Legs Diamond

Yes! It was a hot, campy hoot! I worked there, and loooved the show. No, not a work of genius or anything near it, but Peter Allen, saying that famous line on top of the piano (re: "critics") is sort of infamous. Does anyone remember the exact line?? Also, just the casting of Peter Allen in THAT role defies logic, dontcha think!? Previewed for about 2-3 months it seems. Not sure, but I DO remember that it was ripped apart in the NY Post, seemingly weekly, during preview.s All I can say is - it was delicious, ridiculous and entertaining in a very weird Las Vegas-y sort of way. The matinee ladies loved it!

I think it was: "EVEN A CRITIC CAN'T KILL ME!"

(Of course, it DID...the kiss of death line from ANY playwright! What were they thinking!?).

I forgot the context in which this line was uttered, my foggy memory remembers that he was in some ridiculously flashy, shiny mobster suit, jumped up on a baby grand piano, uttered the line, and the audience went wild.

...and the rest is history.
There's loads of info on this show if you google it.

I remember cheesey. I don't remember fun. Ugh.

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I wouldn't say it was in the so bad it's funny category, like Got Tu Go Disco and Moose Murders.

It was more in the so bad it's painful category.

But everything's relative. For as bad as it was, it wasn't as bad or as painful as sitting through Wonderland, People in the Picture, or a couple of the plays this season.

I remember Julie Wilson singing "Here's To That Charming Son-of-a B1tch" and little else.

(Excuse me, I was confusing one Julie Wilson flop with another.)

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Updated On: 4/14/11 at 07:33 AM

As cheesy and bad as it must have been, I've always been pretty curious about it. I grew up in the same neighborhood where the real Legs Diamond was killed and that connection would've been reason enough for me to see it.

I only have the naughty DVD of this but yes, its bad, and sadly not bad fun....just bad bad

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Updated On: 4/14/11 at 09:33 AM

Legs Diamond is one of my all time favorite flop musicals! The line you are all speaking of is at the top of Act II, everyone is attending Jack's funeral as he was shot at the end of Act I- when one of his gangster friends says something awful about him over his coffin, Jack pops up out of the coffin at which point someone in the crowd shouts "you're supposed to be dead" and he says "I'm in showbusiness, only the critics can kill me"- and on closing night he said "not even the critics can kill me"

I have always thought the score was a lot of fun, and while Peter Allen was a dynamite entertainer to quote Brenda Braxton "nobody was buying Peter as a butch womanizing gangster"

This show was heralded as a big time Broadway musical, and if memory serves me, when the show was announced there was a huge press conference with Mayor Koch hyping it up as the most anticipated new musical of the coming season.

During the course of its previews, which I think totaled over 70-80, Christine Andreas was fired as Jack's wife (the character was eventually eliminated alltogether) Brenda Braxton was brought in, and Harvey was replaced as the book writer by Bruce Valanche who did NOTHING for the story. There is that great moment on the Tony Awards from a few years back when Harvey was presenting the award for Best New Book of a Musical and said something to the effect "and when a show is a flop, we know it is ALWAYS the book writters fault!"

If someone tinkered with the book some, it could be a really fun show IMOP. I know some community theatre group over in the UK did the show, although they had to go to hell and back to secure the rights and find the rehearsal material.

It's also one of my favorite window cards :)

Updated On: 4/14/11 at 10:02 AM

Poor Peter Allen, reduced to a free table in a laundry room- its funny though because where I grew up in Upstate NY you couldn't get the CD anywhere- and this was before the days of ebay- so I ended up getting mine from Footlight for like $28- a few years later at Ames going out of business sale it was in a bin of new CDs they had gotten for $2!

what i wouldn't give to have seen this show! i LOVE peter allen and wish i had been around when this one happened...sigh.

I actually enjoyed the show. Go figure.

To the best of my knowledge, LEGS DIAMOND and THE BOY FROM OZ are the only two musicals (not counting songs interpolated for revivals like ANYTHING GOES) to use some of the same songs as 'book songs'. 'When I get My Name in Lights', 'Only An Older Woman', and 'All I Wanted Was The Dream' are in both shows.

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