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Post by partytentdown on Aug 11, 2018 10:04:54 GMT
I want to know more about CASPER!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2018 10:27:47 GMT
I want to know more about CASPER! It was, bizarrely, a show created for Butlin’s holiday camps, having toured to Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness! Most of the cast were redcoats (or used to be) who worked at the camps. The score was written by the guy who wrote ‘Karma Chameleon’ and another member of the mid seventies group Sailor (anyone remember ‘Glass of Champagne’?). It was billed as a limited season but had greater hopes. In another weird twist it did get an American production but with a rewritten book and the original score pretty much binned. That version starred Chita Rivera, not as the friendly ghost but as the evil nemesis. A children’s show, really. |
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Post by partytentdown on Aug 11, 2018 10:35:13 GMT
I want to know more about CASPER! It was, bizarrely, a show created for Butlin’s holiday camps, having toured to Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness! Most of the cast were redcoats (or used to be) who worked at the camps. The score was written by the guy who wrote ‘Karma Chameleon’ and another member of the mid seventies group Sailor (anyone remember ‘Glass of Champagne’?). It was billed as a limited season but had greater hopes. In another weird twist it did get an American production but with a rewritten book and the original score pretty much binned. That version starred Chita Rivera, not as the friendly ghost but as the evil nemesis. A children’s show, really. This sounds incredible |
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Post by d'James on Aug 11, 2018 10:51:41 GMT
I LOVED Lend Me A Tenor.
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Post by last5jamie on Aug 11, 2018 14:52:40 GMT
I actually saw Imagine This! in Brno, Czech republic, this March and I love it. The show was extremely moving and the ending was just heartbreaking.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2018 15:10:30 GMT
The 90's was when i went to see everything and i saw pretty much all them, and bought the cast recording if there was one. I even bought the cd of Voyeurz.... 2 of them were the only shows i have left at the interval - Tess of The Durbervilles and Hard Times. Tess was just a very long, tuneless mess. I have no idea how it came into the Savoy. There were only a few people in the theatre the night i went. I really enjoyed most of the shows. The early 90's was when i was coming to London to see shows on my own and was in awe of most of the things i saw. I loved Always, Lautrec, Closer to Heaven, The Fields of Ambrosia, Children of Eden, Moby Dick, Hunting of The Snark.... Bernadette has a special place in my heart as my friends dad produced it.... I occasionally listen to the demo cast recording sometimes, for it's 80's, electric guitar power ballads!
I'd love to see Matador again. I saw it 3 times during its brief run. Too bad they didnt record an offical cast recording.
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Post by Penny on Aug 11, 2018 16:35:42 GMT
Daddy Cool - the musical with Boney M songs, that was soooo bad it was good 😂
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Post by anthony40 on Aug 11, 2018 17:03:17 GMT
I went and saw Betwixt at The Trafalgar Studios in 2011 only because Ellen Greene was in it but (to be honest) it was rubbish. Completely forgettable and badly acted.
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Post by partytentdown on Aug 11, 2018 17:08:43 GMT
I went and saw Betwixt at The Trafalgar Studios in 2011 only because Ellen Greene was in it but (to be honest) it was rubbish. Completely forgettable and badly acted. I never understood how they persuaded her to be in that, and yet she's never been seen in any other shows here as far as I'm aware |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2018 17:22:26 GMT
I went and saw Betwixt at The Trafalgar Studios in 2011 only because Ellen Greene was in it but (to be honest) it was rubbish. Completely forgettable and badly acted. I never understood how they persuaded her to be in that, and yet she's never been seen in any other shows here as far as I'm aware She was in the original London production of Little Shop of Horrors (Claire Moore took over after six months). |
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Post by partytentdown on Aug 11, 2018 17:26:10 GMT
I never understood how they persuaded her to be in that, and yet she's never been seen in any other shows here as far as I'm aware She was in the original London production of Little Shop of Horrors (Claire Moore took over after six months). Yes sorry I meant more recently, you'd think she'd still be a bit of a name especially amongst musical geeks. Funny how a fairly small fringe show managed to sign her up. |
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Post by Mark on Aug 11, 2018 17:51:27 GMT
I went and saw Betwixt at The Trafalgar Studios in 2011 only because Ellen Greene was in it but (to be honest) it was rubbish. Completely forgettable and badly acted. Oh I loved this one! However, not a flop as it was always a limited run. I believe it extended actually. |
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Post by anthony40 on Aug 11, 2018 17:58:25 GMT
I went and saw Betwixt at The Trafalgar Studios in 2011 only because Ellen Greene was in it but (to be honest) it was rubbish. Completely forgettable and badly acted. Oh I loved this one! However, not a flop as it was always a limited run. I believe it extended actually. I believe it did extend but for me, it just didn't work. On so many levels. But each to there own I guess. |
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Post by paddy72 on Aug 11, 2018 21:16:44 GMT
OK so I know they were not in the West End .... but Carrie in Stratford was so insanely spectacularly bad that it was pure joy and is a memory I treasure to this day. And then the first crazy, messy performances of Les Mis at the Barbican which I have in my brain as being five or six hours long. Still kept going back to see it over and over however. And it got better.
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Post by confessor on Aug 12, 2018 8:49:48 GMT
I've only really got more heavily into musical theatre over the past 6/7 years, so a lot of the flops before that I'd never realised were on at the time (and have barely heard of most of them now). Of the others, I've seen and enjoyed From Here to Eternity, Stephen Ward (I realise I may be the only person who did), Made in Dagenham and The Girls. Viva Forever was a mess but I didn't hate it and Mrs Henderson Presents was just a bit bland.
One not listed, not sure if it can be classed as a flop or not, is Rent Remixed, probably the worst thing I've seen in the West End, although it did have Luke Evans in it so every cloud...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2018 9:28:43 GMT
Oh I think we can definitely consider 'Rent Remixed' as a flop. It was fabulously awful. So much talent involved and yet it was so utterly inept. Marvellous. I loved it!
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Post by anita on Aug 12, 2018 9:31:26 GMT
Saw "Lord of the Rings" many times - loved it. Saw & enjoyed "Batboy" , "From here to eternity" at cinema, "Mrs Henderson Presents" & "Stephen Ward".
Can understand why "Stephen Ward" failed as noone but us over 60s will have heard of him.
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Post by anita on Aug 12, 2018 9:36:26 GMT
Also saw"Bad Girls" - dire. "Peggy Sue got Married" ,"Acorn Antiques" & "The Girls". Glad I saw "The Go- Between" as a chance to see Michael Crawford. I enjoyed "The Wind in the Willows". I recommend the book "Most Close Saturday" if you are interested in flops.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2018 9:47:37 GMT
The Droswey Chaparone had quite a good run on broadway what happened in the west end? I cnot spell |
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Post by anita on Aug 12, 2018 10:08:41 GMT
I would have liked to see "Betty Blue Eyes" & "Lend me a Tenor" but at the time I couldn't afford a ticket & didn't join papering till after. They both looked interesting at West End Live.
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Post by hulmeman on Aug 12, 2018 10:52:50 GMT
Do I recall seeing "Lend me a Tenor" at the Landor some years ago? Nice story, wasn't convinced about the choons.
I should also be noted that my beloved Petula Clark had a monumental flop with "Someone like You". It closed doen before even I got to see it and took impresario Harold Fielding with it.
I would also argue the "The woman in white" was a flop. Lot of money spent, big theatre, sunk without trace which is quite appropriate because I came out of the Palace feeing sea sick from those awful projections!
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Post by Constance on Aug 12, 2018 11:04:19 GMT
Do I recall seeing "Lend me a Tenor" at the Landor some years ago? Nice story, wasn't convinced about the choons. I should also be noted that my beloved Petula Clark had a monumental flop with "Someone like You". It closed doen before even I got to see it and took impresario Harold Fielding with it. I would also argue the "The woman in white" was a flop. Lot of money spent, big theatre, sunk without trace which is quite appropriate because I came out of the Palace feeing sea sick from those awful projections! The Women in White can hardly be called a WestEnd flop. It ran for over a year and half at the Palace theatre. Without a trace?  It was just done again at the Charing Cross Theatre. Lend Me A Tenor would probably be classed as a flop but it was such a great show. It just didn't sell. It was on at the Gielgud Theatre for a couple of months in 2011. That's a show thats sunk without a trace. Which I don't believe should've. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2018 11:16:13 GMT
The only objective measure we have is how long something ran, everything else is opinion. As to why some shows didn’t run, there are many reasons, not just quality. You are more likely to get a sense of financial success for Broadway shows, so if profitability is your thing then that might be a different criteria to use. We don’t really have shows that close on opening night as Broadway occasionally has, even some that close without officially opening.
There is one show that I recall not opening, however, and in bizarre circumstances.
Maxwell: the Musical Review.
1994 at the Criterion it was a show about larger than life (and criminal) media mogul Robert Maxwell. Set to new lyrics for Gilbert and Sullivan songs it was halted by a court injunction and never got to opening night. Supposedly stopped to avoid prejudicing the upcoming trial of his sons, Maxwell having died in strange circumstances by falling off his yacht.
Did it ever play a preview, can anyone remember?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2018 14:38:42 GMT
I wish i had seen Out Of The Blue. It opened at the Shaftesbury with ZERO marketing. It appeared overnight and closed 17 days later, starring big musical theatre names of the time. If you're going to produce a musical in a huge theatre, you'd think that marketing it in advance would be a good place to start.
The Shaftesbury was the cursed theatre of the 90's. Nothing lasted there
Bat Boy just died a death in a theatre that size. It's a very small show and the set didn't even fill the stage. Even the cast knew it was never going to survive there.
I saw Napoleon and The Far Pavillions there too. They were trying to be big epic storys, with big songs like Les Mis, Napoleon has some good stuff in it, but i remember very little else. And did it use a huge silk sheet that covered the whole stage at some point?? Can anyone else confirm that or am i confusing it with someone else??
La Cava was very good, another 90's show that used big epic themes and music. Its big set was these huge wooden structures that moved in all directions, and very similar to what they used in Martin Guerre. It was the west end debut of Ben Forster and Luke Evans, now a big film star, and he has a great song in the 2nd half. He has such a powerful voice. Also the lead, Julie Alanah Brighton (what happened to her??) has a fantastic 11 o'clock song called Say Goodbye. It opened, transferred from the Victoria Palace to the Piccadilly Theatre and closed within 9 months.
I loved that Leonardo The Musical was basically funded by bird droppings!! It's main investor was an island that made it's money exporting bird sh*t. Something that wasn't lost on the critics that saw it...
Always - The Story of Edward and Wallis Simpson, has a great score, IMO. I still listen to parts of it today and i think it holds up well, apart from the song sung by Sheila Fergusson, about the Carousel of Love, or something similar...
The Hunting of The Snark was ahead of it's time. It had a huge orchestra on stage, that lifted on a huge set piece and was one of the first shows to use projections for the set. They were fantasic and really created am atmosphere of the story, way better than what they did in The Woman in White.
I was 17 when i started discovering all these shows and i really did like most of them alot. Back then i went to see everything ASAP, bought the cast albums and listened to all of them on repeat. I just dont do that now.
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Post by partytentdown on Aug 12, 2018 14:51:10 GMT
Tell us more about Bat Boy! Always wished I'd seen the original production
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It was just done again at the Charing Cross Theatre.