Musicals that "made it," and made it FAST

[phantom8019]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 4:01pm

I'd like to pick the brains of some of the Broadway historians here. You always hear about musicals that take years to write and REWRITE and go through all sorts of transformations during the creative process. Some musicals (most?) take years to write and still never make it to Broadway.
So, that got me thinking... what hit musicals have had relatively short gestation periods? Maybe the creative team had almost everything right from the beginning, somehow. Or maybe the climate was right, so the show was rushed along and became a smash hit. By hit, I mean a relatively commercial and critical success. Curious to see what you all come up with. I wonder if there even is an answer to this.

[newintown]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 4:19pm

In "Finishing the Hat," Sondheim writes that Gypsy was written in four months. I'm not sure if he includes the rewrites done while out of town, but it's still amazing.

Lady In The Dark went into rehearsal before the writing was near completion, as did A Little Night Music and Follies (Although the latter had been in development for several years).

[steven22]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 4:25pm

WICKED

[Orangesaretuesdays]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 4:36pm

The Producers

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 4:48pm

Wicked was workshopped for a couple of years before the San Francisco tryout, and I'm sure was in the writing phase for at least a little while before those initial workshops, so I would hardly consider it fast.

I would say A Chorus Line had a pretty short gestational period. The initial tape session that most of the show's book was born of was held on January 18 of 1974. The first workshop began in August of that year, and the first preview Off-Broadway was April 16 of 1975. I don't remember when in 1974 it was that Bennett got the idea of turning those tapes into a show, but even using that January date you are looking at almost exactly 15 months from conception to the first audience.

In the animal world, it takes longer to birth a rhino than it did to birth A Chorus Line (though a blue whale would have been born about 3-4 months before the show opened if they had the same date of conception).

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 4:49pm

Wicked workshopped for at least 3-4 years.

A Chorus Line was a quick one. First workshop was in the Fall of 74 and it opened in late Spring of 75.

I feel like Xanadu had a short one, too.

Was it Wonderful Town that was also done in 4 weeks?

[newintown]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 4:51pm

Schwartz began writing Wicked in 1998, with a 2003 debut, and I wouldn't call five years particularly fast.

The Producers began life as a movie in 1968, and Brooks spoke about turning it into a stage show years and years before its 2001 bow on Broadway.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 5:17pm

I would agree that both Wicked and The Producers definitely do not count. A Chorus Line on the other hand made it big very fast.

It seems in the golden age of Broadway a lot of shows were churned out really quickly and had a bit of success.

Posted: 11/16/10 at 5:47pm

Lady in the Dark went through quite a long gestation.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 5:55pm

I seem to recall reading something about Damn Yankees as notable for being a runaway hit so quickly on the heels of Pajama Game. The shows opened almost exactly one year apart.

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 6:07pm

Early musicals in the first half of the 20th century in general took very little time to write. They generally were written and produced in about a year. I don't have any examples off the top of my head, but in the Kern/Hammerstein generation, it was standard to have a quick gestational period. Taking 5-10 years for a show (which is now standard) would be ridiculous 70-80 years ago.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 10:02pm

Runaways had a very short gestation period all based in NYC, going from Elizabeth Swados's concept (no script, no music, just an idea to interview children for a show) in May 1977 to an Off-Broadway run in February 1989 to a Broadway bow in May 1978 that lasted the rest of the year. The reviews were good, if hesitant towards the possible exploitation of the children she was trying to give a voice to, and the production earned 5 tony nominations for Book, Score, Choreography, Direction and Musical. It might have turned a profit as it was a very low-budget affair, but I can neither confirm or deny it.

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 11/16/10 at 11:42pm

Is it On the Town that was written in like 4 weeks? Can anyone remember the details of that one- something about the creatives locking themselves in a hotel room for a month and writing a musical.

Or was it Wonderful Town? Updated On: 11/16/10 at 11:42 PM

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 11/17/10 at 3:18pm

Yeah, it's Wonderful Town. Comden and Green explain it in the Preface to the score: "George [Abbott] asked if we could write a score in four weeks because after that they would lose Miss [Rosalind] Russell to other commitments, and wanted to know what composer we could suggest. We thought of Leonard Bernstein, knowing he had just returned from his honeymoon with Felicia, and mentioned him dubiously to George. ... To our surprise, with no hesitation Lenny said "Yes". He always liked deadlines, and four weeks to write a score was an irresistible challenge."
Updated On: 11/17/10 at 03:18 PM

[WOSQ]

Posted: 11/17/10 at 3:38pm

Wonderful Town was a fairly finished show when the powers-that-be decided they didn't like the score. They went to Lenny, Betty and Adolph and said essentially, "We're going into rehearsal in 5 weeks. Can you give us a new score?" The trio said yes, and that was the proverbial that.

Galt MacDermot was given a stack of lyrics about a month before Hair went into rehearsal for the initial off-Broadway run. He composed about 30 songs in that month. Some of the songs were very short and some were anything but short, but the achievement is that he did it in many differing song styles and did it well.

A Chorus Line was the first show that went through the workshop process as we know it. Prior to that, shows were written usually by writers-for-hire, most went out of town and then the rewrites started. Sometimes the shows got fixed and sometimes not. They were written almost on an assembly line.

Kiss Me, Kate is to my memory, the only show that opened out of town and was not rewritten. There were directorial tweaks, but Porter and the Spewacks went home and saw the show again in New York. The show still has a big flaw in Act Two; why does Lili come back to Bill at the end of the show? A director said to me, "It all depends on how she leaves."

The leisurely workshop process is comparatively new.

[Jon]

Posted: 11/17/10 at 4:19pm

That's one of the things that was rewritten for the revival of KISS ME KATE.

In the original, Lili comes back after deciding not to marry Senator Harrison Howell because he is a boring, probably impotent, old man. In the revival, he is GENERAL Harrison Howell, and is an obnoxious chauvinist who treats her worse than Fred.

[wonkit]

Posted: 11/18/10 at 3:36am

Lili's return actually has little or nothing to do with Howell. Fred has reminded Lili that she loves her life in the theater in New York, and even if Howell were a warm and loving person, he lives on a ranch (boring) or in DC (politics, not theater). But isn't it (or shouldn't it be) pretty clear that she returns because she is still in love with Fred?

[sabrelady]

Posted: 11/18/10 at 11:36pm

Where would RENT fall on the continum here? Reading "Without You" Rapp gave the impression that it seems like the show ( while workshopped) gestated in about a year which is not too shabby. (Unless he condensed the process to focus the book which is very possible)

[newintown]

Posted: 11/19/10 at 10:04am

Larson was working for many years on Rent, doing several readings and workshops long before NYTW took it on.