Shows in rehearsal often need a guiding hand. Most times that hand to guide rewrites before the show even opens out of town belongs to the director.
Rags hired as a director a person who had never directed anything larger than an off-broadway show and here she was handed a huge musical and one that needed work.
The creators, all name writers and at least one who thinks of himself also as a director, had large egos that were not ready to follow a first-timer.
Nobody edited and when they opened in Boston, the show was a shambles. The director was fired and no replacement director had been lined up to immediately take over. With Stephen Schwartz pinch hitting until a new director signed on (I think it eventually was Gene Saks), more time was lost.
Then they ran out of money and had to open in August with no advance. DOA.
That, as they say, was that.
The basic error was the producers hiring the wrong director at the outset. Everything came from that decision.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable."
--Carrie Fisher
