#1
Posted: 11/21/03 at 8:52pm
As a counterpoint to the Failed Musicals You Wish Were Better thread, there are some flop musicals that were actually rather good shows. Some good shows fail because of bad timing, half-baked productions or just plain bad luck. Starting it off, three pop immediately to mind...
1. Darling of the Day - Maybe the most hapless musical of all time, the show went through numerous title changes (Alice Chalice, The Great Adventure, Married Alive, Buried Alive), different directors, book writers and limped into town with no book writer listed in the opening night program. With an ill-suited leading man, Vincent Price, and the brilliant Patricia Routledge (who won a Tony for her performance) but a somewhat listless production, the show still received decent notices from some of the critics. Clive Barnes, who was the first stringer at the Times in those days, chose to cover a dance event, leaving the review to second stringer Dan Sullivan, who destroyed the show. When Barnes got to Darling of the Day, he filed a positive notice, but it was too little, too late. I always enjoyed the atypical Jule Styne-Yip Harburg score, but what a pleasure to discover at York's Mufti series that the show itself, though somewhat sketchily written and overly long, is frequently a delight, and should have been a community theatre staple all these years. Maybe people can't get past Price's stangulated singing voice on the cast album?
2. Carmelina - A great story about a girl who is getting married and doesn't know who her father is. Her mother has been collecting support for years from three potential candidates. Then, the daughter, who is getting married, invites her three possible fathers to her wedding and... yes, Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner got to the uncredited source material, Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell long before the Mamma Mia! people. Carmelina was another frequently great score, hampered by a clunky, boring production. It's another show that should be having productions all over the place, but has not seen the light of day, apart from its lovely Mufti airing a few years ago.
3. 70, Girls, 70 - a mess, but a total delight. I've worked on a production of this show, and despite the messy, flimsy book, audiences eat this show up and it plays like gangbusters, even coming up with some things to say about the plight of the elderly. The history is that 70, Girls, 70 suffered after opening alongside Follies and No No Nanette. Critics, however, were unduly harsh on this show, and with the Florence Hendersons and Carol Channings of the world, it would be nice to see this one on its feet again with a proper coterie of stars.
Any others to add to the list?
1. Darling of the Day - Maybe the most hapless musical of all time, the show went through numerous title changes (Alice Chalice, The Great Adventure, Married Alive, Buried Alive), different directors, book writers and limped into town with no book writer listed in the opening night program. With an ill-suited leading man, Vincent Price, and the brilliant Patricia Routledge (who won a Tony for her performance) but a somewhat listless production, the show still received decent notices from some of the critics. Clive Barnes, who was the first stringer at the Times in those days, chose to cover a dance event, leaving the review to second stringer Dan Sullivan, who destroyed the show. When Barnes got to Darling of the Day, he filed a positive notice, but it was too little, too late. I always enjoyed the atypical Jule Styne-Yip Harburg score, but what a pleasure to discover at York's Mufti series that the show itself, though somewhat sketchily written and overly long, is frequently a delight, and should have been a community theatre staple all these years. Maybe people can't get past Price's stangulated singing voice on the cast album?
2. Carmelina - A great story about a girl who is getting married and doesn't know who her father is. Her mother has been collecting support for years from three potential candidates. Then, the daughter, who is getting married, invites her three possible fathers to her wedding and... yes, Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner got to the uncredited source material, Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell long before the Mamma Mia! people. Carmelina was another frequently great score, hampered by a clunky, boring production. It's another show that should be having productions all over the place, but has not seen the light of day, apart from its lovely Mufti airing a few years ago.
3. 70, Girls, 70 - a mess, but a total delight. I've worked on a production of this show, and despite the messy, flimsy book, audiences eat this show up and it plays like gangbusters, even coming up with some things to say about the plight of the elderly. The history is that 70, Girls, 70 suffered after opening alongside Follies and No No Nanette. Critics, however, were unduly harsh on this show, and with the Florence Hendersons and Carol Channings of the world, it would be nice to see this one on its feet again with a proper coterie of stars.
Any others to add to the list?
"Gif me the cobra jool!"
Updated On: 11/21/03 at 08:52 PM
