MERLIN - The Musical Flop...

Happy to bring back this ancient thread to show you this Chita Rivera performance and interview on the Merv Griffin show. Bless her, for trying her hardest to sell this show.

https://youtu.be/QCCm-4DJoTw

Did anybody see Merlin? From my understanding, Frank Rich was tired of the delayed opening night, so he bought a ticket to go see the show and reviewed it.

I wish there was a commercial cast recording released, I would love to hear the music... no matter how terrible it was.

ljay889 said: "Did anyone get to see the 1983 flop MERLIN starring Chita Rivera?


On that infamous video site if you search "Chita Merlin" you can see the TV Commercial for the show from 1983, and it's hilarious. It looks like one big freak show. Also there is a performance by Chita as The Queen on the Merv Griffin show, and the song isn't that bad.

I wish they made a recording of it. It did get several Tony nominations including a nomination for Chita, so I imagine she was quite good in it.

But from the commerical it looks so hilarious. I would love to hear from someone who saw it.


It is hard to describe how bad this show was. It opened in a really crummy season -- we have been lucky for awhile now -- and didn't deserve any Tony nominations, including for Chita. (Not to disparage her, but this is one of several shows for which she did not deserve the nomination she received. She has had the unfortunate bad luck of being in some really bad shows (providing no good material to the performers) that opened in really bad seasons, allowing her to receive undeserved nominations, e.g., Merlin and Bring Back Birdie, off the top of my head, but I do think there is at least one more. Since her Tony loss for Chicago was one of the greater disgraces in Tony history -- Donna McKechnie deserved to win featured actress, but not lead, especially given Rivera's performance -- I guess it all evens out.

Now, back to Merlin. Doug Henning was a terrific illusionist, but he had zero physical presence (slight and skinny), zero charisma, a dull speaking voice, couldn't sing a note. So, other than the tricks, there was a big void at the center of the show. The writing was bad, but we'll never know how much that had to do with Henning's compete lack of any performing talent outside of magic. I remember liking the costumes. I don't remember Nathan Lane in the show, but I know he has referred to it in a very disparaging way.

Ok, saw it while in high school and actually liked it. Chita was out, I saw an actress called Spence Ford, who was terrific. What ever happened to her? Anyhow, I remember loving the costumes, sets, magic tricks, live animals, some catchy songs that I actually sung while walking out of the theatre (It's about Magic and I can make it happen), and I also distinctly remember Nathan Lane's performance, who stole every scene he was in. Anyhow, I knew at the time it wasn't considered a "good musical", but for me it was a really fun time in the theatre!!!