Legs Diamond

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 11:28pm

Posters here seem to have long memories...

Did anybody see Legs Diamond when it played Broadway? Was it really the disaster made out in The Boy From Oz?

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 11:38pm

Yes! It was a hot, campy hoot! I worked there, and loooved the show. No, not a work of genius or anything near it, but Peter Allen, saying that famous line on top of the piano (re: "critics") is sort of infamous. Does anyone remember the exact line?? Also, just the casting of Peter Allen in THAT role defies logic, dontcha think!? Previewed for about 2-3 months it seems. Not sure, but I DO remember that it was ripped apart in the NY Post, seemingly weekly, during preview.s All I can say is - it was delicious, ridiculous and entertaining in a very weird Las Vegas-y sort of way. The matinee ladies loved it!

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 11:50pm

Sounds like it was fun, in the so-bad-it's-good category.
What was his line about critics?

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 12:14am

I think it was: "EVEN A CRITIC CAN'T KILL ME!"

(Of course, it DID...the kiss of death line from ANY playwright! What were they thinking!?).

I forgot the context in which this line was uttered, my foggy memory remembers that he was in some ridiculously flashy, shiny mobster suit, jumped up on a baby grand piano, uttered the line, and the audience went wild.

...and the rest is history.
There's loads of info on this show if you google it.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 12:24am

I saw it & I recall it had a great opening number. It was cheesy fun.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 3:10am

I remember cheesey. I don't remember fun. Ugh.

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 5:27am

It was dreadful and terribly unfunny.
Thank God for Julie Wilson.

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 6:54am

I wouldn't say it was in the so bad it's funny category, like Got Tu Go Disco and Moose Murders.

It was more in the so bad it's painful category.

But everything's relative. For as bad as it was, it wasn't as bad or as painful as sitting through Wonderland, People in the Picture, or a couple of the plays this season.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 7:18am

Enjoyed Wonderland & PITP but to each his own.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 7:33am

I remember Julie Wilson singing "Here's To That Charming Son-of-a B1tch" and little else.

(Excuse me, I was confusing one Julie Wilson flop with another.)

Updated On: 4/14/11 at 07:33 AM

[Huss417]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 8:01am

The night I saw it I think was Thanksgiving weekend if my memory is working. I know the critic line was changed several times. The night I saw it when Legs is still alive at the opening of the second act he said. "Only a critic can kill me" I would say at least half of the audience applauded.

I remember another audience member actually shouting out. "Close it before the end of the year use it for a tax write off"

It was bad but to this day we still talk about it. The opening number was great and from there it just continued to go downhill. That being said I am still glad I saw it. It was a fun bomb.

[Gingersnap2]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 8:19am

As cheesy and bad as it must have been, I've always been pretty curious about it. I grew up in the same neighborhood where the real Legs Diamond was killed and that connection would've been reason enough for me to see it.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 8:34am

Time to whip-out that DVD off the shelf and re-watch this again. Delicious fun.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 8:46am

I only have the naughty DVD of this but yes, its bad, and sadly not bad fun....just bad bad

[mamaleh]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 9:30am

I saw it on videotape at the Lincoln Center archives. While Peter Allen may not have been a very convincing ladies' man and came up generally short in the acting department, he really knew how to put over a song-and-dance number with elegance, dexterity and joie de vivre. I once heard librettist Harvey Fierstein say on "Theater Talk" that the show really worked with understudy Larry Kert.

Maybe Encores! should give this one a try, hmmm?

[egghumor]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 9:33am

Updated On: 4/14/11 at 09:33 AM

[bryan2]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 9:44am

I saw this and it was bad..but I thought it was fun bad.
Peter Allen came out and not one person clapped -no entrance applause I never saw anything like it..it was crazy
When he sang the songs he looked like Liberace trying to be a gangster. He actually was dancing (he was good) like a showgirl I think he forgot what the hell the show was about....but I did like the music..But Peter Allen who is great should have never tried to attempt to be a straight man it was just so ridiculous to see him try and act tough. I am glad I got to see him live because he had a joy about him that kept me smilin throughout the shoe ... Julie Wilson was very good and she had a couple of really good songs in itand I still love the theater it was in...even if it is now a church..

[castlestreet]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 10:02am

Legs Diamond is one of my all time favorite flop musicals! The line you are all speaking of is at the top of Act II, everyone is attending Jack's funeral as he was shot at the end of Act I- when one of his gangster friends says something awful about him over his coffin, Jack pops up out of the coffin at which point someone in the crowd shouts "you're supposed to be dead" and he says "I'm in showbusiness, only the critics can kill me"- and on closing night he said "not even the critics can kill me"

I have always thought the score was a lot of fun, and while Peter Allen was a dynamite entertainer to quote Brenda Braxton "nobody was buying Peter as a butch womanizing gangster"

This show was heralded as a big time Broadway musical, and if memory serves me, when the show was announced there was a huge press conference with Mayor Koch hyping it up as the most anticipated new musical of the coming season.

During the course of its previews, which I think totaled over 70-80, Christine Andreas was fired as Jack's wife (the character was eventually eliminated alltogether) Brenda Braxton was brought in, and Harvey was replaced as the book writer by Bruce Valanche who did NOTHING for the story. There is that great moment on the Tony Awards from a few years back when Harvey was presenting the award for Best New Book of a Musical and said something to the effect "and when a show is a flop, we know it is ALWAYS the book writters fault!"

If someone tinkered with the book some, it could be a really fun show IMOP. I know some community theatre group over in the UK did the show, although they had to go to hell and back to secure the rights and find the rehearsal material.

It's also one of my favorite window cards :)
Updated On: 4/14/11 at 10:02 AM

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 10:48am

I didn't see it but a few years ago I was in the laundry room of my apartment building. We had a table where you could put things you wanted to give away. The Legs Diamond CD now in my collection was on that table.

[castlestreet]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 10:57am

Poor Peter Allen, reduced to a free table in a laundry room- its funny though because where I grew up in Upstate NY you couldn't get the CD anywhere- and this was before the days of ebay- so I ended up getting mine from Footlight for like $28- a few years later at Ames going out of business sale it was in a bin of new CDs they had gotten for $2!

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 11:05am

castle, I am certain it was left by a straight guy in my building who had no clue what he had. It was a very small building in Denver and I think I know who left it. I thank him. It was in mint condition. However, I am still wondering how he got it. I suspected he inherited it in some way.

[princessem721]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 11:21am

what i wouldn't give to have seen this show! i LOVE peter allen and wish i had been around when this one happened...sigh.

[egghumor]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 12:52pm

I'd love to hear from someone who actually witnessed one of the seven previews of RACHAEL LILY ROSENBLOOM AND DON"T YOU FORGET IT starring Ellen Greene at the Broadhurst back in 1973.

The extra "A" in Rachael stood for the missing "A" in Barbra's.

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 3:22pm

I actually enjoyed the show. Go figure.

To the best of my knowledge, LEGS DIAMOND and THE BOY FROM OZ are the only two musicals (not counting songs interpolated for revivals like ANYTHING GOES) to use some of the same songs as 'book songs'. 'When I get My Name in Lights', 'Only An Older Woman', and 'All I Wanted Was The Dream' are in both shows.

[theaternut]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 3:26pm

It was awful I also have the naughty dvd and have never been able to sit through it. I saw it live early in previews and the malfunctioning sets were the most enjoyable things about the show. Sadly.. this is one of the last shows I saw at the gorgeous Mark Hellinger theater.