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Hard Luck Composers.

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#1

Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/13/08 at 6:21pm

Galt Mc Dermott

He did Hair & 2 Gentlemen of Verona but unfortunately nothing else that had staying power on Broadway. We all remember Dude & Via Galactica. I saw the latter & Oy Vey.

He did a show in London called Isabel's A Jezebel & his Off Broaway Human Comedy which got raves but was creamed when the same show opened on Broadway. It is a shame he did not have more hits as he is a very talented composer.

Poster Emeritus

#2

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/13/08 at 6:24pm

MacDermot can console himself with his Hair royalties. No one is more hard luck than Larry Grossman - good scores for Minnie's Boys, Goodtime Charley, A Doll's Life, Grind, Paper Moon, and not a hit among them.

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

Updated On: 10/13/08 at 06:24 PM

#3

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/13/08 at 6:34pm

Grossman is indeed very good & deserved a hit

Lately Strouse has been hard luck but hopefully Minskys will turn it around for him.

Poster Emeritus

#4

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/13/08 at 8:46pm

Galt MacDermot never really intended to be a theatre composer - the few Broadway scores he wrote are only a small fraction of his lifetime musical output. He was always more of a jazz guy and a session musician - he only did "Hair" because of a connection through a manager, and got asked to do other shows because of how successful "Hair" was. He never initiated projects - he only worked on things that other people brought to him.

That said, I happen to love the score to "Dude". It's poorly recorded, but a lot of the songs are kind of great. And "Human Comedy" has gotten a lot more respect as time has gone by.

But Galt has had his greatest success in the world of hip-hop, where he's revered as something of a pioneer. Tons of his old jazz records have been used for samples and beats, and he's even won Grammys for songs by Run D.M.C. and Busta Rhymes.

The money he made off of "Hair" has meant he's been able to do whatever he wanted in music all of his life - if you're really curious, check out his website and see just a bit of the vast amount of music the man has written beyond the theatre.

Yes, I'm a fan.
Galt MacDermot.com

#5

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 12:10am

Vernon Duke is one of the Granddaddys of Hard Luck Composers. He had only one hit "Cabin in the Sky", which produced the standard "Taking a Chance on Love", and that only ran for about six months!

"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music "Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70 "Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba

#6

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:34am

Marc Blitzstein
Michael John LaChuisa (had to sell his piano to finish a show).
Jonathan Larson (even though RENT was a hit after his death, he was really struggling to get his art created).

Updated On: 10/14/08 at 11:34 AM

#7

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:39am

Harold Arlen. Both St. Louis Woman and House of Flowers have great scores and both flopped. Personally, I think Bloomer Girl, his most "popular" show, has a mediocre score and is not in the same league as the other two.

BroadwayEd

#8

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:39am

Mitch Leigh had a megahit with Man of La Mancha, but never even came close to having that kind of success again as a composer.

Tick Tock

#9

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:41am

LaChiusa is a very lucky composer. He has managed to make some strong connections and as a result still has the ability to get his shows produced despite mixed critical reaction.

"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)

#10

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:43am

Harold Arlen scored a pretty big hit with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," though. (and, you know, other songs from The Wizard of Oz).

When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

#11

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:52am

Lionel Bart never had another hit after OLIVER!

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#12

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 11:58am

what about Lucy Simon, composer of The Secret Garden? what a gorgeous gorgeous score, and I haven't heard anything else from her.

When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

#13

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 5:35pm

Rick Besoyan is a tragic case of a composer whose only genuine Broadway show (which featured his greatest score) was beset by problems beyond control. Besoyan, who scored a tremendous hit off Broadway with LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE in 1959, premièred THE STUDENT GYPSY on September 30, 1963 during a newspaper strike and in the midst of heated negotiations with the musician’s union, which resulted in the show closing after only 16 performances. In all fairness, several members of the cast, which included Eileen Brennan & Dom DeLuise, have said that the show was too long and that the music was so beautiful that it rivaled the music of earlier operettas by more famous composers that is was spoofing, which could have been fixed but without newspaper advertising the show didn’t have a chance. Besoyan wrote only one more show that was produced, the 1964 off-Broadway production of Babes in the Wood starring Ruth Buzzi, which opened during a 3 day blizzard in New York, and ran for only 56 performances. He died at age 45 in 1970.

"I long-ago realized that this country is a nation of morons, when it comes to knowledge of anything outside, or beyond, pop culture." Steve Slezak

#14

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 6:03pm

Walter Marks

Poster Emeritus

#15

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 6:16pm

Many of the composers listed here have at least had one hit or, if not that, several shows produced on Broadway. IMO, the true hard luck composers were the ones from the 1980s who were very talented but never got the careers (or lives) they deserved because of the AIDS epidemic. If I had to single out one from truly dozens, it would be Michael Devon, the composer of an almost produced adaptation of SHEILA LEVINE. Wonderfully talented, Michael's work languished in the development hell of the 1980's (remember that was the heyday of the Brit pop-opera)and then he died. There are many similar stories. These were the true "hard luck" composers and lyricists and I salute them.

#16

re: Hard Luck Composers.

Posted: 10/14/08 at 6:34pm

"what about Lucy Simon, composer of The Secret Garden? what a gorgeous gorgeous score, and I haven't heard anything else from her."

She wrote the score for the Zhivago musical that was at La Jolla a few years ago. I'm not sure what the current plans are for the show.

-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/

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