legs Diamond, Taboo, On a Clear Day etc

[kooky]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 9:39am

RING OF FIRE ...

[DirtyRottenGirl]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 2:33pm

I have to say it The Wedding Singer and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I've never seen so much audience participation as I did in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was so HAPPY

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 2:38pm

Anyone who puts THOU SHALT NOT in a list of favorite shows should be taken out back of their nursing home and beaten with their walker.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 5:21pm

Hahahahah yeah, I'm sorry, but I second the headache. I think to bring up a discussion on flops you have to know good material; all the shows you listed (sans Carrie) weren't even respectable. They took easy money musical-ization targets and still ended up failures. They aren't even fun to discuss, let alone glorify. To "Thou Shalt Not"'s credit, it actually tried to do something interesting and made a good score before terrorizing audiences. Look into all of the flops listed above.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 6:11pm

The Golden Apple is near perfect so it wins hands down. To its credit, it also won the New York Drama Critics Circle award in its original run. To paraphrase Mr. Mandelbaum, it was the audience that failed The Golden Apple--not the other way around. That is rare for a flop. The only other show I can think of whose audience failed it is Side Show.

Did anyone see this in Filichia's Diary?:

Wednesday, July 7 – 11:24 a.m. I’m reviewing the proofs of my upcoming book Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959-2009, and I come across the chapter on The Biggest Hit of 2003-2004. Now I agree with Howard that Wicked is ubiquitous, so I’m not going to quite count that in my tally – but given that I use the words “The Wizard of Oz” in my essay, I’m going to count this one.

I can't wait to get that book. Sounds like a great read and I like that he's focusing on two musicals a season at such opposite ends of the spectrum. I'm guessing the book will start with Gypsy and, perhaps, Happy Town?

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 6:14pm

9 to 5. It was kitchy and fluffy, but it was so fun and the performances were outstanding.

Ragtime.

Dracula. Mixed feelings. It was a CRAP show, but I enjoyed it so much.

[garyl]

Posted: 7/19/10 at 8:35pm

High Spirits
Henry Sweet Henry
How Now Dow Jones
All American
Zorba