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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped
Amaethon
Swing
joined:10/4/16
Swing
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10/4/16
Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#1
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:42pm

Phantom of the Opera was huge. Jekyll and Hyde was a success.

So what went wrong with the Broadway versions of these classic horror stories?

Updated On: 10/4/16 at 02:42 PM
Alex Kulak2
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joined:9/11/16
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#2
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:45pm

Horror is a hard genre to musicalize. You have exceptions, like Sweeney Todd, Phantom, and Jekyll and Hyde, but it's hard to combine the sensationalism of terror with the sensationalism of singing and dancing.

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AC126748
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#3
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:46pm

Jekyll and Hyde didn't recoup despite a 3+ year run, so labeling it a "success" is up for debate. The retooled revival in 2013 opened and closed in a blink.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Updated On: 10/4/16 at 02:46 PM
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newintown
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#4
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:51pm

Jason Ginsburg, did you join today just to spread your blog post wider? How enterprising!

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Kad
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#5
Posted: 10/4/16 at 2:51pm

I really wouldn't consider Sweeney, Phantom, or Jekyll and Hyde to even be horror, per se.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
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jpbran
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#6
Posted: 10/4/16 at 3:00pm

No "Lestat?"

 

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Mr. Nowack
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#7
Posted: 10/4/16 at 3:15pm

ROCKY HORROR flopped. It's a spoof of the genre and also sic-fi though.

Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
Ranger Tom
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#8
Posted: 10/4/16 at 3:24pm

Would love to see Toxic Avenger get a chance to flop/succeed on Broadway.  Heard they were going to try and bring the Houston 2012 cast in but there's been no news for a while.  

Willie4316
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#9
Posted: 10/4/16 at 3:58pm

The English version of Dance of the Vampires was a sick joke. If done faithful to the Austrian/German one, it's an absolutely amazing show that would do well here or in the West End 

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g.d.e.l.g.i.
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#10
Posted: 10/4/16 at 7:12pm

West End, maybe. Here, the brand is tainted. People still bring it up constantly as a reason vampire musicals "don't work." No one would be willing to risk investment money on it here. (Trust me, I know for a fact. You can PM me if you really want the gory details.)

Formerly gvendo2005
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Blocked: After Eight, suestorm, FindingNamo, david_fick, emlodik, lovebwy, Dave28282
Willie4316
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#11
Posted: 10/4/16 at 7:21pm

Very true. I just hope that someday there's an English language production of it, otherwise I'm gonna have to brush up on my German. 

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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#12
Posted: 10/4/16 at 7:44pm

I don't know if and who's opinion of horror, but there's Carrie, The Woman In White, Love Never Dies,Ghost (?) , Lizzie Borden. Eye of the beholder I guess, some become cult classics.

I Can Has Cheezburger With This?
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#13
Posted: 10/4/16 at 10:36pm

Anyone who thinks Dracula the Musical was faithful to the book has not read the book. 

Updated On: 10/4/16 at 10:36 PM
jbird5
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Three Horror Musicals That Flopped#14
Posted: 10/5/16 at 6:15pm

I think you have to throw American Psycho in there too.



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