Looking for a musical flop.....

[bschneid76]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:37pm

Hi everyone. I am coming upon my time to work on my thesis for my Masters in Theatre. I am going to be presenting a musical flop and try to make it work. I would research the show, find out what made it flop and try to see if I could make the show a success or see if it was a hopeless cause. What I am looking for are shows that I could mount, cast and present to an audience so I can write a paper to see if I am success. Anyone have any suggestions. Right now I have Dear World, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Anyone Can Whistle in my head right now. I'd be interested in hearing other thoughts. Thanks!

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:40pm

Do "Mack & Mabel"

I'm guessing you can't change the script though...

[bwayboi4life42]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:47pm

I Can Get it For You Wholesale
The Gay Life
The Happiest Girl in the World
Christine
High Spirits

[Katurian2]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:47pm

Merrily We Row Along?

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:48pm

That's a really interesting project.
So are you looking for flops with small casts?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:48pm

A lot of shows, you will probably be interested in and that are probably going to be suggested here, aren't going to be available for you to mount. Lots of estates have made remounting flop properties very difficult.

That said - you might look at shows like THE GOLEN APPLE and ALLEGRO, which are available - are reasonably interesting shows and pretty well written. In other words, they didn't flop because they were lousy shows, they were ahead of their time, etc.

If you can do ANY flop - I would really suggest you hunt down the script/recording of Alan Jay Lerner and John Barry's musicalizaton of LOLITA MY LOVE. It's fascinating, and as Ken Mandelbaum writes in "Not Since Carrie" its also a superb adaptation with a fantastic book and score. It just never would have worked on Broadway for the obvious reasons...

[bschneid76]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:52pm

I am using the book Not Since Carrie, I love it! I am looking for small casts, but it doesn't matter. I plan on doing three performances and having questionaires for the audiences members to get their reactions to the show, and then use my reactions. I wish I could get a hold of Darling of the Day, I love the music. But my top pick so far is Dear World. Mack and Mabel would be fun too!!

[jv92]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:56pm

I'd do Allegro. Yeah, the cast is pretty big, but it is fairly well written and basically was a little too ahead of its time as Michael Bennet said, but also had too many concepts going on at the same time- DeMille's huge dance and movement piece, Hammerstein's autobiographical tale about the corupt city, etc.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 9:58pm

Musicals in Mufti did DARLING OF THE DAY - you could probably get the script and score to that pretty easily.

My only caution with doing DEAR WORLD is that the show is completely made or broken on the strength of one performance - which kind of overshadows any work you do on the actual piece. And a lot of the major characters are middle aged (or older).

That might be less effective in a university setting. The show, like MACK AND MABEL though, has been tooled with endlessly. They've never "fixed" it but you might have lots of different versions to draw on - making your job easier - or more difficult, actually.
Updated On: 4/9/06 at 09:58 PM

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:04pm

Not Since Carrie = pure amazingness...

Mack and Mabel would be interesting, because you could talk about the recent revival...

Consider Henry Sweet Henry, Human Comedy, Oh, Brother! and Smile... I can't get enough of those shows

Grind would make a really interesting project as well... You could do a lot with it- Have you read the bit in the book on Grind? The score is so interesting

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:06pm

HUMAN COMEDY would be a good choice. It's another really well written show that just didn't find an audience after it moved from the Public.
Updated On: 4/9/06 at 10:06 PM

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:09pm

I think The Human Comedy might be the most underrated musical of ALL time (and this is from someone whose favorite musical is Merrily We Roll Along)

Human Comedy is this undiscovered gem just waiting for Encores or SOMEONE to find it

[Hawker]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:12pm

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" (closed in previews in 1966 although it was produced by David Merrick and starred Mary Tyler More and Richard Chamberlain who were top of the A-list performers at the time.)

"The Little Prince and the Aviator" based on the beloved novel by Saint Exupery.

And my favorite flop,"Portofino" if only because of Walter Kerr's unfogettable oneliner in his 1958 review:

"Nor willI say that 'Portifino' is the worst musical ever produced, because I have only been seeing musicals since 1919."

(The show was about an auto racing Italien duke who falls inlove with his rival--a woman driver from Texas. Despite "Carrie" old timers still point this one out as the biggest turkey ever to hit Broadway. I'd argue for "The Moose Murders" but that wan't a musical.)

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:18pm

Every hilarious quote I know about a flop musical came from Walter Kerr...

I don't agree with his reviews, it seems like he never GOT Sondheim, I don't think the man had any kind of musical ear...

But my GOD, does he have some great one liners!

"Some of us have been campaigning lately for a return to the old- fashioned, gags and girls musical comedy. Some of us should be shot."
-Walter Kerr on Ankles Aweigh (1955, 176 perfs at the Hellinger)

[Renthead#1]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:22pm

Dracula?

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:26pm

THE HUMAN COMEDY has one of the worst, cacophonous scores ever heard on a Broadway stage. There is nothing redeemable about it in the least. LOLITA, MY LOVE has two or three decent songs but to subject a young girl to the title role would be, as Nabokov conceded, an immorality, and renders the project null and void. Best to stick with a project that at least has a score of merit and no moral compromises. How about 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE? A wreck of a book but some brilliant passages of music.

Vivian Darkbloom
Ramsdale, New England

Updated On: 4/9/06 at 10:26 PM

[Hawker]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:32pm

LOL. When a critic can be so self-deprecating and hilarious at times even if he drops his draws and urinates on a show youloved, how could you hate him?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 10:35pm

Bernstein's estate won't let anybody do 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE - only the revised music-only WHITE HOUSE CANTATA.

And you could easily cast a college aged girl as LOLITA. He's doing this in a university setting...

That said, I definitely still say do something that you can get the script/score to easily. I mean I have the script and score to LOLITA - but

[brad3]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 11:11pm

DRACULA???

God I Loved That Show...

Lennon??



BKLYN

But its are just hard to sit through and obvious why it was a flop. It Sucked...

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 11:17pm

"Bernstein's estate won't let anybody do 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE - only the revised music-only WHITE HOUSE CANTATA."

Wow...that's too bad. I love 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 4/9/06 at 11:20pm

I <3 Lud's Wedding!

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 4/10/06 at 12:44am

Well, there was the production of 1600 a decade ago (or longer?) at the University of Michigan (?) at Ann Arbor, which I believe also did a revised LOVE LIFE by Lerner/Weill, another show I'd like to see given a mounting.


Vivian Darkbloom
Ramsdale, New England

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/10/06 at 12:55am

LOVE LIFE would be a great choice! It was also done a few years ago somewhere in the UK. The Weill estate is even worse to deal with than the Bernstein estate though -

Speaking of, perhaps the Bernstein estate would allow 1600 to be done for a class project, but I know they have turned down inquiries on the show by Encores, Reprise, etc., in deference to that WHITE HOUSE CANTATA thing which isn't nearly as interesting.

Isn't it odd - you would think these estates would be pushing for new productions, not trying to keep them buried forever.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 4/10/06 at 1:01am

The Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia mounted an EXCELLENT production of LOVE LIFE about 15 years ago. It can be done!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/10/06 at 1:07am

Wasn't Debbie Shapiro in that production? Yeah, I would think if the Weill estate would let you do it, LOVE LIFE would be a really good choice - plus you are going to win extra points with your professors for picking something by an "important" composer like Kurt Weill.