Failed musicals you wish were better?

Wicked.

I watched the Letterman appearance and kept thinking if they had had the cojones to stick to the story as Maguire conceived it, (which is the whole point!), and not punked out on such things as the ending, what a heartbreaking number Defying Gravity would be. Which should have been the whole point. But isn't.

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sweet smeel of succes... like the music but the story was ehhh... l8r~!

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I second Martin Guerre. And I add Jekyll & Hyde--so much promise on that Warlow/Eder/Carmello cd.

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With regard to the 3 shows you mention, Cadriel

I saw Notre Dame de Paris in Las Vegas and loved the music - but Will Jennings' lyrics were abysmal. With such beautiful music this has the potential to be a great show.

I also agree that Martin Guerre in London was better than the re-written tour version - although the tour production had a couple of fantastic new songs, especially "How Many Tears?" and "Live With Somebody You Love". Again the music is so wonderful it deserves to be a huge success. I think the problem with Martin Guerre is the lack of tension in the basic plot - everyone knows from the beginning that Arnaud is not Martin Guerre - and I'm not sure that problem is solvable.

As for Merrily We Roll Along - I think this now IS a great show. The Donmar Warehouse production of 2 years ago was superb. The problem some audiences have with it is the fact that it tells the story backwards - but this is the essential dramatic strength of the show - if it tells the story in forward chronological order, you lose the show's "raison d'etre".

A "flop" show I adored was "Steel Pier" - I was at the closing night on Broadway. This also has a wonderful score - I play the CD all the time! It was let down by a weak book. I would love to see this show re-worked so that it achieves the success the Kander and Ebb score deserves. But I suspect that financial restraints will prevent this from ever happening.

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I think the revised version of Merrily We Roll Along works extremely well - even better, I'd say than a number of recent Tony Award-winning Best Musicals. The revised book charts the trajectory of not only Frank, Charley and Mary, but Joe, Gussie and Beth with greater clarity and depth. Furth's book is filled with smart, funny lines, and of course, it all builds to the emotional wallop of the "Our Time" scene.

I've never bought into the theory that the characters' bitchery at the beginning of the show puts the audience off. (Company is filled completely with brittle, bitchy characters and no one complains to the same degree about those characters. And Merrily ends up considerably warmer and more audience friendly than Company does. And mind you, I love Company. I'm not complaining). Also, I believe that the backwards-in-time concept doesn't put audiences off anywhere near to the degree that people think it does. On the contrary, it's a startling way to tell Merrily's oft-told "to thine own self be true" tale.

I think everyone loves to see people fighting, and even in Act One, Mary's breakdown in the party scene, the spectre of a ruined Joe Josephson, the blinding of Meg and the curdled relationship of Gussie and Frank is pretty harrowing stuff. Coupled with things that were in the old version too, such as Charley's "Franklin Shepard Inc." and the restoration of the angry version of "Not a Day Goes By" for Beth on the courthouse steps, as well as Gussie's additional material gives all of the characters surrounding Frank more to say about him. And "Growing Up" fills in a major missing piece of the puzzle for Frank's story that was not there in the original production.

Cadriel mentioned that the show doesn't work without a compelling Frank, which is true. But Malcolm Gets in the York production made the whole thing work for me. Each agonizing wrong decision he made was registered on that handsome face of his, and you truly felt for him. I'm not sure I've seen anyone else nail the role quite as well.

However, one problem with the revised version is that I've yet to see "Merrily We Roll Along," now the opening number, staged particularly well. You need instant focus on Frank at the very least, and Frank, Mary and Charley if at all possible. The stagings I've seen of the number have been more ethereal, or marred by a bad concept.

I'm not convinced that critics will ever be willing to acknowledge that Merrily works a lot better than they choose to admit. (Although, that said, John Simon did almost a complete 180 on his opinion of Merrily when he reviewed last summer's Kennedy Center production. Clive Barnes has always liked the show, and I have heard Ben Brantley is a huge fan of it as well).

With a production that solves the opening number quandary, I really do think Merrily could fly. Seeing it again with a mostly grey haired suburban crowd at the Kennedy Center for a Saturday matinee, I think the show played like gangbusters. I've heard rumors of a Roundabout revival of Merrily, and I'd surely hope that it will be the production that finally reverses the show's fortunes.

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Updated On: 11/21/03 at 10:44 AM

I'd have to disagree. People love watching people fight. When you see people fighting on the street, don't you stop and watch, a little vicariously? Jerry Springer seems to remain popular, and the reality shows that seem to catch the public's fancy often feature volatile personalities squabbling with each other. Merrily, though, doesn't end up as two hours of people bitching at each other - large chunks of Act One, certainly, but Act Two goes someplace else entirely. In fact, my companion at Merrily, who is neither a Sondheim fan, nor much of a musical person, broke down in tears about a half hour after we left Merrily, because it reminded him so much of how optimistic he felt when he first came to New York, and the cynicism he has since developed in his life.

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Updated On: 11/21/03 at 11:07 AM

It's not a matter of whether people like to see people bitching all the time - it's a case of is this an examination of true human behavior? I firmly believe that art should reflect human truth. Thank God that Sondheim - and a few others - believe that musical theater is an art form, not just a vehicle for making a quick buck.

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This is not a failure in the traditional sense, because it was and is a brilliant show, but "Follies" still feels like something of an underachiever. If the genius of its finest moments were consistantly matched in all elements of the show I think it could be the greatest musical of all time. I realize I'm biased because it was the first show I ever fell in love with, but...

i second the emotion on MERRILY (which was not THAT bad in the Kennedy Center version), STEEL PIER, and i would do so on GUERRE if i'd ever have had a chance to see it. i also think WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND has potential, but again, i've never seen it staged. i always missed the productions of it, just barely.

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The revised Merrily We Roll Along is brilliant and the Kennedy Center production was superb. I can't wait for the Roundabout production- is that still in the works (?)

I loved Side Show. I Just wish it had done better. Also Last 5 Years and Thunder Knocking on the Door.