Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season - 1959 to 2009 [Paperback]

Peter Filichia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2010

When Evita opened on Broadway during the 1979-1980 season, it was (as one of its songs said) "High Flying Adored." But in the 1970-71 season, the producers of Lolita, My Love saw their show (as one of its songs said) "Going, Gone, Gone" after its torturous Philadelphia and Boston tryouts. It didn't even try to brave Broadway, although the bookwriter-lyricist of My Fair Lady had written it. It happens every season. Broadway has one, two, or a few hit musicals, but many, many more flops. Here's a look at the extreme cases from each season of the past half-century. The musicals that everyone knew would be hits - The Sound of Music, The Phantom of the Opera, The Producers - and were. The tuners that sounded terrible from the moment they were announced - Via Galactica, The Civil War, Lestat - and turned out to be even worse than anyone expected. The shows that were destined to succeed - Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Merrily We Roll Along - but didn't. The ones that didn't have a chance - Man of La Mancha, 1776, Grease - but went on to household-name status. Peter Filichia takes a look at 100 shows that met either the most glorious or the most ignominious fates.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

PETER FILICHIA (New York, NY) is the critic for the Star-Ledger and News 12 New Jersey. Each week, he writes a column for MasterworksBroadway.com and three columns for Theatermania.com. He is a past president of the Drama Desk, the current president of the Theatre World Awards, and the author of Let's Put On a Musical!

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books (September 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423495624
• ISBN-13: 978-1423495628
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #519,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of tidbits even YOU didn't know, September 14, 2010

By 

Robert Armin "nydirector" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season - 1959 to 2009 (Paperback)

Peter Filichia is one of the few writers who can come up with historical tidbits about the musical theater that even I didn't know. His choices for the "Hits" are rarely all that surprising (although his revelations are often new and entertaining) but his "Flops" will certainly prompt a lot of discussion. Just when you think you've figured out his system (big anticipation, big let-down), he'll throw in a ringer that you've never even heard of. Even one performance disasters are pushed aside by shows that closed in previews or on-the-road. In one remarkable instance he chooses a show that closed before rehearsals even started!!! If your knowledge of musical theater is limited to just the well-known shows, you'll love reading about the Hits and be completely baffled by the Flops, but more passionate musical theater buffs will relish everything. Be prepared, though, to be a little frustrated when Filichia skips over the show you were expecting -- Ken Mandelbaum has already covered that territory. Filichia has other tricks up his sleeve.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give Our Regards to OLD Broadway, September 17, 2010

By 

S. Berner (Cocoa, Fl USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season - 1959 to 2009 (Paperback)

For any lover of the Broadway Musical (Yes! CAPS!) this is one of the most marvelous and saddest books available. Sure, one can quibble with some of Filichia's choices, especially in re: flops (where's "Greenwillow", "Ilya, Darling", "Drat, the Cat", "Bravo Giovanni!", and, of course, my "favourite" "Happy Town"?) but one can't escape two very important aspects of the book. First: Unlike all too many critics, when Filichia offers suggestions as to what went wrong with a show and how it could have been fixed, he's invariably right. Second, and this is where the sadness enters: The remarkable mediocrity of the biggest hits as we get closer and closer to the present, makes one despair as to whether it will ever again be commercially viable for anyone to try to write a truly great (or, even better than average) musical. Filichia, himself, seems to address this with his afterword on Stephen Sondheim (who has, in financial terms, rarely had a big "hit"). Moreover, Sondheim at least had the opportunity of starting to make his name in the older musical theater and was an already established icon when the biggest changes occured. Would anyone, today, even give a new Sondheim a chance? Ah well. For those of us who still remember... GET THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs Serious Editing, December 18, 2010

By 

A reader from California - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season - 1959 to 2009 (Paperback)

Enjoyable overall, but way too much space is spent on going over the plot points and songs for both the hits and the flops. I'm more interested in some of the backstage gossip and why shows succeeded or failed. I don't need five pages on every single plot point of "Applause" for instance, and how it differed from "All About Eve". Who cares? That's not what the book is supposed to be about. Ken Mandlebaum's book "Not Since Carrie" was much more on point. Even though it dealt only with flops, at least it talked about what happened out of town, why things didn't work, etc. I would have liked to have seen more of that in this book, rather than plot synopses ad nauseum.
I also felt that some of the topics Filichia highlighted were downright bizarre. For instance, one poster already spoke of his discussion of George Andrews, who has been with "Phantom" since the beginning. This is what he chooses to talk about for the longest-running show in Broadway history? Likewise, for "Crazy for You", we get a few pages of what Beth Leavel was "thinking about" when she was singing in the chorus? I like her as much as anyone, but come on....
By the way, speaking of editing, this book needs some heavy-duty proof-reading. There are missing words, wrong words (i.e., "pop marker" instead of "pop market") and unfinished sentences. Doesn't anyone proof read anymore?