Show People Magazine's Top Ten Musical FLOPS

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:06pm

This is from the Spring 2005 issue. I know we have talked about Carrie, Shogun and DOTV, but has anybody here seen these other flops? Would love to hear horror stories about how awful these were.

1. The Yearling, 1965, 11 Previews, 3 Performances, Loss: $375,000
2. Dude: The Highway of Life, 1972, 16 Previews, 16 Performances, Loss: $800,000
3. Via Galactica, 1972, 15 Previews, 7 Performances, Loss: $846,000
4. Home Sweet Homer, 1976, 11 Previews, 1 Performance, Loss: $750,000
5. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 1976, 13 Previews, 7 Performances, Loss: $1 Million
6. Raggedy Ann, 1986, 15 Previews, 5 Performances, Loss: $1.8 Million
7. Carrie, 1988, 16 Previews, 5 Performances, Loss: $7 Million
8. Shogun the Musical, 1990, 18 Previews, 72 Performances, Loss: $6.9 Million
9. Metro, 1992, 24 Previews, 13 Performances, Loss: $5 Million
10. Dance of the Vampires, 2002, 61 Previews, 56 Performances, Loss: $12.5 Million (rumored to be higher)

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:12pm

Whats the criteria here? Biggest flops? Most expensive flops? Most memorable flops? Most famous flops? Best flops?

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:12pm

The Yearling is a fine, fine play, and an awful, awful musical.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:14pm

It's just the ten worst broadway musicals of all time...by Alexis Soloski. It is a very subjective list. Personally, I think Bring Back Birdie should be on there.
Updated On: 2/23/06 at 02:14 PM

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:17pm

The Yearling actually used a real life fawn. Give them some points for that!

And, sigh, Metro. :)

On a side note, someone told me that Norm Lewis was in Metro? Is that true?

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:18pm

On ibdb, Norm Lewis is not listed as part of the cast of Metro.

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:21pm

Well, Thank Goodness.

BACK ON TOPIC - Let me just say that from what I have heard of Carrie, I really really love it. And DOTV will always have my heart.

Was Dude: The Highway of Life written by the same guys who wrote Hair?

[Matt_G]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:22pm

Yes, they were written by the same person. The music to DUDE isn't all that bad, but the show as a whole was supposed to have just been ridiculously bad.

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:23pm

Just a guess....is Home Sweet Homer a musical version of The Odyssey?

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:40pm

Good Guess.

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:43pm

Yeah, I amaze myself sometimes:)

[WOSQ]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 2:56pm

Its a mighty subjective list. But it also appears that these choices all had pretentions to quality. If you're familiar with the early Streisand albums, she recorded three or four of The Yearling songs before the show opened as a favor to the composer who had been an accompanist of hers.

Then there's Home Sweet Homer--composer and director and leading lady of La Mancha and a legendary leading man in his first new show in 25 years.

Yul Brynner and Joan Diener toured in Odyssey for almost a year, coast-to-coast, but the revisions cost so much that there was no profit. The book and lyric writer, Erich Segal (Love Story), had his name removed from the NY credits and made them change the title.

When the show limped into the Palace previewing over Christmas week and opened on a Sunday matinee right after New Year's and opened with the closing notice already posted the week before, no one was surprised when there was no 2nd performance. Talk about writing on the wall.

Brynner went back to King and I shortly thereafter and essentially played that role the rest of his life including at least 3 tours and two Broadway stands with great success.

The greatest thing about Home Sweet Homer? There was a Hirschfeld drawing of Brynner and Diener as the logo, and it was a huge billboard above the Palace for a couple of months.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 3:01pm

Via Galactica was also by the composer of Hair and Dude and he had one other Broadway flop, The Human Comedy, though it received praise during its Off-Broadway run. Dude does have some good songs and most critics did praise the score. Via Galactica received mixed to negative reviews that were mostly bewildered by the show. The Human Comedy was generally regarded as a good show that simply worked better in a small intimate space. The transfer to a Broadway house is what killed it.

[JBSinger]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 3:02pm

I was in a revival of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at the Kennedy Center in 92 and its a weird show. I know our script was a little different than what ended up on Bway, but score is really interesting with some terrific numbers. The show itself is a strange show-within-a-show/upstairs-downstairs thing. Its also very preachy.

I saw Dance of the Vampires and it just didn't know what it wanted to be - is it Rocky Horror, is it camp, is it serious? The singing was awesome and the score was mostly attractive. Max Von essen, Leah Hocking, Liz McCartney, Asa Somers all sounded great. I think Mandy Gonzalez was in it too and sounded great. There was a lot of weird stuff in it. The bat props looked terrible and the jokes were groaners. There was this wild zombie dance out of nowhere and the audience always laughed whenever they sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Missing from this list is CAPEMAN. unattractive characters presented without any charisma (except Sara Ramirez). The score was interesting and the set was awesome. It lost LOTS of $.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 3:05pm

I worked on one of these shows! How prestigious!!

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 3:07pm

Rath, are you going to leave us hanging?

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 3:07pm

man...i really loved DOTV i thought it was such a good show. i was bummed when it closed.

[MagicToDo82]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 3:09pm

I think the main problem with DOTV, as previously said, was that it didn't really know what to be...was it horror, or camp, or a rock concert? The music and performances were great.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 3:09pm

SHOGUN. And as I've posted before, it had one of the most beautiful effects ever on a stage - the horses running through the snow. I stood in the back of the theater for the final performance, and actually cried over the fact that so few people got to experience that moment.

Updated On: 6/2/05 at 03:09 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/2/05 at 3:21pm

Wow, Rath you never cease to amaze me! Shogun is the show I most wish I'd seen. The description of the stage effects is amazing! And I admire those big-time flops that followed their dream. It was a monsrously expensive show but critics agreed, every dime was on stage!

[wildcat]

Posted: 6/3/05 at 12:06am

Wasn't someone in SHOGUN nearly killed by a piece of rogue scenery? Philip Casnoff or Peter Karrie?

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 6/3/05 at 12:11am

Yeah Philip Casnoff got KO'd by a piece of lumber at the press preview of 'Shogun.'

[wildcat]

Posted: 6/3/05 at 12:28am

See, they should have cast Ann Miller. It would have just bounced off her hair.

[kitkatgirl54]

Posted: 6/3/05 at 1:26am

ahahaha, wildcat!!

now, a musical of raggedy ann. that's just nuts. no one should be exchanging millions of dollars over a doll made of socks.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 6/3/05 at 6:05am

Where's KELLY?