Nunsense - Ghost Written?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 4:29pm

I think that the original Nunsense is a great show. The songs are fun, individual and stylistically different.

So why has Dan Goggin not been able to produce another good show? I think all of the other Nunsense shows are subpar and his efforts outside of the Nunsense franchise have not been successful. Was the original ghost written? Is Goggin a one-hit wonder? Or did he just get lazy and decide Nunsense couldn't be topped?

[madbrian]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 4:33pm

I vote one-hit wonder.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 8:34pm

You might ask the same of the writers of GREASE or DAMES AT SEA. Sometimes people just have the inspiration for one great show in them. It's always a miracle when all the elements of a musical come together, so it's a bit like lightning striking.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 9:09pm

What are there, like, 29 other versions?

He's beaten the nuns, and their horses, black and blue.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/16/13 at 11:15pm

There is no shame in being a one-hit wonder. It still means you created one wonder.

[newintown]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 4:11pm

Some other theatrical one-hit wonders:

Jack Kirkland (Tobacco Road)
Sammy Fain (Helzapoppin)
Joseph Kesselring (Arsenic and Old Lace)
Patrick Hamilton (Angel Street, better known as the film "Gaslight")
John Patrick (Teahouse of the August Moon)
Jean Kerr (Mary, Mary)
Sumner Arthur Long (Never Too Late)
Mitch Leigh/Joe Darion (Man of La Mancha)
Gerome Ragni & James Rado (Hair - Galt MacDermot is a 2-hit wonder, with Two Gentlemen)
Sherman Edwards (1776)
Leonard Gershe (Butterflies Are Free)
Charlie Smalls (The Wiz)
Albert Innaurato (Gemini)
Carol Hall (Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)

I think it's too early to say about anyone more recent than that, except, for that no-hit wonder, Frank Wildhorn... And, of course, there are some, like Bacharach & David, who had only one hit in the theatre, but were very successful elsewhere.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 4:13pm

And then there's Margaret Edson's WIT. Didn't she state at the time that this will be the only play she'll write cause it's the only story she had to tell?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 4:26pm

I had no idea that ANGEL STREET and GHOSTLIGHT were the same play! Is that what the lyric in ON THE TOWN is referencing when Hildy says "The actors washed their feet and called it Angel Street?"

[newintown]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 4:40pm

Exactly - Tobacco Road was no longer the big long running play. (The washing their feet bit refers to the fact that the play was about of barefoot hillbillies, and the set [I've heard] had a lot of real dirt.)

Updated On: 12/17/13 at 04:40 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 4:49pm

Richard O'Brien, author of "The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show" is another one-hit wonder, although his career as an actor was more successful and prominent, and he is still frequently employed today. In fact, he is a main voice actor on the popular animated Disney program, "Phineas and Ferb."

[WestCoastActor/Director]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 5:30pm

It is actually Gaslight.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/17/13 at 5:48pm

Wow, it is GASLIGHT. I hadn't even noticed my mistake.