Can someone tell me why Via Galactica & Moose Murders were not monster hits?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 11:49am

[JayG 2]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 12:14pm

Quite a puzzlement, especially when things equally awful, like Legally Blonde, Xanadu, and Rock of Ages have run for years.

[hork]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 12:19pm

And where is the revival of Dude that Broadway clearly owes the human race?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 12:20pm

Exactly plus an overdue revival of Breakfast At Tiffany's musical.

[ARTc3]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 3:21pm

As someone who saw both Via Galactica and Dude... Encore, what are you thinking?!!! Revive these musical treasures!!!!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 3:32pm

I only saw Via. The 2 CD's from Dude indicate the music did not appear to be the problem . I read  Second Act Troubles and it gives you a good idea why it flopped.Who in the hell was Rocco Buffano?

Updated On: 3/31/16 at 03:32 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 4:04pm

Give Galactica to Ivo Van Hove and he'll set it in a Rubik's Cube with all the actors facing separate corners and it will heralded as a work of genius. 

[ARTc3]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 4:20pm

But, he has to add the trampoline stage deck.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 4:21pm

??

Scary that really was brilliantly funny! 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/31/16 at 4:44pm

As crazy as it sounds, it would have been way better than what was happening on stage.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 12:03am

And to think I saw Ambassador instead of Via Galactica one night because the VG ticket was too expensive at $10!!

What a mistake that was!

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 12:04am

As the other thread indicated it was because of the stigma of being in the UpUris theatre.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 12:18am

I kick myself I did not see Dude and Senator Joe.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 9:06am

I saw Dude. Don't kick yourself too hard. Totally incomprehensible. But I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I think I sat in the tree tops... or was it the nests? Hmmm.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 10:45am

Ah a much gentler time when the city and Broadway were more fun.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 12:57pm

It is amazing that the Broadway theater even looks like a theater after being ripped up for Candide & Dude

 

As far as   Galt is concerned, he did a show in London years back called Isabel's A Jezebel. Not warmly received by the critics of the day. A cast album was done but only 1 l.p. so about 1/2 the score was preserved.Before selling it, I burned it to a CD. It ain't half bad.He was a hard luck composer. After Hair & 2 Gentlemen, the wheels fell off and he could not buy a hit even though his scores were really quite good.

[temms]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 1:32pm

Galt MacDermot has done just fine. He was never a theatre guy to begin with - he was a jazz cat and was introduced to Rado and Ragni on a whim of a mutual associate. "Hair" is the kind of hit where you don't have to do anything else, and "Two Gents" was no small thing, either. Plus he did a number of film scores.

He was never all that involved in the shows other than writing the tunes. He initiated none of his projects, and did the job he was asked to do by the people doing it. In the meantime, he's continued to play and record with his band while writing music for the occasional theatre piece when someone asks.

At the same time, he is revered in the Hip-Hop community as being a huge source of beats and samples. Galt has won at least one Rap Grammy for a Busta Rhymes track that sampled one of his old compositions and MCs are always going to his old jazz LPs as sources. He's probably better known among that community than he is among casual musical theatre fans. A song of his was even featured in a significant scene in "Better Call Saul" last season (while Jimmy is taping the shredded documents back together). He won the Ivor Novello award for songwriting. "Hard luck" would not be how I would describe him.

 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/1/16 at 1:48pm

I will qualify my statement by saying he is hard luck as far as composing for Broadway