Moose Murders

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:02pm

Jeepers Creepers indeed! It was hard to make heads or tails of this one tonight. The play really is THAT bad, but I guess that was kind of the point of putting it on again.

The problem is I couldn't quite figure out the spirit in which this production was mounted. I think it's a mistake to approach the material saying, "This was a notorious, campy disaster, and therefore we should be as 'bad' and 'campy' as possible." I'm not sure if that was necessarily the intent here, but it sometimes came off that way.

The play itself is so incoherent and nonsensical that any production could be nothing but a mess. I did laugh a lot in the second act, but at it more than with it.

One of my favorite quotes from Ghostworld comes to mind:
This is so bad it's good.
This is so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again.

[emilyfaye48]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:25pm

Did you read the note from the artistic director in the program?

"No mocking here. No camp. Just a moose, a mystery and lots of history!"


...

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:30pm

Thanks, I thought I read the note in the program, but must have skimmed past that line. Of course one can't make a promise that there won't be camp- camp in its purest state is unintentional, and trust me there was some camp tonight.

[emilyfaye48]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:37pm

the only way to create true camp is to believe with all your heart you are creating art.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:43pm

Thanks for coming, and I'm glad that you at least had some fun.

It wasn't that we were trying to create art. We know what we're working with here. And as I've said in other interviews, we know it isn't Hamlet. We just didn't want to deliberately camp the show up.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:43pm

I read the play out of curiosity once.

My feeling was that they were trying originally for a tone like the Neil Simon movie "Murder By Death" BUT their subject matter got too dark and confused.

The end is just so horrible you want to throw the play across the room.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:49pm

"the only way to create true camp is to believe with all your heart you are creating art."

Truer words have never been spoken.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:53pm

iluvtheatertrash- I commend you for putting on the play. I've heard an audio of the Broadway production, but it was hard to piece together exactly what was happening. I've always been intensely curious about the play and now I can say I saw it. (Can you please put on Me Jack, You Jill next?)

I guess I was unsure about what you guys were aiming for because some of the performances were a bit over the top, and I didn't know if that was coming from a "let's camp it up" mentality.

I do remember from the program notes that the author's original intention was to write a farce, but this thing has more in common with Waiting For Godot, and therein lies the absurdity and the reason the original production was such camp. The plot and especially motivations of the characters make no sense. It's a tough task to even go about mounting a production.

I'm grateful and thankful I can now check it off the list of flops I want to see.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:54pm

I wish I could edit my messages, but BWW doesn't want to let me. I would've added, "The play does it for us!".

My hope is that our audiences have fun because we're having fun. It's so silly, so bizarre, so outrageous.... God, I don't even know how it got to Broadway in the first place. But it sure is fun to be able to say, "remember that play with the man in the moose mask and the paraplegic mummy?" and actually get to be a part of it. A story for the grandkids, I guess.

Anyway, thanks for coming, gang. Especially for braving our preview performance! We officially open tomorrow.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 1/29/13 at 11:56pm

Whizzer, over the past week or so, we've all started getting a bit silly and over-the-top. For a while, we were doing it kinda low-key, but we found that it was all just more fun if you accepted the fact that it was just plain silly and just went for broke.

Ah, motivation and plot... Two words we've been talking about for months. In fact, even today we had to discuss another plot-hole. They're all over the place. Some we've solved, with Arthur's help. Some we haven't, and I don't think we ever will.

But it's still fun to do it, though the physicality of Act Two is exhausting and we're still building up the stamina.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 1/30/13 at 12:01am

In case you don't know, Arthur just released a book about his experiences putting the Moose on Broadway. I found it fascinating, honest and fun. Would highly recommend it as a great "show-biz" read.

http://www.amazon.com/Moose-Murdered-Learned-Worrying-Broadway/dp/1481997408

Also, one of the more interesting things to know is that some plot questions even Arthur himself couldn't answer. It seems that there were so many rewrites over the show's rehearsal period (many at Eve Arden's request) that even the playwright himself lost sight of it all...

[tazber]

Posted: 1/30/13 at 6:17am

I saw this in Friday's WSJ and meant to post it over the weekend.


A Broadway Flop Returns

[ken8631]

Posted: 1/30/13 at 1:29pm

Wife actually wants to see this!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/30/13 at 2:21pm

In the name of Charles Ludlam, camp in its purest sense may be art, but it is certainly NOT unintentional! Doesn't anybody take Theater History or even Intro to Theater any more?

My memory of the original production of MOOSE MURDERS was that the broader it got the better it got, until it finally got so broad that (SPOILER) somebody entered in a moose costume and all was lost. The play just didn't know when to quit.

What did NOT work was Holland Taylor's dry sense of humor; I adore her and I assume Eve Arden was similar, but the writing wasn't clever enough to be underplayed.

So have your fun, ILUVTHEATRE, and break a leg!

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 1/30/13 at 8:08pm

What I don't understand is if you had the money or the ability to raise the money to mount an off Broadeay revival or showcase or whatever this is............why would anyone possibly revive this utterly reviled play other than to get publicity for your company? Don't get me wrong, I know everyone's gotta have a gimmick, and I guess your gimmick worked if you are selling out, but with so many good plays out there that could use a revival......why? Especially when you admit that you know what this play is.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/30/13 at 8:14pm

Because, for better or for worse, the play is LEGEND and people will want to see what the fuss is all about.

The point of this whole group is to revive famous but short-lived shows, frequently tweaked to improve or at least maximize what's already there, and show people what all the legend is about.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 1/30/13 at 8:20pm

I wonder if they previously tried to get the rights to Carrie.

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 1/30/13 at 8:22pm

According to his twitter, Max von Essen sans-stache is at the show tonight.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 1/31/13 at 1:02am

Max was indeed there, along with many other fabulous people.

And darguek is spot on. Thank you for your comment!

Matt, we did expect SOME publicity. But none of us, me especially, expected it to blow up quite as it did. I picked the play because I thought we'd have a lot of fun doing it. And we have had just that: a lot of fun. We'd done a lot of sad, intense pieces and hadn't really done in a big, broad comedy yet. Why not go for broke with Moose Murders and just have a ball doing it?

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 1/31/13 at 4:44am

As long as it doesn't torture your audience, why not.

[newintown]

Posted: 1/31/13 at 9:34am

The problem with thinking that a legendary flop will bring in crowds just because it's a legend is that it's not true.

At least it wasn't true for Carrie (which couldn't complete its always-planned extension), or Legends (the Joan Collins/Linda Evens "pre-Broadway" tour that closed on the road several cities early).

Some theatre lovers get so obsessed with famous flops, they forget that there aren't a lot of others sharing their obsession.

[ken8631]

Posted: 1/31/13 at 2:20pm

Just bought tickets for Sunday!

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 1/31/13 at 6:34pm

Don't read the review in Backstage or you may regret having done so.

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 2/2/13 at 5:11pm

Moose Murders: Legendary Broadway Flop In First-Ever Revival Is A Revelation

Posted: 2/3/13 at 2:14am

Gouge my eyes out with a spork! Some images I will never be rid of, thanks to today's matinee: a tap-dancing tween, a shrieking nurse, a horn-dog mofo, the world's worst versions of show tunes Jeepers Creepers and People, and a moose tucking in his ears so they would fit in the closet.

It really is as bad as they say -- so bad it's good. I mean, how many shows get zero stars from the Post? "Stultifyingly bad," Scheck noted. "2-1/2 hours of tedious farce that feels like a week. Amateurishly staged and performed, it somehow manages to make the terrible material even worse."

The biggest mystery is how this ever got to Broadway 30 years ago, even for previews. Don't be afraid to laugh in all the wrong places. And clap when it gets shockingly bad. Marvel at the truly bad plot and the lame jokes. It's like Ed Wood directing Noises Off at the Fringe.

NY Post review: Beating a Dead Moose