Favorite songs from failed shows- Page 4

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 6:30pm

Love how some people make up their own definitions and play fast and loose with the truth to suit their own agendas. How very post modern!

As long as one is up front about the definition being used--as posters here generally have been--where's the harm? Nobody is playing "fast and loose with the truth".

Defining a show as a flop if it fails to recoup is one definition and a traditional one. Some people are using it. But it doesn't tell us anything about artistic merit. By the same standard, each and every Van Gogh painting is a failure.



Updated On: 5/6/13 at 06:30 PM

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 6:48pm

Yankeefan, to me is not a flop in the sense that it is still incredibly popular, but if it is then I would like to mention This is the moment, Bring on the men and Someone like you, aside from In his Eyes which is a a gorgeous song.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 10:51pm

All That Jazz - Agree with you totally, love those songs also.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 10:55pm

GavestonPS - I thought the fact that J&H ran for almost 4 years on Broadway and 1543 performances was a sign that it was not a "flop". The other posters said that did not mean a thing because it barely made it's "nut" every week and people were putting money into the show to keep it running. I also thought that Robert Cuccioli getting Tony nomination for Best Actor (thought he was robbed of Tony) and being the first time most people heard the wonderful voice of Linda Eder made the show not a "flop" IMO.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 11:56pm

In this instance, seeing as the word 'failed' was mentioned, I immediately imagine the kind of show which was so disastrous that everything fell apart around it, not the shows which were good, if not great, but couldn't find an audience.

[philly03]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 2:06am

"Finding Wonderland" (WONDERLAND)
"Evermore Without You" (Woman in White)
"Not a Day Goes By" (Merrily We Roll Along)

"This is the Moment," "Someone Like You" and "A New Life" - if we're still counting the original Jekyll as a flop.

[darreyl102]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 3:56am

Off With Their Heads from Wonderland

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 8:10am

"Defining a show as a flop if it fails to recoup is one definition and a traditional one. Some people are using it. But it doesn't tell us anything about artistic merit."

Merrily We Roll Along was a flop both financially AND artistically. It was as big a failure as failure could be.

Stop foisting your fictions upon us.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 8:26am

Merrily was a colossal bomb when it opened. To believe otherwise is foolish. It sucked and everyone knew it and it closed as it should have. And yes, I suffered through that original production once and second act three additional times - and it got no better.

Had the exact same show been written by Joe Nobody from Nowhere rather than Sondheim - it would not have been recorded and would have dropped out of sight forever.

[egghumor]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 8:29am

Nick: To you, everybody's a flop. Your husband's a flop, I'm a flop.

Martha: You're all flops. I am the Earth Mother, and you are all flops.

[Famebroadway2]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 10:43am

20 Million People - My Favorite Year

[ABitOnTheSide]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 10:59am

"I Met a Man" and "Too a Small Degree" from PRETTYBELLE

Pretty much the whole score of ZORBA

Updated On: 5/7/13 at 10:59 AM

[jnb9872]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 11:19am

Pretty much the entirety of AMOUR, but "Painter's Song," "Special Time of Day," "Waiting," and "Other People's Stories" especially. Really that whole score is just overflowing with gorgeous.

[Patronus]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 12:21pm

"Phone Call" from Lucky Stiff
"Eyes that Never Lie" from Weird Romance
"Need to Know" from Weird Romance
"It's Not Too Late (Reprise)" from Romance Romance
"Everybody Says Don't" from Anyone Can Whistle
"When She Danced" from In My Life

[a-mad]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 3:18pm

"With You" - Ghost the Musical

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 3:24pm

For some reason, I thought Romance Romance recouped, though I'm probably wrong. I love almost every song from that gem of a show.

[Broadway Geek2]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 5:12pm

"I Won't Send Roses" from Mack & Mabel.

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 5:45pm

from ANYONE CAN WHISTLE:

THERE WON'T BE TRUMPETS
ANYONE CAN WHISTLE
A PARADE IN TOWN

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 5:47pm

This thread seems like a great source for audition songs.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 6:06pm

Speaking of great audition songs...

It Would Have Been Wonderful - Annie Warbucks

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 6:40pm

After Eight, you remind me of an expression from my youth: "pompous windbag." I haven't heard it or used it in years, so congratulations on inspiring a revival!

Yes, MERRILY was a flop by the traditional Broadway definition: the original run did not recoup its investment. But the theater has changed in the years since that definition was coined.

MERRILY has been revived off-Broadway and has played in every major city in the country. You'd be hard-pressed to find a theater aficionado who doesn't know and love the score. In that sense, it is a "classic", whether or not the original investors got their money back (which they may have done by now).

If you want to include it in your list of flops, that's fine. I'm not trying to stop you.

But to me, listing songs from MERRILY sort of misses the point of the original question. MERRILY's score is far better known than SHENANDOAH's, for example, even though the latter was a major commercial hit. So TO ME, I exclude MERRILY and FOLLIES (the second having had 2 major Broadway revivals) as not the sort of "flop" the OP intended.

And stop calling me a liar, you addled sack of sawdust. I've been entirely upfront as to my use of vocabulary and I take accusations of lying very seriously.

Updated On: 5/7/13 at 06:40 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/7/13 at 6:47pm

yankeefan7, yes, other posters are correct that the most common traditional definition of a Broadway flop is a show that fails to recoup its investment, no matter how long it runs.

But there are other ways of defining success and failure. FOLLIES and SUNDAY IN THE PARK were financial failures relative to PURLIE and SHENANDOAH. Now I liked the latter pair and saw SHENANDOAH many, many times, but nobody except After Eight is likely to praise the Udell and Geld musicals as artistic triumphs. Meanwhile, many, MANY posters here point to the Sondheim shows as evenings that changed our lives. So which pair of shows was more successful? Depends on how you define success.

Those who insist a word can have only one meaning with no shading and regardless of context are generally not very bright.

See chewy's response above. I think he captures the spirit of this thread.

Updated On: 5/7/13 at 06:47 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/8/13 at 7:32am

Dear Mr. Brick Wall,

Do you even bother reading the exchanges in these threads, or does nothing penetrate the impregnable fortress you live in? You continue to utter statements that have already been shown to be wrong:

All that jazz wrote, "That was my initial thought, but since the show is so highly regarded and to this day still continues to be a favorite among devoted theater fans,"

I answered, "I know many devoted theatre fans, and I include myself among them. The show in question is certainly no favorite of theirs, or mine."

And JayG2 stated, "Merrily was a colossal bomb when it opened. To believe otherwise is foolish. It sucked and everyone knew it and it closed as it should have."

So after all that, you blithely proclaim,

"You'd be hard-pressed to find a theater aficionado who doesn't know and love the score. In that sense, it is a "classic", whether or not the original investors got their money back (which they may have done by now).""

Hard-pressed? You need hardly look any further than this very thread!

And though I know I'm engaging in an exercise in futility, I'll reiterate: I know many theatre aficionados who HATE both the show AND the score. Count me among them.

A "classic " you say? A classic stinker, you mean.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 5/8/13 at 9:48am

Was She Loves Me a flop? If it was, then I pick every song in it.

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/8/13 at 10:10am

^

Yes, unfortunately.