The Goodbye Girl Discussion

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.

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.

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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.

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

JoeKv99 --- Interesting point.

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

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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?

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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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.