TURKEY: FAILURE, FLOP - especially: a theatrical production that has failed. With that said, this week’s Dress Circle (11/19 7:00 p.m.) will feature some musical turkeys for Thanksgiving.
We’ve programmed 14 songs from musicals that had Broadway runs that ranged between 1 and 12 performances.
These shows failed for a variety of reasons. Many of them had problematic books that just didn’t work or support the scores. Other issues might have been subject matter or themes that didn’t connect with audiences, and in some cases, they just weren’t “Broadway material.”
Some of the “turkeys” we’ve amassed include four with music by Charles Strouse: “Bring Back Birdie” with lyrics by Lee Adams (a sequel to “Bye Bye Birdie” that they never intended to play on Broadway), “Rags” which had lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and suffered from an overly crowded book but had a brilliant score, “Nick and Nora” which was written with Richard Maltby, Jr. and was called a “crashing bore” with an incredibly problematic book which caused it to have an overly long preview period (71) causing some nasty rumors, and “Dance a Little Closer” which was based on the film “Idiot’s Delight” and suffered from another awful book by Alan Jay Lerner.
Other composers represented are Stephen Sondheim, Michel Legrand, Leonard Bernstein, Craig Carnelia, and many more.
Start your holiday with us this week and some turkeys that don’t need any basting, and we promise that clean-up will be a breeze!
