Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs
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If Broadway's triumphant musical hits are exhilarating, the backstage tales of Broadway failures are tantalizing soap operas in miniature. Second Act Trouble puts you with the creators in the rehearsal halls, at out-of-town tryouts, in late-night, hotel-room production meetings, and at after-the-fact recriminatory gripe fests. Suskin has compiled and annotated long-forgotten, first-person accounts of 25 Broadway musicals that stubbornly went awry. Contributions come from such respected writers as Patricia Bosworth, Mel Gussow, Lehman Engel, William Gibson, Lewis H. Lapham, and John Gruen. No mere vanity productions, these; you can't have a big blockbuster of failure, it seems, without the participation of Broadway's biggest talents. Caught in the stranglehold of tryout turmoil are Richard Rodgers, Jule Styne, Jerry Herman, Cy Coleman, Charles Strouse, John Kander, Mel Brooks, and even Edward Albee. The infamous shows featured include Mack and Mabel; Breakfast at Tiffany's; The Act; Dude; Golden Boy; Hellzapoppin'; Nick and Nora; Seesaw; Kelly; and How Now, Dow Jones. Publishers Weekly What makes a musical go wrong? Theatrical manager and producer Suskin (Show Tunes; Broadway Yearbook series) attempts an answer in this lightly entertaining, obsessively edited compilation of newspaper and magazine articles and memoir excerpts, enlightened and corrected by Suskin's own commentary. A flop usually boils down to a few variables: conflicting artistic visions and/or personality conflicts, "star vehicles that failed," a nonexistent second act or costly rewrites and recastings. The earliest musical documented is Flying Colors (1932), the latest The Red Shoes (1993), with the majority from the '60s and '70s and no examples from the AIDS-torn '80s. Most of these gossip-laden, name-dropping, cattily amusing essays are too short to give more than the sketchiest outline of a show's trials and tribulations. Aspiring Broadway writers and producers looking for edification may be frustrated. The two exceptions are William Gibson's deeply felt excerpt about the posthumous musicalization of his close friend Clifford Odets's Golden Boy, an essay so literarily superior that Suskin refrains from his standard in-essay editorializing, and the book's grand finale, Lewis H. Lapham's long, funny, in-depth Saturday Evening Post article about the 1965 disaster Kelly. 100 color and b&w illus. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
When everything goes wrongThe act : sweat and sequins, shine it on18Seesaw : it's not where you start28Breakfast at Tiffany's : excruciatingly boring42Dude : mud in the valley (at a $15-top)56Star turnsHellzapoppin : fits and fights and feuds (and egos)70Fade out-fade in : disposition and indisposition86Illya darling : the one-eyed prostitute96Irene : that's how the money goes104Material objectionMack & Mabel : goodbye, Mabell124Hallelujah, baby! : a conclave of ego-maniacal children134Kwamina : the rising edge of hysteria146Cry for us all : a little turntable music, please162Salvage jobsGolden boy : misbegotten but alive178Tenderloin : any suggestions?188How now, Dow Jones : the doctor is in196I remember Mama : fjord every stream204Outside interferenceSubways are for sleeping : calling all critics220Skyscraper : Thanksgiving Turkey234Flying colors : breakdown246On a clear day you can see forever : a shot in the arm258Battle stationsPickwick : a case of mumps276Rex : knockout290The red shoes : the secret vision302Nick & Nora : ten big boys in a room312The NadirKelly : "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp"328
