Closing Out of Town

[mshetina]

Posted: 4/20/10 at 10:32pm

I recently revisited Ken Mandlebaum’s Not Since Carrie and I was wondering if there was a list somewhere of major Broadway-bound musicals that closed out of town. I realize that most major musicals have Broadway aspirations, but I was wondering if you could fill in any major omissions (i.e. not Bare: A Pop Opera) from the list I’ve assembled:

Reuben, Reuben (1955)
Ziegfeld Follies of 1956 (1956)
At the Grand (1958 )
Lock Up Your Daughters (1960)
The Pink Jungle (1960)
La Belle (1962)
We Take the Town (1962)
Zenda (1963)
Hot September (1965)
Pleasures and Palaces (1965)
Royal Flush (1965)
Chu-Chem (1966) – revised version made it to Broadway twenty years later and flopped
Mata Hari (1968 )
A Mother’s Kisses (1968 )
Love Match (1969)
1491 (1969)
Lolita, My Love (1971)
Prettybelle (1971)
W.C. (1971)
Cherry (1972)
Clownaround (1972)
Gone with the Wind (1973)
Miss Moffatt (1974)
Sheba (1974)
The Baker’s Wife (1976)
Nefertiti (1977)
Alice (1978 )
The Prince of Grand Street (1978 )
Daddy Goodness (1979)
Home Again, Home Again (1979)
Swing (1980)
Say Hello to Harvey (1981)
Colette (1982)
Chaplin (1983)
Sing, Mahalia, Sing (1985)
Annie 2: Miss Hannigan’s Revenge (1990)
Paper Moon (1993)
Faust (1994) – Was this ever Broadway bound?
Busker Alley (1995)
Whistle Down the Wind (1996)
Martin Guerre (1999)
Bounce (2004)
The Mambo Kings (2005)
Lone Star Love (2007)

And a few musicals that closed in previews:

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1966)
Rachael Lily Rosenbloom and Don’t You Ever Forget It (1973)
Truckload (1975)
One Night Stand (1980)
The Little Prince and the Aviator (1982)
Senator Joe (1989)


Updated On: 4/20/10 at 10:32 PM

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 4/20/10 at 11:17pm

Add Laurette, the ill-fated play about Laurette Taylor with Judy Holliday that closed in Philadephia (I think it was Philly).

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/20/10 at 11:21pm

Does FIRST WIVES CLUB count yet?

[mshetina]

Posted: 4/20/10 at 11:32pm

Thanks Ed. I realized that I forgot to mention that my main interest was musicals in the original post. It's a shame Holliday's career seemed to rest on two big hits and a bunch of flops.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 4/20/10 at 11:33pm

how often have shows actually booked a theater and put up the marquee and then canceled? i know that mambo kings did... any else?

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 4/20/10 at 11:36pm

Lone Star Love did

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 3:06am

Here are some others:

A Month of Sundays (1951)
The Amazing Adele (1955)
Strip for Action (1956)
The Carefree Heart (1957)
Kicks & Co. (1961)
La Belle (1962)
Get On Board-The Jazz Train (1962)
Cool Off! (1964)
Comedy (1972)
Winner Take All (1976)
Hellzapoppin (1976)
Spotlight (1978 )
Back Country (1978 )

[chiuptown]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 7:12am

i'm trying to think of that musical by kander and ebb w/ chita rivera that played in chicago at the goodman a few years ago? also would bounce qualify, which i also saw at the goodman.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 7:14am

BUSKER ALLEY, the Tommy Tune Musical, was due to open at the St.James. An enormous mural for the show was painted onto the facade of that theatre--I watched the painter doing the work. I am very sorry that the show never materialized due at least in part to Tommy Tune breaking his leg during out of town rehearsals/tryouts. The premise of the show, utilizing English musical performers on the street, was intriguing to me.

[romgitsean]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 7:20am

Wonderland? Love Never Dies? :P

[WOSQ]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 10:24am

Almost all of the shows on the lists had full productions mounted under the Production Contract and were booked into regular road houses and had expectations of a Broadway opening.

Granted some closed in previews in NY, but they did expect to open.

A show like Bare had a showcase run and then a limited off-Broadway run prior to an announced full open-end off-Broadway engagement that was to be at New World Stages. However a major investor pulled out with half the capitalization, and the replacement monies couldn't be found.

Many of the regional tryouts that are done have enhancement money from commercial producers and if the LORT production works, the show will be given a full production (Jersey Boys). If the show doesn't work and doesn't go beyond the regional run, that is a lot less money lost. This is the situation with The Visit by Kander and Ebb among others.

Not in the list are two revivals from the late 70s. One was a production of Pal Joey starring Lena Horne with a new book that collapsed somewhere out west and another was a mounting of Oh, Kay that died in DC. The latter was the last show produced by The Black Witch of Broadway, Cyma Rubin who stole No, No Nanette from Harry Rigby, the man who dreamed up that production.

It is also safe to say that no show that folded out of town (that didn't run out of money like Carefree Heart did in 57) deserved to come in. Nothing theatrically vital was lost. Any show worth anything (and then some) did not fold out of town.

Lolita, My Love has the distinction of closing on the road twice. It played 2 of an announced 5 week stand in Phila, closed for substantial revisions, and reopened 2-3 weeks later in Boston where it died the death of a thousand screams at the end of a week.

[newintown]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 12:23pm

There's a very interesting book on this: Broadway Bound: A Guide to Shows That Died Aborning, by William T. Leonard. It appears to be self-published, more or less, laid out on an old typewriter, but it lists details for hundreds of shows that closed on the road.

Unfortunately, it was published in 1983, and ends there. It would be fun to have a 2nd edition, updating the last 27 years.

[jpbran]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 12:28pm

The Kander & Ebb show was "The Visit."

[twinbelters]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 1:37pm

Casper (2001) with Chita Rivera was one that was brought to my attention recently. The poster, which you can see at the link below, is just weird. There are clips on youtube as well.
Casper (2001)

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 6:27pm

'Casper' opened in London in 1999 and really shouldn't have!!!



Updated On: 4/21/10 at 06:27 PM

[mshetina]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 6:37pm

@AfterEight: Thanks for the additions. Can’t believe I forgot about Gene Kelly’s flop revival of Hellzapoppin’.

@Gypsy9: I love the film that Busker Alley is based on, St. Martin’s Square. I would love to see Busker Alley sometime and see if it lives up to its source.

@WOSQ: Thanks for the info about the revivals. Along with Pleasures and Palaces, Lolita, My Love is one of those flops that just fascinates me, but I am sure that if there wasn’t such a scarcity of available material on both shows, they’d just be disappointments. Still, I’d love to hear Dorothy Loudon’s performance.

@newintown: Thank you so much for letting me know about that book. Now I just need top find a copy for less than sixty bucks.

[mshetina]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 6:39pm

@twinbelters/MamasDoin'Fine: Ugh. "A Spooky Spectacular." Sounds like a Disney World attraction.

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 7:29pm

"Can’t believe I forgot about Gene Kelly’s flop revival of Hellzapoppin’."

I think you mean Jerry Lewis's flop revival of "Hellzapoppin'."

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 7:38pm

Sorry but I just noticed WC

Updated On: 4/21/10 at 07:38 PM

[mshetina]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 8:21pm

"I think you mean Jerry Lewis's flop revival of "Hellzapoppin'."

Of course, you're right. Kelly's flop was "Clownaround."

[allofmylife]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 8:31pm

It's interesting to note that more than a few of these flops were mounted by Edwin Lester, impresario of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, in an attempt to replicate his big hits "Song of Norway" and "Kismet" which opened in LA and then triumphed on Broadway.

You have to give the man credit for trying.....

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 4/21/10 at 9:12pm

[alterego]

Posted: 4/22/10 at 2:32am

You have to wonder, what was Lynn Redgrave doing in HELLZAPOPPIN ?

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/22/10 at 8:47am

Not Broadway ones but a couple of ones which closed on the road in the UK and never made it in to London

Wedding Singer
Jekyll and Hyde

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 4/22/10 at 9:43am

Alterego: It was indeed strange that Lynn Redgrave was in HELLZAPOPPIN. I remember reading a magazine article about the show on the road in which Jerry Lewis was quoted as saying that all Lynn Redgrave was good for was providing a leg which he could piss on. What a piece of work Lewis is and always has been,IMO. Redgrave is said to have been devastated by the whole experience of working with Lewis.