Flops That Could Be Revamped Elsewhere

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 9:51pm

Random topic, but can you guys think of any Broadway flops that you believe would do well with a redesign/rewrite elsewhere, whether it be regionally or as a touring production?

Personally, I still think that "Dance of the Vampires" could be a fun tour if done correctly.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 10:06pm

I think it would be interesting to see Disney do completely revamped productions of Tarzan and/or The Little Mermaid.

[Jonwo]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 10:12pm

^Tarzan was revamped for its Dutch premiere in Scheveningen since the theatre was much bigger than the Richard Rodgers and it ended up being very successful, the same production also had a successful run in Hamburg and Stuttgart. Mermaid was also revamped as well and toured the Netherlands and Russia.

[ebontoyan]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 10:13pm

I would love to see Rocky set up a home in Philly...I know this show was a flop in NYC but I really loved it and luckily saw it 2x before it closed! And I didn't see any of the movies until last year (I watched the first movie to prep for the show)

Updated On: 3/9/15 at 10:13 PM

[karen24]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 10:23pm

Did I read a while ago that Big Fish was going to be revamped and restaged somewhere? Or did I imagine it? I liked much of the music, but thought some scenes/numbers should have been cut (like the "Western" number) and I thought the projections were really overused.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 10:27pm

The Last Ship would do spectacular in London

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 10:39pm

Karen, to answer your question, they are in fact preparing a scaled down version of the show here at SpeakEasy in Boston.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 10:41pm

Personally, I still think that "Dance of the Vampires" could be a fun tour if done correctly.

I am inclined to agree, but no one wants to touch it...

[philly03]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 10:57pm

WONDERLAND - re-set in either Tokyo, Vienna, Madrid.. etc will live on nicely.

I wish "Bridges of Madison County" would cut a lot of the unnecessary music/dialogue scenes and streamline it into one 95-minute act. Would be much more interesting.

[Fantod]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 11:08pm

Anyone Can Whistle
House of Flowers
The Grass Harp

[Fantod]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 11:08pm

Anyone Can Whistle
House of Flowers
The Grass Harp

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 11:25pm

@Jonwo I know, I meant here in the United States at least since both original Broadway productions failed to go on tour so that more people (even the naysayers) could be able to see them. Updated On: 3/9/15 at 11:25 PM

[Eurotrash]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 8:43am

DOTV just needs a successful London production before re-exporting to the US.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 10:52am

This is also true. ^

[BroadwayFan1231]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 11:40am

TOTALLY AGREE ABOUT BRIDGES AS A ONE-ACT. Also, potentially cut all other characters except Francesca and Robert? Make the entire show really about them and leave out all the underdeveloped/uninteresting extra characters.

[philly03]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 11:59am

I would think Bud would have to stay in it (that was Hunter Foster's character right?), and I really like the song "Another Life" but I agree. They could really streamline it. The plot is too thin for 2.5 hours.

[andi1235]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 4:46pm

I'm one of the 3 people who loved Leap of Faith, but I thought the book was fairly mediocre. If they went back to some of the concepts from the LA production (keeping the main character a waitress instead of the sheriff, focusing more on the kid's desire to get out of town, ditching the whole "play within a revival" thing), and revamped the book to focus on characters instead of concepts, it could be a REALLY good show, IMO. The music and lyrics are great, the performances were great, and I had a great time when I got to see the show, but even though I enjoyed myself I think they could have done better.

[philly03]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 5:04pm

^^ You can't be serious. Weren't Glenn Slater & the screenwriter fighting throughout the writing of it post Los Angeles? They both phoned it in. She got replaced and Slater gave the lyrics of his lifetime. "Are you on the bus or off the bus?" "Even Helen Keller could see through you"? YIKES! Poor Alan Menken - I love the MUSIC for it but the lyrics make it intolerable (except for the final song).

[andi1235]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 5:18pm

I like the lyrics. I think they're fun. Not groundbreaking, but not bad either. My problem with that show was almost entirely the book. IMO, of course. :)

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 6:43pm

DOTV just needs a successful London production before re-exporting to the US.

Again, that would work if anyone in London was interested. They're not. Cameron Mackintosh, among other luminaries, was persuaded to see the show in Paris, and he passed on it. (I hear someone tried to interest Michael Cohl in it as well, but he didn't even want to see it. Personally, I think both sides dodged a bullet on that one.)

Updated On: 3/10/15 at 06:43 PM

[jv92]

Posted: 3/11/15 at 3:14am

ANYONE CAN WHISTLE cannot and will not ever work. The Encores! adaptation (that Arthur openly loathed because they a did a better job that he could have done) may have streamlined and clarified things, but it's still a mess. I love the score. Long may it be sung, played and listened to. But not the show. I think Sondheim, too, has said to leave well enough alone. At least he knows when to stop tinkering with unworkable shows. (I'm talkin' to you Jerry Herman!)

I've come to the conclusion that most "great score...not so great book" shows fail for a reason, and revising them doesn't make anything better. MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG might be the exception. But the revisions to MACK AND MABEL don't disguise the fact that the wrong writers were attached to it (as good as the songs are) and that the whole idea was misguided from the get go. David Thompson tried to revise the book to 70, GIRLS, 70, and you know what? It still made no sense! Brilliant songs, though. And the most-revised of the revised shows, CANDIDE, has an evergreen score (and a funny original book), but turning it into a farce with a cow keeling over at the end of a usually moving final number didn't make it any better. And even though Alan Jay Lerner was on a sh*t load of drugs when he wrote ON A CLEAR DAY..., you'd think the guys who conceived the ill-conceived "revisal" a few years back were on even more than he was in 1965!

So I'm in the "Leave well enough alone and write a new show" camp.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/11/15 at 8:08am

And the most-revised of the revised shows, CANDIDE, has an evergreen score (and a funny original book), but turning it into a farce with a cow keeling over at the end of a usually moving final number didn't make it any better.

You should give John Caird's version from 1999 a spin. It gets the best of both possible worlds while remaining true to Voltaire's original.

[Eurotrash]

Posted: 3/11/15 at 10:55am

It does seem that if CamMac or ALW say 'no' to a show like DOTV in London, then that's the end of it. It's a pity and also odd, given the material that both of them do serve up. As regards Cam Mac, if you're a champion of Martin Guerre, for instance, why wouldn't you hitch your wagon to DOTV? - its from a similar stable, but a way better show.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/11/15 at 11:02am

It also (under the DOTV title anyway) has the unfortunate reputation of being the biggest financial failure in Broadway history (at least until Spider-Man: Cleared Off the Deck *ba-dum-tish*). A Broadway track record has more of an influence on the West End than it does in Continental Europe or Asia. And even in its strongholds, Tanz is starting to die out... in Paris, which was never a strong market for musicals anyway, they've scaled back the schedule to weekend performances, and, from what I hear, are having trouble selling tickets to even those.

The even sadder part is that while all these high-powered units are turning them down, there is one that was actually willing to play, but they got burned on it, so it's highly unlikely they'll return to it. A few years ago, Jim Steinman solicited a new English translation of Tanz der Vampire from this unit, which included a known union writer/director, and which boasted access to 1,000+ seat venues and major stars. Two years of time and effort went into the new acting edition (which I've read; it was a beautiful version, very faithful to the spirit of the original German piece), and they had an all-star cast, including Robert Cuccioli and Andre De Shields, ready to perform it, until the unit discovered that Steinman apparently solicited a translation from them without authorization or permission from the Viennese rights holders, which they were ignorant of at the time and led to believe otherwise (they have many pieces of correspondence going back several years that can absolutely prove this).

Given examples like the one above, even if somebody wanted to present the show, there's still a political morass surrounding it that most producers would just as soon observe and say, "Thanks, but no thanks."

Updated On: 3/11/15 at 11:02 AM

[Fantod]

Posted: 3/11/15 at 11:04am

The Caird version of Candide is perfect. Though it ran 200 minutes when I saw it.