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Post by spathzthecat on Sept 29, 2022 22:19:41 GMT
How many did you see?
Me
The Hunting of the Snark
Metropolis
Which Witch
Bernadette
Mopey Dick the Musical
Matador
La Cava - twice once each in both venues
Hard Times-awful left at the interval
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Post by Mark on Sept 29, 2022 22:43:57 GMT
A Tale of Two Cities
Imagine This
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Wonderland
Spider-Man…
Lend Me a Tenor
Viva Forever
Stephen Ward
I Can’t Sing
King Kong
Diana
Paradise Square
Too early to say… The Devil Wears Prada
Some of these shows I really enjoyed (Lend me a Tenor especially). But all definitely remembers as either a flop or failure.
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Post by anxiousoctopus on Oct 1, 2022 9:44:09 GMT
What counts as failed in this context? Because ‘flop’ just means didn’t recoup its costs, but doesn’t necessarily mean it was a bad show - do you mean shows that were considered commercially and critically bad?
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Post by WireHangers on Oct 1, 2022 9:52:00 GMT
I’m still surprised Viva Forever flopped as hard as it did, I would have thought it would see sell really well if it toured.
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Post by ABr on Oct 1, 2022 11:11:10 GMT
I’m still surprised Viva Forever flopped as hard as it did, I would have thought it would see sell really well if it toured. I have always thought this!! With so many other jukebox musicals working well and being successful (subject to everyone's personal opinion of them of course), I've always thought that it might have done better! |
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Post by ThereWillBeSun on Oct 1, 2022 11:17:50 GMT
I would have said HEX but that's returning so...
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Post by WireHangers on Oct 1, 2022 21:11:28 GMT
I’m still surprised Viva Forever flopped as hard as it did, I would have thought it would see sell really well if it toured. I have always thought this!! With so many other jukebox musicals working well and being successful (subject to everyone's personal opinion of them of course), I've always thought that it might have done better! The gays alone would have sold this out if it toured. |
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Post by danb on Oct 1, 2022 21:35:21 GMT
The lengthy and thoroughly tuneless ‘Out of the Blue’. A thrilling meander through WW2 nuclear geo-political nonsense at the Shaftesbury for about three weeks. An utter nightmare. Can’t believe we stayed to the end tbh. I think David Burt and Meredith Braun were invvolved, and it’s definitely Chris Hollands fault that we went in the first place.
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Post by Peter on Oct 1, 2022 21:38:46 GMT
I really enjoyed La Cava, even if Oliver Tobias was trying to ‘out-wooden’ the set…
Gone with the Wind on the other hand was just a tedious disaster with no redeeming qualities as far as I can recall.
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Post by bobbievanhusen on Oct 1, 2022 23:05:11 GMT
A few... Budgie, Bernadette, Metropolis, A Slice of Saturday Night, Children of Eden, Hunting of The Snark, Matador, 70 Girls 70, Grand Hotel, Moby Dick, Valentines Day, Which Witch, Eurovision, Leonardo, Copacabana, Mack and Mabel, Fields of Ambrosia, Passion, Romance Romance, Voyeurz, Martin Guerre, The Fix, Goodbye Girl, Saucy Jack, Tess of the Durbervilles, Beautiful Game, Always, La Cava, Lautrec, Napoleon, Closer To Heaven, Bombay Dreams, Romeo and Juliet (Jane McDonald!) Bat Boy, Desperately Seeking Susan, Drowsy Chaperone, Gone With The Wind, Betty Blue Eyes, From Here to Eternity. Thank god for guidetomusicaltheatre.com/london_shows_chronology/ to help remind me what was on, when. If I were to pick the worst of the flops, in no particular order, Tess of the Durbervilles, Romeo and Juliet and Gone With The Wind. I wish we had a similar thing to Encores in NYC, which started out at least, to do lesser known/flop shows in concert form. There was one here years ago, called The Lost Musicals?... nope can't remember the names. Was Ian Talbot involved?? Anyway.... I personally liked most of the shows above and some of them have great, under appreciated scores. |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 2, 2022 8:05:41 GMT
Fabulous list bobbievanhusen. I've seen a few of those but I'm mostly jealous you've sat through the rest, escpecially Moby Dick. Romeo and Juliet was awful. Scarily I can still remember it quite clearly. I didn't mind Viva Forever I went to a few of the Lost musicals and I wish I went to more. |
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Post by yawningangel on Oct 2, 2022 8:07:12 GMT
A Slice of Saturday Night (and on tour)
Hunting of The Snark x 3
Moby Dick x3
Napoleon
(does Hedwig count given how short the London run - if so Hedwig x 3)
and
Bright Lights, Big City at New York Theatre Workshop
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Post by anxiousoctopus on Oct 2, 2022 9:22:05 GMT
A few... Budgie, Bernadette, Metropolis, A Slice of Saturday Night, Children of Eden, Hunting of The Snark, Matador, 70 Girls 70, Grand Hotel, Moby Dick, Valentines Day, Which Witch, Eurovision, Leonardo, Copacabana, Mack and Mabel, Fields of Ambrosia, Passion, Romance Romance, Voyeurz, Martin Guerre, The Fix, Goodbye Girl, Saucy Jack, Tess of the Durbervilles, Beautiful Game, Always, La Cava, Lautrec, Napoleon, Closer To Heaven, Bombay Dreams, Romeo and Juliet (Jane McDonald!) Bat Boy, Desperately Seeking Susan, Drowsy Chaperone, Gone With The Wind, Betty Blue Eyes, From Here to Eternity. Thank god for guidetomusicaltheatre.com/london_shows_chronology/ to help remind me what was on, when. If I were to pick the worst of the flops, in no particular order, Tess of the Durbervilles, Romeo and Juliet and Gone With The Wind. I wish we had a similar thing to Encores in NYC, which started out at least, to do lesser known/flop shows in concert form. There was one here years ago, called The Lost Musicals?... nope can't remember the names. Was Ian Talbot involved?? Anyway.... I personally liked most of the shows above and some of them have great, under appreciated scores. Do Mack and Mabel and Drowsy Chaperone count if they’ve continued to have a successful life outside the original production? |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Oct 2, 2022 9:38:53 GMT
A few... Budgie, Bernadette, Metropolis, A Slice of Saturday Night, Children of Eden, Hunting of The Snark, Matador, 70 Girls 70, Grand Hotel, Moby Dick, Valentines Day, Which Witch, Eurovision, Leonardo, Copacabana, Mack and Mabel, Fields of Ambrosia, Passion, Romance Romance, Voyeurz, Martin Guerre, The Fix, Goodbye Girl, Saucy Jack, Tess of the Durbervilles, Beautiful Game, Always, La Cava, Lautrec, Napoleon, Closer To Heaven, Bombay Dreams, Romeo and Juliet (Jane McDonald!) Bat Boy, Desperately Seeking Susan, Drowsy Chaperone, Gone With The Wind, Betty Blue Eyes, From Here to Eternity. Thank god for guidetomusicaltheatre.com/london_shows_chronology/ to help remind me what was on, when. If I were to pick the worst of the flops, in no particular order, Tess of the Durbervilles, Romeo and Juliet and Gone With The Wind. I wish we had a similar thing to Encores in NYC, which started out at least, to do lesser known/flop shows in concert form. There was one here years ago, called The Lost Musicals?... nope can't remember the names. Was Ian Talbot involved?? Anyway.... I personally liked most of the shows above and some of them have great, under appreciated scores. Do Mack and Mabel and Drowsy Chaperone count if they’ve continued to have a successful life outside the original production? Drowsy Chaperone is also a weird case because it tanked in the West End but was a surprising hit on Broadway, running for over 700 performances and winning 5 Tonys, including Best Book and Best Score. I'm not sure I'd include Passion in the "failed musical" list. The original productions ran for over six months both on Broadway and the West End, it won the Tony Award for best musical and enjoyed prestigious revivals. It wasn't a hit, but I don't think it should stand among the other spectacular flops in this thread. |
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Post by londonmzfitz on Oct 2, 2022 9:45:11 GMT
Saw the title of the thread and immediately thought La Cava. So depressing, felt like chucking myself under a bus walking out the door.
I loved Lend Me A Tenor, listened to the soundtrack only yesterday.
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Post by Peter on Oct 2, 2022 10:39:03 GMT
I thought Moby Dick was hilarious at the time, though a) I was 10, and b) I think I may have actually missed many of jokes… Romeo and Juliet was (inadvertently) funny at various points - lyrics, choreography, and production design in particular.
Imagine This and Gone with the Wind were the only two that I found a waste of time (a significant amount in the case of the latter - never see an early preview of a Trevor Nunn show)
I’m quite jealous of my parents, who got to see Carrie at Stratford (“awful”), and Grand Hotel at the Dominion (“dull”). And my grandmother saw the tryout of Jeeves at the Bristol Hippodrome, but sadly couldn’t remember anything about it.
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Post by alece10 on Oct 2, 2022 11:01:22 GMT
Not so much of a fail but Betty Blue Eyes didn't have a very long run. I really loved this musical and saw it a few times. Plus a great cast with Sarah Lancashire and Reese Sheersmith.
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Post by Dawnstar on Oct 2, 2022 13:24:02 GMT
So did I. I was very sorry that not enough other people did! I think the only WE musical I've seen that was a flop & that I thought was really dire was Too Close To The Sun. The other musicals & plays I can think of that I've suffered through were all tours.
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Post by TallPaul on Oct 2, 2022 13:47:34 GMT
Copacabana ran for two years in London's glittering West End, as did Bombay Dreams, while Beautiful Game managed a respectable year-long run.
Not how I'd define either flop or failure.
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Post by frankubelik on Oct 2, 2022 15:34:36 GMT
I think there is no strict definition of a failed musical. We're all so used to shows running for years (and you all know how spurious the subsequent cast/productions can be....) which is not how it used to be. A "bad" musical is simply that. One cannot say MACK & MABEL, 70 GIRLS, PASSION, CHAPERONE, BETTY are "bad" musicals. They simply did not receive the relevant hype to ensure a profitable return. Would you rather listen to TESS over MACK?  Some of these listed above received appalling productions (London's PASSION was a travesty of the original NY production in every respect) and some were simply ill-conceived. It's rare to find a redeeming feature in those less successful though but Judy Kuhn, Philp Quast, David Burt and Sally Ann Triplett haven't seemed to suffer from their "flops". Bring back the Lost Musicals seasons - well curated and CAST. |
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Post by abitoftap on Oct 2, 2022 16:14:40 GMT
Murderous Instincts. A so called salsa musical. It played in Norwich at the Theatre Royal for maybe 2 weeks as a tryout. The best part of the evening was the argument between the director and someone else at the front of the stalls at one point in the evening. It was just puerile, little salsa, or anything engaging or memorable (apart from the attempted conga through the embarrassed audience).It went to the Savoy for a while, and I'm pretty sure the title of the show changed at some point.
I don't know why, but we've not had any more musical tryouts in Norwich since!
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Post by intoanewlife on Oct 2, 2022 16:21:07 GMT
A few... Budgie, Bernadette, Metropolis, A Slice of Saturday Night, Children of Eden, Hunting of The Snark, Matador, 70 Girls 70, Grand Hotel, Moby Dick, Valentines Day, Which Witch, Eurovision, Leonardo, Copacabana, Mack and Mabel, Fields of Ambrosia, Passion, Romance Romance, Voyeurz, Martin Guerre, The Fix, Goodbye Girl, Saucy Jack, Tess of the Durbervilles, Beautiful Game, Always, La Cava, Lautrec, Napoleon, Closer To Heaven, Bombay Dreams, Romeo and Juliet (Jane McDonald!) Bat Boy, Desperately Seeking Susan, Drowsy Chaperone, Gone With The Wind, Betty Blue Eyes, From Here to Eternity. Thank god for guidetomusicaltheatre.com/london_shows_chronology/ to help remind me what was on, when. If I were to pick the worst of the flops, in no particular order, Tess of the Durbervilles, Romeo and Juliet and Gone With The Wind. I wish we had a similar thing to Encores in NYC, which started out at least, to do lesser known/flop shows in concert form. There was one here years ago, called The Lost Musicals?... nope can't remember the names. Was Ian Talbot involved?? Anyway.... I personally liked most of the shows above and some of them have great, under appreciated scores. I will always love Beautiful Game and Closer to Heaven and I don't care who knows it x |
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Post by bobbievanhusen on Oct 2, 2022 17:22:36 GMT
As frankubelik described above, a failed musical can come in many forms, it's not only about money, its also about expectation, hype, length of run etc. The ones I include. refer only to the London productions of the show. The Drowsy Chaperone is a great example. It came to London having won numerous Tony awards, ran for nearly 2 years on Broadway, It had Elaine Paige in the title role and some great talent in all the other roles, and yet closed in 8 weeks. You can't call that a success in any way. The Beautiful Game I would consider a failure because it only lasted a short time compared to most of his other shows, it never transferred to Broadway, lost its entire investment and many people have never heard of it. Romeo and Juliet was just so dull and bland. Other shows like Which Witch or Moby Dick (all of which were at the Piccadilly) were camp and over the top and were enjoyable for a few reasons, but Romeo and Juliet was none of those. Betty Blue Eyes was another that came with great expectations, great cast and people expected it to do far better than it did, given it was a Cam Mack show after all, and people were surprised that it closed so quickly. I always thought BBE would have been a massive hit with Amateur companies around the country, like Witches of Eastwick was, but i don't recall seeing it, or maybe it was never released. |
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Post by intoanewlife on Oct 2, 2022 17:37:17 GMT
The Beautiful Game I would consider a failure because it only lasted a short time compared to most of his other shows, it never transferred to Broadway, lost its entire investment and many people have never heard of it. Didn't it go to Broadway but was retitled The Boy in the Photograph or something? |
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Post by danb on Oct 2, 2022 18:31:59 GMT
A few... Budgie, Bernadette, Metropolis, A Slice of Saturday Night, Children of Eden, Hunting of The Snark, Matador, 70 Girls 70, Grand Hotel, Moby Dick, Valentines Day, Which Witch, Eurovision, Leonardo, Copacabana, Mack and Mabel, Fields of Ambrosia, Passion, Romance Romance, Voyeurz, Martin Guerre, The Fix, Goodbye Girl, Saucy Jack, Tess of the Durbervilles, Beautiful Game, Always, La Cava, Lautrec, Napoleon, Closer To Heaven, Bombay Dreams, Romeo and Juliet (Jane McDonald!) Bat Boy, Desperately Seeking Susan, Drowsy Chaperone, Gone With The Wind, Betty Blue Eyes, From Here to Eternity. Thank god for guidetomusicaltheatre.com/london_shows_chronology/ to help remind me what was on, when. If I were to pick the worst of the flops, in no particular order, Tess of the Durbervilles, Romeo and Juliet and Gone With The Wind. I wish we had a similar thing to Encores in NYC, which started out at least, to do lesser known/flop shows in concert form. There was one here years ago, called The Lost Musicals?... nope can't remember the names. Was Ian Talbot involved?? Anyway.... I personally liked most of the shows above and some of them have great, under appreciated scores. Both ‘Martin Guerre’ and ‘Bombay Dreams’ had decent runs. I don’t doubt that not a penny of profit was made from ticket sales, but at least the ice creams might have kept them going. |
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Some of these listed above received appalling productions (London's PASSION was a travesty of the original NY production in every respect) and some were simply ill-conceived. It's rare to find a redeeming feature in those less successful though but Judy Kuhn, Philp Quast, David Burt and Sally Ann Triplett haven't seemed to suffer from their "flops". Bring back the Lost Musicals seasons - well curated and CAST.