Success after Failure?
Success after Failure?
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#1Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 1:16pm
I tried searching for a thread, so my apologies if it exists.
What revivals of failed shows have become bona fide "hits" their 2nd or 3rd time around.
I'd been thinking about Side Show, Carrie, Bare and Ragtime, specifically. I know Chicago is WAY more successful than it original run, but was the original run a flop?
I guess I'm trying to figure out why financial backers are willing to try again with failed material. Maybe there are a whole bunch I'm not thinking of.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#2Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 1:33pm
The original production of Sam Shepherd's "True West" produced by the Public Theatre was a disaster. It wasn't until it was revived by Steppenwolf with a then unknown Gary Sinise and John Malkovich that it became a hit.
Updated On: 11/3/14 at 01:33 PM
#2Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 1:39pm
BOEING-BOEING.
The original production didn't last a month. The revival won several Tonys, made money, and ran for nearly a year.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
dreaming
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/24/09
#3Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 1:57pmAnd I adored that revival production!!!! Amazing!!!
Fantod
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/3/14
#4Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 1:57pmThe original Porgy and Bess lost quite a bit of money, but since then it has has several productions be successful.
LarryD2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/1/14
#5Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 2:12pmThe Cripple of Inishmaan - The 1998 Public Theater production was not well-received. But when the Atlantic brought over an Irish production of it in 2008/2009, it did well both critically and commercially, very nearly moving to Broadway. And this past year's revival with Radcliffe was a big critical success, although I don't think it recouped.
RENT_is_Wicked2
Stand-by Joined: 4/4/11
#6Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 2:15pmThe Rocky Horror Show. The original production was a major flop, but the revival ran for over a year.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#7Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 3:46pm
Candide (1956) 73 performances, BOMB!!!!!
Candide (1973) Chelsea Theatre/BAM/Broadway revival, 740 performances, huge hit, four tony's including best book (reworked) and direction of a musical
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#8Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/3/14 at 3:52pmI wouldn't call the original "Ragtime" a failure. It had an excellent cast and was a visually stunning production. It may not have recouped investment, but there was a lot of cooking the books. Also, it was in such a huge theater. I think it could have run longer if it moved to a smaller house.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#9Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/4/14 at 6:35am
IIRC, Brecht/Weill's THREEPENNY OPERA was performed in English in the U.S. in the 1920s to a collective yawn. Another version, translated by Mark Blitzstein, opened off-Broadway in the 1950s and ran for years.
Their MAHAGONNY SONG CYCLE was booed off the stage when it debuted (in Munich, I believe) but went on to be a hit in Berlin and, with revisions, on opera stages all over the world.
Ditto for Jarry's UBU ROI. Not just booing but a full-fledged riot.
Theater used to be fun!
TheGingerBreadMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/7/12
neonlightsxo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/08
#11Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/4/14 at 8:10am^ No. If it was a flop they wouldn't have transferred it. It did very well at NYTW.
brldisteach2
Stand-by Joined: 11/28/11
#12Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/4/14 at 6:41pmNot a revival, but Seussical didn't do so well on Broadway, but gets produced regionally all the time.
#13Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/4/14 at 6:57pm
The first US production of The Threepenny Opera was on Broadway at the Empire Theater in 1933, for 12 performances in less than two weeks. The sets and costumes were based on the originals in Germany. New York was not ready!
Seussical, like The Addams Family, was substantially revised after Broadway, and the revised versions are generally considered better.
Updated On: 11/4/14 at 06:57 PM
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#14Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/4/14 at 11:21pmI am looking at Broadway revivals...not life in regional productions.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#16Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/5/14 at 8:24pm
KISS OF THE SPIDERWPMAN isn't perfectly analogous because its development process was unique. But in their book, COLORED LIGHTS, Kander and Ebb make a point of what a failure the musical was in Purchase, NY (and how damning Rich's review was) and then what a joy it was to have the show be a success on Broadway two years later.
Since the original question was why backers invest in something that lost money in the past, KOTS seems to be a prime example of belated success.
jwsel
Featured Actor Joined: 8/2/05
#17Success after Failure?
Posted: 11/6/14 at 2:57amIn England, Blood Brothers flopped in its first run on the West End in 1983. A revival in 1988 ran until 2012, transferred to Broadway for two years, and spawned numerous tours.
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