Hardly anyone ever speaks of this long-running musical of the 1970s, and a revival of the show most certainly will never happen, but it is hard to dismiss the Broadway success of The Magic Show. Tailored around and to the talents of magician Doug Henning, The Magic Showfeatured a score by Stephen Schwartz (Pippin, Godspell, Wicked) and a book by Bob Randall. Though the Schwartz score has some gems worth listening to, the plot for The Magic Showis relatively thin. This is arguably beside the point, since the real intention of the musical was not to succeed as a musical at all, but to capitalize on Henning’s talents as an illusionist and on his celebrity (which was climbing in the early 1970s).
