David Merrick
David Merrick
David Merrick#0
Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:11pmDiscuss.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
re: David Merrick#1
Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:12pmThe broadway devil? haha or so it seems on the pbs broadway documentary.
Leading Actor Joined: 11/1/03
re: David Merrick#2
Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:50pm
David Merrick. My main man David Merrick. The dirtiest, most colorful, most ruthless, press-hogging producer to live. And as Hal Prince said, "I kinda admire him."
Alrighty, Merrick story number 1:
Michael Stewart had already written mega-hits for Merrick, including Hello, Dolly! and Carnival! So when Stewart started work on a musical about showman George M. Cohan, Merrick was obviously interested. But Stewart had also written a play entitled He to Hecuba, an adaptation to Hamlet. He insisted that if Merrick wanted George M! he also had to produce He to Hecuba. Merrick refused this, so Stewart took his property elsewhere to Daivd Black, currently starring in his own one-man show off-Broadway. Black with his partners Konrad Matthei and Lorin E. Price produced George M! and also produced the retitled Those That Play the Clowns without the afformentioned partners (the play ran 4 performances).
Here's where it gets good. The Tony cut-off date in those days was April 15th, so shows that opened in the second-half of April or May were part of the same season, but were considered for the following year's Tonys (i.e. Damn Yankees opened May 5th, 1955 as part of the 1954-1955 season, but was given Tonys in the 1956 ceremony). George M! was set to open on April 10th and Merrick saw it as the stiffest competition to beat his offering that season, The Happy Time.
Now most producers would have moped and sat blindly, but not Merrick. Merrick campaigned and pulled all of his weight in the theatre community to get the eligibility date changed to April 1st. And he did it! He pushed the competition out of the running completely!
But Merrick got one-upped. The theatre community saw what he had done and punished him by rewarding the already-closed Hallelujah, Baby! from the previous season with the award.
Merrick Story #2:
It is the 1962 Tony award ceremony. That season Merrick had brought two shows to the boards: I Can Get it for You Wholesale and Subways are for Sleeping. In the category for Best Featured Actress in a Musical there was one nominee from each of those shows: A 19-year-old Barbra Streisand for Wholesale and Phyllis Newman for Subways. Merrick was seated next to Newman for the ceremony. The presenters were reading the nominees names and Merrick turns to Phyllis Newman and says, "I voted for Barbra Steisand." As Phyllis Newman said, "At that moment I wanted to punch him in the nose but I didn't have to because they called my name. It was the perfect moment."
Merrick Story #3:
Destry Rides Again had a famous feud between the star: Dolores Gray and director-choreographer Michael Kidd. It began when Gray was promised a part in a specific dance sequence, but Kidd told her that she didn't need a clause in her contract because she had his word. Well, he didn't keep it and the tension escalated. One day backstage there was a particularly heated argument in which Kidd called Gray a slut. She slapped him and he slapped her back. With now regular slugfests and arguments between Kidd, Gray, and her infamous mother, one would assume that the producer would intervene. No one wants animosity between their star and director.
No one except Merrick. Merrick didn't do anything on purpose as the feud began to attract press attention. Merrick was content to enjoy the free publicity and let the star and director duke it out!
Merrick Story #4:
This is perhaps the most famous Merrick story, but I'll tell it anyway. It was opening night of 42nd Street. The opening night reaffrimed the fact that the show was a mega-hit. The audience was giving that cast its umpteenth ovation when Merrick bounded onto the stage. "Tonight is a tragedy." The comment was greeted with laughs because of course the show was a hit. Then Merrick dropped the bomb: Gower Champion, the director and choreographer, had died earlier that day. The cast was suddenly reduced to tears. The audience was shocked. Merrick had kept the death a secret the entire day. In fact many people thought that this was another Merrick ruse.
And in a way it was. The stunt made headlines all over the world. Suddenly people who had never heard of 42nd Street, David Merrick, or Gower Champion had learned of the incident.
Merrick Story #5:
I told this on another post, but it was inside a longer post so I'll tell it again. Soon after the opening of Carnival! Anna Maria Alberghetti, the star of the show, asked Merrick for some time off so that she could do a movie. Merrick refused to let her out of her contract and Alberghetti soon became "ill." Well Merrick sent her no get well cards. He praised her standby, Anita Gillette, to the press and told everyone that as far as he was concerned the sickness was phony. When Alberghetti returned to work he sent her wax flowers.
Years after Alberghetti stole Merrick's caricature from Sardi's and hung it over her toilet.
Merrick Story #6:
This is my all-time favorite.
After the opening night of Subways are for Sleeping Harvey Sabinson walked into Merrick's office where he reiterated that the show had received mostly negative reviews.
But Merrick had some tricks up his sleeve. Well, one grand wonderful trick that people are still talking about. He had had the idea for a while, but had never had a show that was worthy of the scam: he needed a mediocrity that could be saved and Subways was exactly that. He also couldn't have pulled the trick while Brooks Atkinson was the head critic at the Times. There was only one Brooks Atkinson in the tri-state area.
Merrick pulled out the phonebook and found men in and around the city with the exact same names as the seven major drama critics. He invited each to the show and dinner for free if he could make up fake quotes for each of them. Sounded harmless, so all agreeed.
The Times and the Post killed the ad, but the Herald-Tribune did not. So one morning in 1962 an add in the Trib proclaimed "7 Out of 7 Agree" All seven of the name duplicates were quoted with quotes proclaiming Subways are for Sleeping a resounding hit. One phony critic said it was the "best musical of the century." Each quote was accompained by a small picture of the phony critic.
So Merrick got his way and the show ran out the season!
Hope these are enough for now! I'll think of some later.
re: David Merrick#3
Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:52pm
Might have had the best nickname in the history of Broadway: "The Abominiable Showman"!
Seriosly, that man would do ANYTHING to sell a show! His stunts were legendary (His announcing the death of Gower Champion to the cast and audience at the opening night of 42ND STREET might have been his topper). Still, for a while in the 1960s, he WAS Broadway.
re: David Merrick#4
Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:53pm
Okay, here's a list of some of the shows he produced (and in several cases he was the one who had the original idea and assembled the creative team -- Broadway would have been a far less interesting place without him):
Fanny (1954)
The Machmaker (1955)
Look Back In Anger (1957)
Romanoff and Juliett (1957)
Jamaica (1957)
The Entertainer (1958 )
La Plume de Ma Tante (1958 )
Destry Rides Again (1959)
Gypsy (1959)
Take Me Along (1959)
Irma La Douce (1960)
A Taste of Honey (1960)
Beckett (1960)
Do Re Mi! (1960)
Carnival (1961)
Subways Are For Sleeping (1961)
I Can Get It For You Wholesale (1962)
Stop The World -- I Want To Get Off (1962)
Oliver! (1963)
Luther (1963)
110 In The Shade (1963)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1963)
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1964)
Hello Dolly! (1964)
Foxy (1964)
Oh! What A Lovely War! (1964)
The Roar of the Greasepaint/ The Smell of the Crown (1964)
Inadmissable Evidence (1965)
Cactus Flower (1965)
Marat/Sade (1965)
Philadelphia! Here I Come (1966)
Don't Drink The Water (1966)
I Do! I Do! (1966)
Rosencrantz and Guidenstern (1967)
The Happy Time (1968 )
Promises Promises (1968 )
Forty Carats (1968 )
Play It Again, Sam (1969)
Child's Play (1970)
Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1971)
Sugar (1972)
Mack & Mabel (1974)
Travesties (1975)
42nd Street (1980)
Leading Actor Joined: 11/1/03
re: David Merrick#5
Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:57pm
For those of you who do not want to read ALL of my Merrick stories read numbers 1, 4, and 6.
Those are my favorites. 
Updated On: 1/2/05 at 08:57 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/1/04
re: David Merrick#6
Posted: 1/2/05 at 8:21pm
david merrick mayhave been a great showman and he did bring some truly great plays and musicals to the stage but i find it disturbing that he had to resort to such under handed tactics to "save" some of his shows. the show should stand on it's own and be awarded for it's merits alone not because of some underhanded tactics.
those stories were funny to read but some of his tactics were really pathetic.
re: David Merrick#7
Posted: 1/3/05 at 4:40am
Oh, here's David's last stunt:
For the musical version of the movie STATE FAIR, the Tony Comittee deemed most of the score ineligable for the Best Score category because it was made for the movie, and not a Broadway show (This was not 1974, when GIGI won for Best Score). So Merrick sent the Tony voters ctton to put in their ears, so that they wouln't have to listen to the offending songs. I find it ironic that the last show he did was a Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical, but both men refused to work wih him when they were alive.
It was also Merrick that fired the entire New York cast of HELLO, DOLLY! in favor of the all African-American cast when they were receiving rave reviews in Washington, D.C..
Leading Actor Joined: 11/1/03
re: David Merrick#8
Posted: 1/3/05 at 8:23am
Okay.
Here is the thing that you must understand about Merrick.
Yes, some of the tactics seem a little extreme or even vulgar.
But Merrick is a prime example of how wildly committed a producer can be to their show. He would do anything to make his show a hit and draw the best out of the people that worked for him. And usually it worked.
Some stories like the one about Phyllis Newman are just Merrick being Merrick, but the others really demonstrate a kind of producing we don't see today. Merrick loved his shows. And he loved his work. And it doesn't seem that way, but the fiery passion he had to push his show to the top is missing today.
So millionaire whoever's show got bad reviews. Oh, dear, well we could hire an adequate second rate TV star to perform this role and that'll bring some ticket sales. Many times they do nothing and just let money peter out until the show dies.
Merrick did it big time. He did everything to save his shows.
A last Merrick story:
Merrick produced a stage version of Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1966 with Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlin. The score was by Bob Merrill and the book and direction by Abe Burrows. Recipe for a hit? Wrong. The show was a disaster in Philadelphia, so Merrick took action, he fired many people and brought in new cast members, had Edward Albee revise the script and went to Boston, where the show also bombed.
But this was the adaptation of an immensely popular novel and smash hit movie plus it featured two popular stars in the leading roles. The sales had reached a new record. The advance was at a record high. The show could run out the season on the tickets already sold, forget about the reviews.
The show limped into the Majestic. Merrick watched the first preview and then announced to the press that he was closing the show. He say that he didn't want to submit the drama critics or the paying public to such a "thoroughly boring affair."
See through it all Merrick was just a producer really committed to his shows and their quality. He wasn't out to make quick cash by pumped his shows with old pop tunes. And this was not just Merrick. Hal Prince, Feuer and Maritn, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Alexander H. Cohan, and others. These are producers who cared that what they were putting on the stage was good. THat it was the absolute best it could be.
Now try to convince me that Harvey Weinstein at Miramax wants the same quality for his shows.
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