All tagged Revival

Ten Flop Musicals that Deserve a Second Chance on Broadway

It's always sad when a musical flops, especially when you consider all the time, talent, heart and cash that are poured into bringing a musical to Broadway. Every once and a while a musical that failed to ignite at the box office the first time around is given a second chance to show off its merits. Consider that the classic Candide was not a hit the first time around in 1956 but found great acclaim in a 1973 revival and the case is made that a revival of a failed property can be merited. Some other musicals have had this opportunity: a revival of Side Show, a 1997 flop that hoped to make a new case for itself with a 2014 revival, met with mediocre ticket sales and reviews. Some musicals are destined to be loved in concept only, never quite yielding in popularity what their proponents see as the hidden or untapped potential of its ingredients. This is okay. Not every revival of a once successful musical is a hit, so it stands to reason that not every first go around with a piece is going to be a success. Many components besides book, music and lyrics come together to make a production, so altering those ingredients (director, budget, performers, even the written material itself) can possibly add up to a new production that works. 

Here are ten musicals that I believe, with the right ingredients and a little hope, could add up to a hit if they were given a second chance.

Revive This Musical: PLEASE!

It’s a big season for Broadway revivals with Spring Awakening having opened and Fiddler on the RoofDames at Sea, and She Loves Me on their way to us in the next few months. Certain shows get revived again and again (Gypsy, anyone?) while others take their sweet time getting back to Broadway. Today’s blog entry is a plea to producers, as I go decade by decade (starting with the 1930s), making the case for the musicals most-deserving of revival in each ten-year span.

PIPPIN - The Extinguishing of "One Perfect Flame"

With the once-deemed "impossible to revive" production of Pippin completing a successful run and in it's final weeks on Broadway, I wanted to devote an article to this musical (one of my favorites) and to this production (which I count as the finest and most inventive I have ever seen on Broadway). I cannot help but feel that this production, successful as it is, should have run longer. For me it is the reigning example of how dance, music, inventive staging, a finely tuned concept, and sheer theatrical energy can come together to produce a heightened magic that makes theatre addictive and life-changing.