New Broadway Book: "Flop Musicals of the Twenty-First Century"

https://www.routledge.com/Flop-Musicals-of-the-Twenty-First-Century-How-They-Happened-When-They/Purdy/p/book/9780367173326



This looks to be a modern follow-up inspired by NOT SINCE CARRIE and SECOND ACT TROUBLE, focusing on 10 shows from the past 20 years.

Here are the 10 shows:



1 Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

2 Lestat

3 Urban Cowboy

4 The Pirate Queen

5 Rocky

6 King Kong

7 Escape to Margaritaville

8 Glory Days

9 Bullets Over Broadway

10 Dance of the Vampires

Can only say I've seen half of one. I saw Escape to Margaritaville at the Chicago tryout. Two hours before curtain, while waiting for my friend, I grabbed a table and a margarita pitcher for us at a restaurant. She showed up and immediately announced she was pregnant (and therefore, couldn't drink the margaritas.) I was never wasteful person, so I finished the pitcher and went to the show. I posted on instagram about having margaritas before the show, Broadway in Chicago commented on my instagram post, "Someone came prepared!"

Which, now, I realize was a warning.

It seems to use a slightly different model than NOT SINCE CARRIE.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2020/05/31/new-book-explores-broadway-flops/


Academic prices are crazy, tho textbooks were much cheaper in my day!!

Updated On: 6/1/20 at 04:11 PM

Jordan Catalano said: "I got so excited until I saw the price."



Same. And it is only 108 pages.

I want Dance of the Vampires to have been better than it was given credit for. But I'm perfectly willing to accept it probably wasn't.

King Kong--to me--could work. There's nothing inherently wrong with adapting it or having a giant puppet.

Oh. Oh I need this. But I can wait at that price. It will hit Amazon eventually. I need this just to see what they say about Dance of the Vampires in the book because.... woof. I spoke about my experience seeing that over in the "Shows That Now Live In Infamy" topic. So all I will comment here only the one thing that I think sums it all up.... Penis. Sponge. Joke.

For reference, here is the amazon listing for those wanting to watch for a sale price: https://www.amazon.com/Flop-Musicals-Twenty-First-Century-Happened/dp/0367173328/

Updated On: 6/2/20 at 10:50 AM

Thanks, Steven. Really looking forward to it. Yes, Amazon does lower their prices the closer the release date is. Anything that is pre-ordered, will automatically honor the lowest price when it ships out.

I thought "Honeymoon in Vegas" - like "Something Rotten" - had a great first 30mins and then it all went downhill from there. I'm surprised it hasn't shown up regionally anywhere as it is a well-known movie title.

I think the list is quite interesting given that a lot of them had a lot of potential but just didn't work. I'm in the minority but I loved a lot of "Rocky" - the staging was so cool, and the song "Raining" is just so gorgeous.

I devoured this book in less than 24 hours. I had a $10 Amazon gift card on account, which knocked the Kindle ebook down to around $20. This book is definitely worth the read - ten very thorough and interesting case studies full of facts and even some fun anecdotes. I really hope there are more editions to come!

Indeed. In reading the chapter on DOTV, a lot of it seems to be rehashed from my write-ups on the subject, possibly with some new quotes mixed in.

Hey guys, Stephen here, author of the book. Thank you for the feedback--it's truly helpful as we ready future volumes. I agree 100 percent---the price is RIDICULOUS. I fought and fought, but I'm told by the publisher that when books first are released the price is higher with the intention of bringing it down later to "move copies." As for the length also correct---it stinks. Several chapters were pulled at the end in the interest of overall length and content, but yeah, I was also shocked and upset that only 108 some odd pages ended up in the final--although there's a lot of print crammed onto each page. Finally just to clear the air, the book wasn't meant to be a dishy tattle tale type with shocking insights and revelations and ideas about how the shows could have been saved (I point it out in the intro) but rather to just get the stories of the shows chronicled as they are truly fascinating. Also, I purposely avoided the Ken Mandelbaum model, as much as I enjoyed that book. Ken essentially wrote blurbs about most of the shows and didn't really dig into the stories of the show--it was more of a survey type book. In any case, thank you again for constructive feedback--we'd like to do two more books on the same topic writing in-depth about the shows rather than just touching on the fact that the show was a flop---but without commentary or opinions--but we will do the length AND THE PRICE and even the content differently next time-but I need your help. I'd love to hear anyone's feedback personally too--you can email me anytime--my email address is on my website StephenPurdy.com (I don't think I can leave it here?). Anyway, thank you again. I hope the book brings some reader-ly joy at least.