The Goodbye Girl Discussion

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 1:52am

I just picked up this show at the library on a whim because I really like Bernadette Peters after watching the "Sunday..." DVD. I found the show to be enjoyable, but after looking at IBDB, it seems the show wasn't that big of a hit. It seems like it had a lot going for it: Martin Short, Bernadette, the Chorus Line composer...but why didn't it do well? Is it an entirely original piece? Or is it based on a movie? It seems an odd choice for a Broadway show, and it doesn't seem big enough for a Broadway stage. Any pictures? Comments? I looked for a review on the NY times website but I couldn't find one.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 4:22am

The show got mixed reviews, but the score is very enjoyable thanks in a large part to David Zippel's smart lyrics.

It closed when B.Peters' and M.Short's contracts expired and the producers claimed there were no stars available to replace them. (the show ahd been doing less than stellar business anyhow.)

Two years ago we had an excellent community staging here which proved two things: 1. SHow has an enjoyable first act but starts to run out of steam in ACt II. 2. Does not NEED stars. Just really solid perfrmers.

Yes, it s based on a Neil Simon movie (nominated for Best Pic of 1977? 78?) There was a TV remake about 3 years ago.

Surprisingly, Columbia has let the sparkling OCR slip out-of-print. Too bad, its one of those very enjoyable cast albums that really make you want to see the show.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 4:41am

I saw The Goodbye Girl with Bernadette and Short. I thought the booked wavered too much and wasn't as quick and witty like Neil Simon's plays. I feel the same way about They're Playing Our Song and Little Me. I think Neil Simon just writes better without music, partially because his comedy writing has its own natural rhythm and I felt that the musical numbers just interrupted what could have been a good play. The music was interesting, but not that great, nothing stood out in my mind except the witty lyrics in "Paula (There's no need to overhaul her)"

Interestingly enough, it has certainly become dated now. I wonder how many people remember the show "Studs" that was on TV at the time that is referenced in one of the lyrics.

I also think Martin Short lacked romantic appeal, much less than Richard Dreyfuss had in the movie (the best picture of the year the year I was born, btw).

I also have the London cast album with Ann Crumb and it seems as though the good upbeat numbers were cut out (A beat behind) and replaced with mediocre substitutions.

Did anyone see the London production? Anyone see both?

I remember I went with my Uncle who lives in Syracuse and comes down to NY periodically to visit. I used to get him tickets. In three consecutive visits, I took him to see three shows that he (and most of the critics) hated. I loved the other two, which were Nick and Nora and My Favorite Year (he actually left during the intermission of My Favorite Year, and I think he would have loved "Professional Showbusiness Comedy"). After that, he stopped speaking to me for a while and now he gets his own tickets to shows. He dissed me on the 95 company and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Then I got him back by seeing the Follies revival without him. I'm waiting for repurcussions.

[flamingo]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 6:28am

Here's the New York Times review of "The Goodbye Girl". I wonder how much the show was affected by the fact that they replaced the original director during out-of-town tryouts ?

Here is a link to a picture:
http://members.aol.com/KHesbacher/tgg.html


New York Times review Updated On: 2/3/07 at 06:28 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 8:46am

I always liked the song "How Can I Win?"

Beautiful.

I never saw it, but something about Martin Short perched on various set pieces in the promos as if he was Endora from Bewitched or Og from Finnian's Rainbow... really bugged me. Too impish for his own good.

Updated On: 2/3/07 at 08:46 AM

Posted: 2/3/07 at 9:01am

Neil Simon writes about this at length in his autobiography. He felt that the film was about 3 people in their apartment and that to make a successful musical it needed to be "Big" (Sorry to reference that other bomb). So the film got opened up into way too many locations with way too many people who had nothing to do- and before long you didn't care about the 3 people any more.

He also talked about how Marsha mason and Richard Dreyfuss both had a quality that made them easy to believe as people who were down on their luck, going through a hard time, and Short & Peters both seemed like big broadway stars.

And he said the set was huge and broke down all the time. So much so that the audience sat there worrying the set wasn't going to work.
Interesting.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 9:52am

JoeKv99 --- Interesting point.

You can open something up so much you can't find the story anymore.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 10:21am

It was definitely flawed - but I loved it. Saw it three times! The cast was excellent, and having Peters and Short starring together was the selling point for me.

The score is quite enjoyable - there are a lot of good songs, performed wonderfully by the all-around stellar cast. It's one of those where people who didn't see the original production listen to the OBCR and wonder what happened.

[mallardo]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 10:33am

I never saw it but it's one of my favorite OBCRs. "Good News, Bad News", "Don't Follow in My Footsteps", "I Think I Can Play This Part"... great songs. Why doesn't Marvin Hamlisch get more respect?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 12:48pm

I really find the score enjoyable, but think that the Marquis theater was way too large for this show. It just seems like it's a smaller show. I really wish I could have seen the set pics or something.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 1:32pm

I saw the show several times. It was very enjoyable, but the politically correct "Richard Interred" was really a mess.

[Producer2]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 1:58pm

I loved it! Bernadette and Martin were really fantastic! The music was great especially the songs "A Beat Behind, Elliot Garfield Grant, Good News/ Bad News, and Who Would Have Thought."
I felt the scene with Martin on the rooftop claiming he loved improvisations and breaking out into the song "Paula" was stupid.
So was the scene with a Richard Simmons character and Bernadette dressed like french fries. The whole Elliot and Paula's daughter scene in the rowboat was very nice. The show also had a great set even though some critics called it hideous. With some script revisions it could really work. Take out the silliness and add more charm. After watching the Neil Simon Mark Twain Award show and seeing the clip from the movie where Elliot and Paula are discussing the house rules, I discovered the lyrics in the song "Elliot Garfield Grant" are almost identical to the movie script.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 2:48pm

"Paula" was definitely stupid and WAY. TOO. LONG.

My favorite songs are No More, A Beat Behind, and Who Would Have Thought.

[rock00]

Posted: 2/3/07 at 3:53pm

"Surprisingly, Columbia has let the sparkling OCR slip out-of-print. Too bad, its one of those very enjoyable cast albums that really make you want to see the show."

FYI, the recording is on itunes if people are looking for it. :)

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:00pm

I saw the show on Broadway shortly after it opened and quite enjoyed it. Went out and bought the cast recording the day it came out(incidentally, I noticed a few lyric and arrangement changes on the recording from what I saw on stage).
The score is pretty dated on some of the more uptempo numbers, but the ballads sung by Bernadette Peters are lovely ("No More," "How Can I Win?" and "What a Guy"). The other thing that struck me as odd about the show was that Paula is introduced in the first scene and she's immediately given an 11 o'clock number. While the song is great, it seemed bizarre to have such a dramatic epiphany at the top of the show!

A couple of the songs---"No More" and "How Can I Win?"---have gone on to have a bit of an afterlife. I've heard versions of these songs sung by Alison Jiear, Christiane Noll, and Lisa Richard.

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:04pm

This was the first show I ever saw on Broadway.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:05pm

No More is a great torchy belt song. I'm not surprised it's still living. I love singing it!

[WOSQ]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:09pm

The Goodbye Girl will go down in theatre history as being the first show (and let us hope the last) to make Bernadette Peters unsympathetic.

The character was whiny, unlikeable and just plain annoying. All I wanted to do was throw her off a fire escape. Bernadette tried mightily but could not begin to make this sow's ear into anything but a sow's ear. She ought to have sued.

This is a prime example of somebody saying, "Let's make a musical of___________." and nobody saying "Why?" The addition of song and dance did nothing to tell the story better.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:10pm

As long as she's singing and wearing something low-cut, you can't make her unsympathetic to me.

[Craig]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:17pm

Rath -

You're entitled to your opinion - but any song with the lyric "And if my lyrics make you gag, I'll apply the sondheimlich maneuver" is ok by me. In fact, lyrically, that's one of my favorite lines ever. Zippel was in key form for this show and City of Angels

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:19pm

It was too long. That's my biggest problem with it. It was too long and very schticky.

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:27pm

There are some extremely clever lyrics in this show. "My built-in female radar only zeros in on zeros/I'm like the Actors Fund supporting wannabe DeNiro's." Love it!

When I saw the show, it looked like Martin Short was having the time of his life, but Bernadette seemed to be sleepwalking. It was as if she knew the show was mediocre at best and that Short was getting the bigger audience response, so she stopped trying.

I did feel bad for the ensemble, who really had nothing to do except for "A Beat Behind" and one completely unnecessary dance number near the end of the show. Didn't Scott Wise play the dance instructor?

Despite the show's shortcomings, I did enjoy it a lot.

Updated On: 2/27/07 at 03:27 PM

[tazber]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:39pm

I am one of those people Rath mentioned who hear the OBCR and wonder what happened. The score is very good, I think everyone has mentioned all the songs individually, but I must cite "I Think I Can Play This Part", and "No More" as favorites.
Bernie and Short sound great. I even enjoyed the daughter's songs. She wasn't cloying the way so many children's parts are written.

[madbrian]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:40pm

"When I saw the show, it looked like Martin Short was having the time of his life, but Bernadette seemed to be sleepwalking. It was if she knew the show was mediocre at best and that Short was getting the bigger audience response, so she stopped trying."

I completely agree with this assessment. I thought he stole the show from her, and she acquiesced.

Posted: 2/27/07 at 3:47pm

I actually played Paula last year. I wasn't completely thrilled when my director announced that "The Goodbye Girl" was the show we were going to do, but it ended up being a lot of fun. There are lots of energetic numbers and, as several others have mentioned, clever lyrics. I loved getting to sing 'How Can I Win' every night. My main beef was that the book could not compete with the movie's stellar script; some of the best bits were gone. And if you're playing Paula, it's a tug of war not to let the character slog you down because it lends itself to self-pity and whining. Elliot would have been much more fun!

So, yeah, it's cheesy and cutesy and whatnot, but it is quite the fun show. The cast recording never fails to make me smile.