After Eight said: "The Student Gypsy, Darling of the Day, and Georgy were delightful musicals with wonderful scores that closed far too quickly. They were twenty-eight zillion and ten times better than the drab, insufferable, tuneless mega-bores that receive critical praise, tons of undeserved awards, and cause untold misery to theatregoers everywhere.
I totally agree re Darling of the Day. I loved it and was amazed that it didn't run longer than 32 performances, given the fact that it received some very good reviews. I remember the album having a list of critics who said it was the best musical of the season...one of them, if memory serves me, was Walter Kerr. I guess Vincent Price in the lead, and a dismissive review from Clive Barnes, and the location of the theatre (all the way up on 54th Street) meant that it never had a chance.
I did not see The Student Gypsy, and I disagree re Georgy, although I saw it in Boston, so it may have changed by the time it got to NYC. I must admit that I still remember two songs very well, although I have not heard the score since 'that night.' There's a Coming Together and Do You Remember the Day? (don't remember if that is the title, but it is the main lyric), so I guess that counts for something.
I agree with comments that Scottsboro Boys and Shuffle Along should be on the list. From earlier times, I would also add Drat! The Cat! which I loved when I saw it in previews ($5 for second or third row of the orchestra -- boy, have times changed).
But, to me, the most terrible casualty was the version of Cyrano that starred Christopher Plummer. He gave what is to this day one of the 4 or 5 greatest performances I have seen from an actor in a musical. I still play the CD with relative frequency and it never fails to move me. Should have been a big hit.
I also saw the show that was titled Cry For Us All and Who To Love while it was in Boston. I thought it was excellent, with a very good score, an excellent cast, and one of the best set designs that I have ever seen in a show. I can actually remember 5 or 6 songs from this one, although I did see it twice in Boston, so I had more of an opportunity to ingrain it. Also, The Grand Tour. A terrific Jerry Herman score, a great performance by Joel Gray, and a good story.
If we add revivals, there was a revival of The Pajama Game at the Lunt-Fontanne in the 70s. it was so entertaining and ran about 10 weeks...I saw it twice and would have seen it a third time, had the clock not run out.
If we add plays, Alan Ayckbourn had a lot of shows that should have run longer. The most entertaining of the lot ran the shortest. How the Other Half Loves starred Phil Silvers and was hysterically funny. (For that matter, his revival of A Funny Thing also had much too short a run. People will say that it was because of his death...not really true...it was dying at the box office, despite his and Larry Blyden's Tony wins. It was also true that musical revivals did not appeal to audiences those days -- I guess there were enough new musicals a season to keep them happy...also, overall attendance was not what it is today).
PS -- Among the shows that I missed having seen because they closed so quickly, 70 Girls 70 is at the top of the list.
