If you could revive any Broadway flop?

[BuddyStarr]

I've seen a number of these shows that people want revived because they were a flop, however, they closed for a reason, they weren't good.  I really enjoy the music to Women on the Verge...but it was a long boring tedious show.  I even enjoy listening to the Addams Family and would think, why didn't this show make it, Nathan Lane, Bebe Newirth...OMG, it was so dreadful that you felt the pain of the actors having to plow through this show day after day.

That said, Merrily We Roll Along, the London/Boston production was spectacular and I was so happy I got to see it three times while it was in Boston. 

I could also watch Benjamin Walker in tighty whities all day but even he couldn't save American Psycho, well, maybe if the show ending at the end of Act 1.

I would have also have liked to have seen the OBC of Side Show, the revival was awful.  Also, Batboy would have been great to see, it unfortunately opened in the fall of 2001 and didn't last.

[LizzieCurry]

Senator Joe

[Mister Matt]

I really enjoy the music to Women on the Verge...but it was a long boring tedious show. 

I saw it just before closing and I loved every second of it and everything about it!  To me, nothing seemed tedious or boring at all.  Quite the reverse.  I probably could have watched it a couple dozen times without getting bored of it.  I also really enjoyed the London production.  But it was the nod to Almodovar in the Broadway designs I found to be an excellent touch.

[Malatenj]

Bright Star

[Cesare2]

Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner's 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, "A Musical About the Problems of Housekeeping"

[denali.fire]

American Psycho

Bonnie and Clyde

(And I love Sweeney Todd

Just goes to show you all the musical genre I like!)

[ArielSara2]

Little Women

[markypoo]

BuddyStarr:

I was at the last performance of Side Show in 1998, and there will never be quite an evening like that one ever again.

[OneSingularSensation2]

What a fun question! I'd opt for High Fidelity - with Will Chase and Jenn Colella, natch. 

[QueenAlice]

Answering the question through a slightly different lens, here are productions of shows that originally flopped but worked brilliantly in other stagings, that I would love Broadway audiences to get a chance to see...

Maria Fridman’s production of MERRILY

The Los Angeles revival of CARRIE

The Southwark Playhouse staging of GREY GARDENS

[Clyde15]

I would love a revival of Bonnie and Clyde with a revised Act 2.

Tuck Everlasting with better direction and a smaller ensemble

[BuddyStarr]

markypoo said: "BuddyStarr:

I was at the last performance of Side Show in 1998, and there will never be quite an evening like that one ever again."

Wasn’t the last performance on like Jan 1 or 2?  I recall I was in Columbus OH and missed being in NYC for the final performance.

[SweetLips]

Anyone see the musical by Peter Allen, Legs Diamond ?

Was it as bad as reported and does it /should it have a 2nd life?

 

Only ever heard 1 song from it.

[CoolDogeGuy]

FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO LIKES BROADWAY FLOPS

I agree with reviving American Psycho. I thought it was an excellent show, but it, unfortunately, couldn't find it's audience.

Other flops I also love very much and that I think deserve a second chance are Amelie, Tuck Everlasting, The Wild Party, literally EVERY SINGLE Jason Robert Brown musical, and Chess. I also really love Everyday Rapture, but I feel it had a good first chance even though it didn't do the best.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

A few short takes on flops:

* Women on the Verge... -- Broadway designs, London revisions, consistent accents from our performers please, and turn Mambo-Loving Taxi Driver into a comic lead / narrator / Greek chorus type by letting him also play the smaller, one-scene-only male roles (i.e., the judge, the police officer, the matador, etc.)

* Chess -- start with the Broadway book (I'm sorry, it's more dramatically coherent than any version I've ever seen except Sydney, and Sydney's only problem was that it was long and bloated) and concept album song list as a base, trim back the dialogue and replace it with recitative from London where possible, set it firmly in the Cold War era, ???, profit

* Dance of the Vampires -- I expound on this at length elsewhere, but to sum up, go back to the European version as our drawing board, and strip it down: smaller cast, smaller venue, smaller orchestra, shorter show

* Whistle Down the Wind (okay, I cheated here, technically not a Broadway flop, but it recently played 54 Below, so I'm counting it) -- again, I expound on this at length elsewhere, but to sum up, restore some material from the cast recording and earlier versions of the show that was dropped in the licensed version, restore some of the orchestrations from the D.C. tryout (and glean influences from the celebrity concept album as well, where possible), restore all the costumes from the D.C. tryout (except for The Man, who would follow the London rendition), give it middle-tech scenic design, cast it all or mostly black, and tour it on the "prayer warrior" circuit Tyler Perry has exploited since the year one

[Lot666]

j.garcia said: "I'm so glad to see all the American Psycho love, that was one of my favorites from that season and I'm still mad we never got an American recording as there are significant differences and Matt Smith is a terrible singer."

I second your call for a Broadway cast recording! There was music in there that I'd really love to be able to revisit and it pains me to know that I never will.

 

[Lot666]

BuddyStarr said: "I've seen a number of these shows that people want revived because they were a flop, however, they closed for a reason, they weren't good."

That's a bit pompous, don't you think? There are obviously people here who disagree with your assessment, so what you're basically saying is "My opinion is the only valid one".

[LizzieCurry]

He's not wrong, but you can also phrase that as "They weren't good enough for enough people."

[The Other One]

Pipe Dream

[Willy Loman2]

Roza

[Elfuhbuh]

Dance of the Vampires, only this time in a production that's much more faithful to the original German version.

[bennyb86]

I see Carrie doing great business again if just for novelty reasons but I would love to see a cleaned up version of Lestat 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most obvious one for me, and it's a gaping hole in the history of Broadway. I mean, it really is some of Bernstein's best music, and by the time it landed on Broadway it was, at worst, merely functional. Mount it in workshop for a little bit and something amazing will come out. It's almost a literal crime that it's languishing as a torpid operatic concert piece, which doesn't do the show itself, which was blisteringly caustic in its best scenes, any favors at all. 

Runner-up: 70, Girls, 70 with a revised book. I know it's been done, but I can't find much information about the revision. The original book is just as messy and terrible as anyone will tell you, I know because I went and dug a copy out of the cold hard ground of the internet and read it myself. It's like a really really lousy episode of The Golden Girls, which does a huge disservice to the glittering score.

[boywonder14]

I'm surprised that the future of that production of RAGS at Papermill not that long ago hasn't been more taken care of. The story is incredibly topical and a B'way revival would make total sense. Stephen Schwartz is practically a household name now, too. Did anyone else see it? I thought it was a terrific production with a great cast... I'm shocked it's not being more talked about for a home on the Great White Way.

[ARTc3]

A History of American Film. What I'd give to see, We're In a Salad, one more time. I don't think I've ever laughed as hard in my entire life.